Creating demand for IPv6, and saving the planet

Stephen Sprunk stephen at sprunk.org
Thu Oct 4 00:04:47 UTC 2007


Thus spake "Daniel Senie" <dts at senie.com>
> A number of people have bemoaned the lack of any IPv6-only killer-content 
> that would drive a demand for IPv6. I've thought about this, and about the 
> government's push to make IPv6 a reality. What occurred to me is there is 
> a satellite sitting in storage that would provide such content:
>
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triana_(satellite)
>
> Al Gore pushed for this satellite, Triana, to provide those on earth with 
> a view of the planet among its scientific goals. The
> Republicans referred to it as an "overpriced screen saver," though
> the effect even of just the camera component on people's lives
> and how they treat the planet could be considerable.
>
> By combining the launch of Triana with feeding the still images and video 
> from servers only connected to native IPv6 bandwidth, the government would 
> provide both a strong incentive for end users to want to move to IPv6, and 
> a way to get the people of this planet to stop from time to time and 
> ponder the future of the earth.

Here's a simple question that applies to every "killer app" that's been 
proposed for IPv6: if you're going to the trouble of making a killer app and 
giving/selling it to the public, why wouldn't you include support for IPv4?

Virtually every "unique" feature of IPv6, except the number of bits in the 
address, has been back-ported to IPv4.  There is simply no other advantage 
left, and thus no room for apps that "require" IPv6.

S

Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking 





More information about the NANOG mailing list