On 9/16/12, John Mitchell <mitch@illuminati.org> wrote:
If I am understanding this quote correctly the author is worried IPv6 will run out of addresses so won't make the switch... Granted only 1/8th of the IPv6 space has been allocated for internet use but that number is still so mind-boggling _huge_..
I would suggest it's irrational thinking resulting from negative experience with IPv4. The rate of IPv6 exhaustion depends on how the resource is managed, and the method of resource management can change, if the rate of consumption is higher than expected. There is not a coherent credible mathematical argument for exhaustion risk of IPv6 that has been made, you would have to make assumptions about what resource management policy and demands will be now and in the future, and there are no published models of IPv6 consumption i've seen. Anyways, if it becomes a problem in the future, there would be plenty of time to create a new protocol, or using an existing protocol using NSAP addresses. Right now, IPV6 is the coherent option we've got. It's not reasonable to infer IPv6 suffers the same address shortage problem within 100 years, until there is a coherent model. We have not even heard about 48-bit MAC addresses being on the verge of exhaustion yet, obviously because there is no apparent danger for the forseeable future, and IPv6 has 64 bits available for network identification and 128 bits available for host identification..... -- -JH