WG Action: Conclusion of IP Version 6 (ipv6)

Wed Sep 26 16:05:22 UTC 2007

You make this sound negative.

The IETF has since I have been involved with it had a problem with  
standing working groups. Some of the "temporary" working groups have  
taken a huge long time; IPsec lived seven years before it published  
its first RFC, for example. But in course of time, the IETF says  
"that phase is over, we're starting a new phase". That's how I read  
this.

We started discussions in 1992, IIRC, with IPNG, which looked at  
several options and decided on the one we now call IPv6. That set of  
documents is 25 documents in the range from RFC 1550 (1993) through  
1955 (1996) plus documents regarding TUBA, CATNIP, PIP, NIMROD, and  
the original Deering and Hinden proposals that merged to form IPv6.

That working group was called "IP Next Generation". It closed, and an  
"IPv6" Working Group was opened.

The initial development of IPv6 took perhaps five years, starting  
from the Deering and Hinden proposals (internet drafts) and  
culminating with a batch of documents in winter 1998-1999, some of  
which were at Draft Standard (proven functional and interoperable).  
Those documents, centering around RFC 2460, have been and are IPv6,  
whatever your opinion of that may be. Like RFC 791, that is the  
basis. It hasn't been changing, and it's not likely to change. These  
include the basic IPv6 ICMP, OSPF, Neighbor Discovery, "how to run it  
on Ethernet etc", address format, and that sort of thing.

Since then, the IPv6 WG and several satellite WG including multi6,  
shim6, and v6ops, has dealt with "topics" more than "protocols" -  
renumbering, privacy addressing, transition mechanisms, multihoming,  
and so on - 124 RFCs working through various issues, many of them  
operational in nature.

As I read this statement, it is saying that the working group opened  
in, what was it, 1995 maybe, has largely done what it was intended to  
do. There is still work to do, which is why there is an IPv6  
Maintenance WG, IPv6 Operations, and a couple of others, but that is  
not to be confused with the definition work done in the mid-late  
1990's or what has gone on the past eight years.

To me, the idea that the previous phase is over and we're in a new  
phase is a positive statement, not a negative one.

On Sep 25, 2007, at 5:48 PM, bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com wrote:
> true enough.  i guess this means that we get IPv6 "as is, where is"
> and there will be limited new development of same.
>
> --bill
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 06:59:28PM +0000, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>>
>> The subject line is amazing...
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:30:02 -0400
>> From: IESG Secretary <iesg-secretary at ietf.org>
>> To: ietf-announce at ietf.org
>> Cc: Robert Hinden <bob.hinden at nokia.com>,        Brian Haberman
>> <brian at innovationslab.net>, ipv6 at ietf.org Subject: WG Action:
>> Conclusion of IP Version 6 (ipv6)
>>
>>
>> The IP Version 6 Working Group (ipv6) in the Internet Area has
>> concluded.
>>
>> The IESG contact persons are Jari Arkko and Mark Townsley.
>>
>> +++
>>
>> A new Working Group, 6MAN, has been created to deal
>> with maintenance issues arising in IPv6 specifications.
>> The IPv6 WG is closed. This is an important milestone
>> for IPv6, marking the official closing of the IPv6
>> development effort.
>>
>> The ADs would like to thank everyone -- chairs, authors,
>> editors, contributors -- who has been involved in the effort
>> over the years. The IPv6 working group and its predecessor,
>> IPNGWG, produced 79 RFCs (including 5 in the RFC queue).
>>
>> Issues relating to IPv6 should in the future be taken up in
>> 6MAN if they relate to problems discovered during
>> implementation or deployment; V6OPS if they relate to
>> operational issues; BOF proposals, individual submissions
>> etc. for new functionality.
>>
>> The mailing list of the IPv6 WG stays alive; the list will
>> still be used by the 6MAN WG in order to avoid people
>> having to resubscribe and/or adjust their mail filters.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IETF-Announce mailing list
>> IETF-Announce at ietf.org
>> https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb