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Re: I-D ACTION:draft-wilson-class-e-00.txt

2007-08-10 11:37:25
One thing I'm pretty sure of is that allocating this space for another
RFC1918-like private network block isn't going to solve the collision
problem.  I could see more utility in letting this be space for "router"
use only, say to allow cable ISPs to assign such addresses to
non-publicly accessible components in their networks.  Such use would
presumably have fewer deployment barriers than use as either ordinary
public or private space. 

I could also see some utility in assigning smaller blocks from this
space to enterprise networks, similar to ULIAs in IPv6.  Such blocks
could be used, for instance, to interconnect between private networks
without address collisions.  But for that kind of use I would assume
that the deployment barriers would be much greater.

Bottom line - I think that any proposal to reassign class E addresses
needs to provide one or more specific use cases.  And for each of those
cases, it should consider deployment cost vs. benefit, and compare that
to the cost vs. benefit of using IPv6.

Keith
Keith, all,

The common use case that people discuss is cable.  My impression is
that CableLabs has done a pretty good job of driving IPv6 adoption in
cable modems for DOCSIS 3.0.  The authors being from APNIC, I would
imagine there is a billion person problem (or so) to be solved?

What I'd ask, therefore, is that the authors include in their
introduction answers to the following questions:

  1. Should the address space be allocated to private networks?  If so,
     please give some examples of uses.
  2. If the space is to be allocated for global reachability, could you
     please provide a current estimate as to how much time is bought?

In addition, while I don't think the coding issues are all that
substantial, deployment issues could be sizable.  Anyone planning to
make use of this address space because they have exhausted 10/8 should
CLEARLY be making plans to go to IPv6.  Anyone expecting to avoid a
collision through the use of this space should be cautioned.

Also the document should be in the same class as RFC 1918, which is a
BCP and not a standard.  If you proceed, you might want to consider
obsoleting 1918 in favor of an abbreviated replacement, as much of the
text in that document is dated.

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