Subject: Re: Why is IPv6 a must?

From: "J. Noel Chiappa" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 00:19:11 -0500

> From: "Perry E. Metzger" <[email-masked]>

    > There is a school of thought that seems to believe that IPv6 is a
    > failure because it only solves a quite narrow although extremely
    > important problem -- specifically address space exhaustion.

    > The fact that it does not solve the global routing table meltdown is,
    > according to such people, an obvious failure of v6 -- never mind that
    > they are unrelated issues.

How does the fact that they are somewhat unrelated issues in any way refute
the criticism of IPv6 regarding its lack of a solution to routing issues?

    > As you note, there is no distinction between solving the global routing
    > problem in a v4 or v6 context. The same algorithms can be used for
    > either. If new algorithms are developed, they can be deployed for
    > either.

The reasoning here is faulty. The fault lies in the assumption that whatever
fix is found can be deployed in IPv4 (and thus, since the two are so similar,
in IPv6). In fact, many people see IPv4 as fundamentally flawed in its basic
structure, when it comes to supporting a true "next generation" routing
architecture - and so, by extension, IPv6 is equally fundamentally flawed
(since it's just IPv4 with a large address).

	Noel

---

From: "Perry E. Metzger" <[email-masked]>
Date: 12 Nov 2001 10:46:39 -0500

> the criticism of IPv6 regarding its lack of a solution to routing issues?

It is a silly criticism. It is like criticizing antibiotics for only
curing bacterial infection and not AIDS. "They're obviously
useless. Lets dump them."

If v6 is flawed in this regard, well then so is v4.

> (since it's just IPv4 with a large address).

Well, Noel, we've been waiting some years for someone to descend from
heaven with parchment scrolls describing the perfect internet in their
hands, but unfortunately we have to keep the net working now, since we
don't know when they might deign to arrive.

(And yes, Noel, we know that you've already described the complete
solution and if only we would read the documents which we've all
ignored so callously...)

--
Perry E. Metzger		[email-masked]
--
NetBSD Development, Support & CDs. http://www.wasabisystems.com/

---

From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 23:43:02 -0800

>the criticism of IPv6 regarding its lack of a solution to routing issues?

The list of items to criticize is far longer than just the item you cite.

For example if we stick with your logic, we also need to criticize IPv6 for 
not solving world peace.  After all, it was not on the agenda for v6, 
either, and sure enough, v6 didn't solve it.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker  <mailto:[email-masked]>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253;  fax +1.408.273.6464