On 2019-07-26 10:07 PM, William Herrin wrote:
When I was running the IANA in the early 2000's we discussed this issue with many different experts, hardware company reps, etc. Not only was there a software issue that was insurmountable for all
On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 9:21 PM Doug Barton <dougb@dougbarton.us <mailto:dougb@dougbarton.us>> wrote: practical purposes (pretty much every TCP/IP stack has "Class E space is not unicast" built in), in the case of basically all network hardware, this limitation is also in the silicon. So even if it were possible to fix the software issue, it would not be possible to fix the hardware issue without replacing pretty much all the hardware.
So the decision was made to start tooting the IPv4 runout horns in the hopes that folks would start taking conservation of the space seriously (which happened more often than not), and accelerate the adoption of IPv6. *cough*
Hi Doug,
That's what you wrote. Here's what I read:
"We decided keep this mile of road closed because you can't drive it anywhere unless the toll road operators in the next 10 miles open their roads too. What's that you say? Your house is a quarter mile down this road?** La la la I can't hear you. Look, just use the shiny new road we built over in the next state instead. Move your house there. The roads are better."
** Not every unicast use of 240/4 would require broad adoption of the change. Your reasoning that it does is so absurd as to merit outright mockery.
So no, there were exactly zero "IPv6 loons" involved in this decision. :-)
No, when I said IPv6 loonies, reasoning of this character was pretty much what I was talking about.
So leaving aside how interesting I find the fact that you snipped the part of my comments that you did, the utter absurdity of your toll road analogy shows me that I will not be able to convince you of anything. So I'll just say this ... if you think that the advice I received from all of the many people I spoke to (all of whom are/were a lot smarter than me on this topic) was wrong, and that putting the same LOE into IPv6 adoption that it would have taken to make Class E usable was a better investment because we're not running out of IPv6 any time soon, then you have a golden opportunity. Go forth and prove me wrong. Go rally support from all of the people and companies that you need in order to make any part of Class E usable for any purpose (even, as you point it, if it's not for global unicast). If you're right, and I'm wrong, your income potential is essentially limitless. Or, look at it from another perspective. If you're right, then why, in the last almost 15 years, has no one figured out how to do it yet? Including the companies whose mission is to sell us new hardware, and force us into contracts for software upgrades in order to keep said hardware on the 'net? It's easy to sit back in the cheap seats and squawk about how "they" are out to get you. I'd be far more impressed if you put your money (or time, or effort) where your mouth is. Doug