Slashdot: UK ISP PlusNet Testing Carrier-Grade NAT Instead of IPv6

Wed Jan 16 16:41:03 UTC 2013

On 16 January 2013 16:31, Justin M. Streiner <streiner at cluebyfour.org>wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Jan 2013, fredrik danerklint wrote:
>
>  From the article:
>>
>> "Faced with the shortage of IPv4 addresses and the failure of IPv6 to
>> take off, British ISP PlusNet is testing carrier-grade network address
>> translation CG-NAT, where potentially all the ISP's customers could be
>> sharing one IP address, through a gateway. The move is controversial as it
>> could make some Internet services fail, but PlusNet says it is inevitable,
>> and only a test at this stage."
>>
>
> I would hope that PlusNet has valid, well-thought-out reasons for
> deploying CGN instead of IPv6.  Not knowing those, I can only jugde their
> position on its face: foolish and short-sighted.
>

A lot of ISPs have customers who are foolish and short-sighted (or
customers unable to move away from suppliers who are foolish and
short-sighted,) and need to support those customers.  I'd be very surprised
if this move isn't in addition to IPv6 support, even though the article
reads as though it is instead of IPv6 support.

In other words, it makes sense to be able to support customers who won't
move to IPv6 in the short-medium term, even though in the long term it's
inevitable.

Dan