Subject: Re: [RRG] GSE?

From: David Conrad <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:25:16 -0700

Robin,

On Jun 11, 2008, at 7:05 PM, Robin Whittle wrote:
> I think a GSE-like proposal would involve you getting the IPv6
> proponents (all of them great optimists with high ideals, in my
> view) to forget about IPv6 as we know it and refocus their optimism
> on IPv6bis instead, being prepared to rip-up and retry (a printed
> circuit layout term) the thing they have been saying was ready for
> mass adoption for the last 12 years.

Cue Vince Fuller's "VAST installed base" commentary... :-)

More seriously, the reality is that to date, IPv6 has seen essentially  
zero use so ripping it out and replacing it with something else would  
not operationally impact significant numbers of people.  However, with  
that said, I would agree that this isn't so much a technical issue as  
a political one.  From my perspective, I have always felt we have 3  
options:

1) IPv4 + NAT, more NAT, and forever NAT
2) IPv6 + some new network element (ITR/ETR, a new layer, a new  
transport protocol, etc.)
3) IPngng

As far as I can tell, proposals to "Do it Right" are option (3) since  
they will require pretty much the same level of effort in terms of  
redeploying protocol stacks and modifying applications (I'd argue that  
applications knowing address structure and keeping copies of addresses  
in their data space is an example of how to "Do it Wrong").

I'm hoping we can get by with option (2).

I suspect we're going to end up with option (1).

> NAT-PT has been buried

Please don't take the actions of the IETF as reflections on reality.   
In all of the recent IPv6-only 'experiments' that have taken place at  
operations meetings, the IETF, and RIR meetings, _all_ of them used  
NAT-PT.  Some reasonably successfully.  Like NAT itself, NAT-PT meets  
a functional need and the market will make its own decisions as to  
whether it lives or dies, regardless of what folks at the IETF might  
say.

Regards,
-drc

--
to unsubscribe send a message to [email-masked] with the
word 'unsubscribe' in a single line as the message text body.
archive: <http://psg.com/lists/rrg/> & ftp://psg.com/pub/lists/rrg