[AfriNIC-rpd] IPv4 BoF report

[John Hay]

On Fri, May 18, 2007 at 07:49:37PM +0000, Alain Patrick AINA wrote:
> 
> > I agree with Andrew, we should stop putting our energy in ipv4 and rather
> > spend it on ipv6. Maybe we should change the policy for getting ipv4
> > addresses to require ISPs to implement ipv6 before they can get more ipv4
> > addresses?
> > Something like the ARIN proposal that Adiel forwarded a few days ago, but
> > on an even shorter timeframe. And without the part that try to conserve
> > ipv4 addresses. I think it way past the time to put effort into that.
> 
> It is probably the way to go. But i suggest that in everything  we do,
> keep in mind how  hard it is to get thing move in Africa for various we
> all know.

But that is all the more reason to start now. Although at the pace we can
policies accepted, even now is probably too late. :-)

> We may end up with  the amplification of IPv4 NAT in our region.

If they really want to do it (NAT), they will find an excuse. When we
run out of v4 space will bet the other easy excuse. :-)

> > I think the biggest problem with IPv6 is the ISPs not implementing it.
> > Most operating systems shipping today have IPv6 enabled or an easy way
> > to enable it.
> 
> What should be the incentives to get ISPs to deploy it ?

That one is not so easy to answer. For me it is pretty obvious that it is
better to plan your v6 rollout so that it can happen together with your
normal network upgrades and changes so that you minimize outages etc.
but hey I am not an ISP person. :-) And yes I do practise what I preach.
Meraka Institute have been running dual stack since 1999. Even now there
are 123 hosts listed in our main firewall's ndp table. We are also running
a 20+ node wireless mesh network in the Pretoria East area, that is v6 only.
That is actualy what I'm using to type this message and if AfriNIC's mail
servers was v6 enabled, it would have used v6 all the way to it.

I think one more reason v6 is growing slowly, is that people that have
v4 space feel they won't be affected... which for a while is probably
true. The people that are really going to be affected are the newcomers
and those that want to expand. The rest will only be affected when they
can't get access to what those newcomers make available.

John
-- 
John Hay -- John.Hay at meraka.csir.co.za / jhay at FreeBSD.org