I've been trying to stay out of this discussion because it is pointless, however as I can't help picking at scratching mosquito bites either... On Oct 5, 2009, at 4:50 PM, Michael Thomas wrote:
I'm perplexed. At what size address would people stop worrying about the "finite" address space? 256 bits? 1024 bits?
The issue is that given it is a _finite_ space, its longevity depends exclusively on allocation policy. Since allocation policy is determined by human decision, it is possible (albeit unlikely) that decisions will be made that will result in runout of IPv6 far sooner than one would predict given the vast size of the address space. To wit, we have already had allocations of a /13, /16s, /19s, /20s, etc., irrespective of the fact that the organizations that obtained those prefixes would likely be unable to make a dent in their allocations by the time the sun burned out (assuming they allocate in a rational fashion). Now, as an exercise to the reader, compare how many of those prefixes exist in IPv6 to how many there are in IPv4... Regards, -drc