IPv6 Default Allocation - What size allocation are you giving out

Thu Oct 9 03:48:51 UTC 2014

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 1:18 AM, Erik Sundberg <ESundberg at nitelusa.com> wrote:
> I am planning out our IPv6 deployment right now and I am trying to figure out our default allocation for customer LAN blocks. So what is everyone giving for a default LAN allocation for IPv6 Customers.  I guess the idea of handing a customer /56 (256 /64s) or  a /48 (65,536 /64s) just makes me cringe at the waste.

A /48.

There is waste, and there is waste.  A /48 is not really
significant "waste" because IPv6 address space is so
large.  If one believes in the truly connected home or
enterprise, there will be a number of customer internal
device delegations.  Avoid having to renumber your
customers when they do those internal networks of
networks (yes, there are ways to do it "transparently",
but not having to do it means you avoid the pain of
the "transparent", which may not be "transparent"
at all).

As a residential customer, those that are handing me
smaller blocks seem to be planning to charge extra
for larger prefixes as a revenue stream (I presume
just like one got a single IPv4 address, but could pay
for more, now you get either a /64 or a /60, and get
to pay for more for a /56 or /48).  I consider that short
sighted from a customer centric viewpoint, but I can
see the revenue stream viewpoint.  So, the only reason
not to provide a /48 is if you think it is in your business
plan to charge by the address (and hope your viable
competitors in your market space follow a similar
strategy, for I would always choose a provider that
offers me more for the same, or less, money;  I
can even hear your competitors sales reps spiel
"Why build for obsolescence, we provide you all
the space you will ever need at the same price
and service level....".