<rant> Re: Over-utilisation of v6 neighbour slots

[Benedikt Stockebrand]

Hi Andrew and list,

Andrew Yourtchenko <ayourtch at gmail.com> writes:

> I've tweaked the subject, so the folks can filter it out if needed,
> given that the discussion is way above L4 :-)

good move, thanks.

>> Anyway, there are things on the Internet beyond HTTP/s and HTML...
>
> True. FTP active mode. It's immortal. :-)

...because it doesn't support cookies:-)

> [Fingerprinting at various protocol layers]
>
> The problem  I think did not really exist at the time IPv6 was defined - so
> it is not fair to say we "have had" an occasion.

Bad choice of words on my side: s/occasion/opportunity/

Let me rephrase my statement: IPv6 had the chance to start over from
scratch (within the boundaries of the network layer and the socket API,
that is).  HTTP/s and HTML never had that.  (Nor had SMTP, IMAP, DNS and
a host of other protocols.)

> And now it is http://xkcd.com/927/.
> Tricky.

The good news here is that the protocol version field in the IP header
is only 4 bits wide---we won't see more than 16 different IP versions
around:-)

>> If we wanted to do this properly, why not switch from Ethernet to PPPoE
>> all the way---
>
> This has triggered my fantasy to go far and wild enough that even I
> considered that the result does not belong to a mail on the technical
> list, so I instead edited it into a little fiction piece, which I hope
> you might find entertaining:
>
> http://stdio.be/blog/2013-10-25-One-completely-random-passage-of-thought/

Andrew, take it easy on the coffee...maybe switch to something
healthier, like methylated spirit or so.

On a more serious note:  Some of the approaches you mention would be
rather exciting at least from an academic point of view, but they would
force us start over with an entirely new network stack.  Considering the
time it took IPv6 to come to (some sort of) speed and our age, we would
unlikely live long enough to see this happen...


Cheers,

    Benedikt

-- 
			 Business Grade IPv6
		    Consulting, Training, Projects

Benedikt Stockebrand, Dipl.-Inform.        http://www.stepladder-it.com/