On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 1:18 AM, Erik Sundberg <ESundberg@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....".