From: David Conrad <drc@virtualized.org> Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:52:24 -1000
On Apr 11, 2010, at 10:57 AM, Paul Vixie wrote:
... i'd like to pick the easiest problem and for that reason i'm urging dual-stack ipv4/ipv6 for all networks new or old.
Is anyone arguing against this?
yes. plenty of people have accused ipv6 of being a solution in search of a problem. on this very mailing list within the last 72 hours i've seen another person assert that "ipv6 isn't needed." while i tend to agree with tony li who of ipv6 famously said it was "too little and too soon" we have been Overtaken By Events and we now have to deploy it "or else". the only way we're going to do that is with widescale dual-stack, either native dual-stack (which is generally easy since ipv6 address space is cheap and plentiful) or dual-stack-lite (which is ipv4-NAT ipv6-native with aggregated encap/decap at the POP or edge) or with any other method (or trick) that comes to mind or seems attractive. what we can't do is presume that any form of "ipv4 steady state forever" or "wait for something better than ipv6 before abandoning ipv4" is practical, or that these would be less expensive (in both direct cost, indirect cost, and network/market stability) than "dual-stack now, ipv6-mostly soon, and ipv6-only eventually".
The problem is what happens when there isn't sufficient IPv4 to do dual stack.
that problem has many low hanging solutions, some of which mark andrews gave in his response to your note. one popular address allocation policy proposal is reserving the last IPv4 /8 for use in IPv6 deployment, for example as public-facing dual-stack-lite gateways. which brings me to the subject of address allocation policies, and meetings that happen periodically to discuss same. one such address allocator is ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) and one such public policy meeting is next week in toronto. details of this meeting can be found at: https://www.arin.net/participate/meetings/ARIN-XXV/ and anyone, not just from the ARIN service region and not just ARIN members, can attend. there are also remote participation options, see above web page. -- Paul Vixie Chairman, ARIN BoT