How dark is the IPv6 Internet? Let's find out.
During the IESG/IAOC Plenary at IETF 71, we are going to turn off IPv4
support on the IETF network for 30 to 60 minutes. We will encourage the
audience to use the Internet and determine which services that they have
come to take for granted remain available.
If you are from a service provider, we encourage you to make your service
a bright spot on the IPv6 Internet.
To facilitate this experiment, a URL with instructions on how to get IPv6
running on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and so on. Some information will
also be available for a 4-to-6 tunnel.
We will ask everyone to list things that work and things that do not. The
results will be part of the proceedings for the plenary session.
We will make more information about the structuring of this activity over
the next few weeks. Please do whatever you can to make ready ...
Russ,
This "experiment", strikes me as both pointless and harmful.
First, as was stated several times during the YVR plenary,
"transition" is not a plausible objective in anything like the near
future. Therefore, seeing what happens when IPv4 service is off is of
extremely minimal value, especially when run in the uncontrolled
environment of the IETF plenary.
Moreover, it seems like it's *precisely* when you're trying to bring
up a bunch of new networking stuff that you'd like to have your old,
reliable network in place so that you can look stuff up, download
updates, etc. Even when configuring new IPv4 systems, which I
understand pretty well, I generally find that I need some backup
system/network connection for this kind of thing. I would expect the
situation to be far worse with IPv6, where people have far less
experience.
Second, the IETF network is a production network, not an experimental
testbed. People rely on it to get their work done, no less so at the
plenary. Breaking the network for 30-60 minutes during that period
imposes an unacceptable burden on those who are trying to work.
Incidentally, does this include people who aren't even in the
plenary? If I'm in my room trying to do slides for Thursday am
I going to just experience an outage?
Finally, it is inappropriate to make a decision of this nature without
seeking the consensus of the IETF. Various IPv6 eating our own dogfood
experiments have been proposed on the IETF list in the past and have
always met with an extremely negative exception. Given that, unilaterally
making this decision seems quite premature.
-Ekr
P.S. I don't really understand how you envision this working.
Are you thinking that people will be speaking during this period?
It's hard to imagine anything more disruptive to having
a plenary presentation or discussion than having everyone in
the room busily focused on trying to unscrew their network. If
the plenary activities merit this little attention, perhaps
we should consider cancelling them entirely. Or is this just an
involuntary 30-60 minute interop event?
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