Someone (I can’t remember who) once said the reason we have the Space Shuttle is to build the International Space Station, and the reason we have the International Space Station is to give the Space Shuttle something to do. Here in the first decade of the 21st century, when we should have long ago had permanent settlements on the moon and be well on our way to Mars, we are still putzing around in low Earth orbit.
IPv6, nee IPng, was proposed in the early 1990s when the limitations of IPv4 were recognized. NAT, dynamic address assignment, and private IPv4 addresses were intended to be short-term measures to stretch the limited IPv4 address supply until IPv6 development and deployment could be completed. Yet here we are in the first decade of the 21st century, still putzing around behind NAT.
Over the past ten years NAT has gone, in the minds of many users, from its proper place as a tool for slowing IPv4 address depletion to an essential security element and a means to remain provider independent. NAT has been very effective at doing what it was originally intended to do, but it has also been a significant deterrent to innovation.
Saying that we need a “killer application” to get IPv6 going is putting the cart before the horse; in fact we need to get IPv6 in place to create a fertile environment in which creative new applications can sprout.
The IPv4 depletion rates, discussed in the past few posts, are finally starting to get the industry moving. As Samuel Johnson famously said, “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” If the cold hard numbers are not enough to focus the mind, ARIN posted a warning this morning that provides another shove toward the gallows:
“The available IPv6 resource pool has now been reduced to the point that ARIN is compelled to advise the Internet community that migration to IPv6 is necessary for any applications that require ongoing availability from ARIN of contiguous IP number resources.
ARIN’s Board of Trustees recommended that ARIN review its current allocation policies and make changes in the policies “…to encourage migration to IPv6 numbering resources where possible.” Another part of the recommendation is for ARIN “…to take any and all measures necessary to assure veracity of applications to ARIN for IPv4 numbering resources.”
In other words, make it tougher to get IPv4 addresses and be sure no one is cheating. This post is a warning not just of plans to make IPv4 addresses harder to get, but likely a series of progressively tougher policies.
If you are a network operator and you do not already have an IPv6 transition plan in place, you are behind the curve. If you are a vendor and are still insisting that you will only make your products IPv6 capable only when your customers ask for it, you are in trouble.
