Subject: [mif] BOF situation

From: Jari Arkko <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:38:00 +0200

All,

I have decided to approve the BOF request but with a condition. More on 
this below. For background, there seems to be a general feeling that 
this is an important problem that we should work on (or perhaps should 
already have done so years ago). However, there are a couple of worries:

- There is some danger that we slip into discussing related topics that 
belong elsewhere, such as general host and site multihoming designs 
(SHIM6, RRG), multiple care-of address support in mobility protocols 
(MEXT), RFC 1122 & 5113 support, and so on. Further discussion I is 
needed to make the scope clearer. This needs to happen prior to IETF-74.

- You have a reasonable problem statement, but documentation of what 
host vendors do is lacking. I would like to see drafts on this, 
preferably about what the major OSes do on this. This should also happen 
prior to IETF-74.

If you make progress on these, particularly on the second item then we 
can hold a BOF. (Otherwise we can have some more private discussions, 
try to get the relevant people write drafts, etc.)

I also think that the WG proposal is in its early stages. We probably 
are not yet in a stage to form a WG in IETF-74. I would like to see the 
BOF focus on a crisp definition of the problem, as well as providing 
examples of what vendors do in this space. IETF solution discussion 
would probably be premature at this stage. And its not entirely clear to 
me if -- once we know what to do -- the work would be done in existing 
IPv6, DHCP etc working groups or in a new group. For these reasons I 
have also allocated only an hour for the BOF. If we spend the hour well, 
we can later make significant progress in the mailing list, with new 
drafts and charter proposals.

Jari