On October 10, 2011, the IESG issued a last call for comments regarding
draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request-09 (IANA Reserved IPv4 Prefix for
Shared CGN Space). While the community did not display consensus supporting the
draft, it also did not display consensus against the draft. Therefore, I will
submit the draft to the full IESG for its consideration at its December 1
teleconference. The draft will be published as a BCP if a sufficient number of
IESG members ballot "Yes" or "No Objection", and if no IESG member ballots
"Discuss".
Because the decision to submit this draft to the full IESG is controversial, I
will explain the decision making process.
The IETF has a precedent for interpreting silence as consent. Typically, if a
last call elicits no response, the draft is brought to the full IESG for
consideration. The October 10 last call regarding
draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request-09 evoked only two responses. One
response supported publication of the draft while the other was opposed to it.
The respondent voicing support for the draft offered no rationale. The
respondent objecting offered many editorial comments, but almost no rationale
for blocking the draft once the editorial comments are addressed.
Because the October 10 last call elicited so little response, and because many
community members have privately expressed strong opinions regarding this
draft, I will summarize outstanding issues below. The following are arguments
*against* draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request:
- Allocation of a special-use /10 does not hasten the deployment of IPv6. It
only extends the life of the IPv4 network.
- If a special-use /10 is allocated, it will be used as additional RFC 1918
address space, despite a specific prohibition against such use stated by the
draft.
- If a special-use /10 is allocated, it will encourage others to request still
more special-use address space.
- Some applications will break. These applications share the characteristic of
assuming that an interface is globally reachable if it is numbered by an
non-RFC 1918 address. To date, the only application that has been identified as
breaking is 6to4, but others may be identified in the future.
Arguments *supporting* draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request-09 assume
that operators will deploy CGNs and will number the interfaces between CGN and
CPE. If the /10 proposed by draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request is not
allocated, operators will number from one of the following:
- public address space
- RFC 1918 address space
- squat space
If operators number from public address space, they will deplete an already
scarce resource. If operators number from RFC 1918 space and the same RFC 1918
space is used on the customer premise, some CPE will behave badly. The
consequences of numbering from squat space are determined by the squat space
that is chosen.
In summary, allocation of the /10 will have certain adverse effects upon the
community. However, failure to allocate the /10 will have different adverse
effects on the community. The IESG is being asked to choose the lesser of two
evils.
--------------------------
Ron Bonica
vcard: www.bonica.org/ron/ronbonica.vcf
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