IPv6 Confusion

Thu Feb 19 17:48:42 UTC 2009

Randy Bush wrote:
> > The fact that the *nog community stopped participating in the IETF
> has
> > resulted in the situation where functionality is missing, because
> nobody
> > stood up and did the work to make it happen.
> 
> the ops gave up on the ietf because it did no good to participate.  so
> the choice was spend the time accomplishing nothing or do something
> else
> with one's time.
> 
> this is a slight exaggeration.  it took me less than five years to get
> rid of NLAs, TLAs, ...  wooo wooo!

Those were put in at the insistence of the ops / routing community as a way
to constrain the routing table, by using the technology definition as a way
to enforce a no-PI policy. The fact that it moved policy control from the
RIRs to the IETF was later recognized as a problem, and moving it back was
what took the time. 

The 'give-up' attitude is now coming home as a set of definitions that are
not meeting the operational needs. This is not a criticism of anyone, but
the general global expectation of instant gratification is causing people to
give up on long cycle issues that need active feedback to keep the system in
check. Many in the *nog community criticize their management for having a
long-range vision that only reaches to the end of the next quarter, and this
is a case where the engineering side of the house is not looking far enough
forward. If you don't give the vendors a couple of years notice that you
require IPv6, don't expect it to be what you want. Then if you expect
multiple vendors to implement something close to the same and the way you
want it, you need to engage at the IETF to make sure the definition goes the
right way. Working group chairs are supposed to be facilitators for the work
of the group, not dictators. If you are having a problem with a WG chair,
inform the AD. If that doesn't help, inform the nomcom that the AD is not
responsive. 

Giving up will only let the system run open-loop, and you should not be
surprised when the outcome is not what you expect.

Tony