IPv6 "bloat" history

Thu Mar 31 11:44:28 UTC 2022

On 3/29/22 5:21 AM, Pascal Thubert (pthubert) via NANOG wrote:
> * APs today snoop DHCP; DHCP is observable and stateful, with a lifetime that allows to clean up. So snooping it is mostly good enough there. The hassle is the SL in SLAAC which causes broadcasts and is not deterministically observable; this problem is specific to IPv6. We already have the registration to avoid snooping DHCP and SLAAC; yet we do not observe any adoption in mainline APs and STAs.
> 

[heavy sigh]

All of these things were well understood circa 1992-93.

That's why the original Neighbor Discovery was entirely link state.

ND link state announcements handled the hidden terminal problem.
(That is, where node A can hear node B, node B can hear node C,
and node C can hear node A, but A cannot hear C.)  ND LSAs are/were
flexible enough to handle both AP (cell) and mesh (AMPR) networks.

Thus, it was not reliant on central Access Points.  We envisioned
mesh networks were the future.  Each node should handle its own
discovery and routing.

SLAAC is bloat.

RIPv6 is bloat.

DHCPv6 is bloat.

Those are reasons operators have been complaining about IPv6.