IPv6 Address Planning

[Lars Erik Gullerud]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, Tim Chown wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 05:08:22PM +0200, Lars Erik Gullerud wrote:
>>
>> Or, if it turns out "everyone" is actually using longer prefixes, then the
>> vendors will make sure to support it. They follow the money. And don't
>> particularly care what the academics and other non-ops people who spend
>> their time bickering in various IETF-WGs over pointless details says as
>> long as their real-world customers pay.
>
> I can't let that absurd comment pass.  I'll wager there's more production
> IPv6 deployment in academic networks than anywhere else.  Certainly in
> Europe.

That observation is quite likely correct, and my comment was not targeted 
at academic networks nor the ops people who run them, so I am sorry if 
anyone misinterpreted the meaning of my comment as you seem to have and 
felt offended by it, which was not my intention. It was not a 
comment upon IPv6 in particular and certainly not as regarding 
operational use of it, but rather a generalized reflection on the "state 
of affairs" in _various_ IETF workgroups (as I also stated), where one 
sees that far too many proposals gets bogged down in meaningless 
discussions over details who are probably not interesting for the 
majority of network operators - academic or commercial. So instead the 
vendors choose to implement whatever their customers demand (and are 
willing to PAY for) rather than waiting for the appropriate forum 
within the IETF to come to an agreement.

Which, again letting my disgruntlement shine through, seems to usually be 
a process involving a few competing vendor representatives pushing their 
particular (company-sponsored) agendas, some academics with no operational 
background but with more or less well-researched theories on various 
aspects of the internet, a handful of very stubborn individuals with 
bright(?) ideas on how the Internet should be, and a shrinking minority of 
not-yet-disillusioned clueful individuals desperatly trying to let sanity 
prevail. Fortunately, there are a few exceptions to this, generally found 
in the groups where the "bikeshed factor" is lower. :)

Now, while I'm sure some people will blatantly disagree to my very broad 
generalizations on this topic also, that is a discussion that probably 
belongs somewhere other than this particular list, so I suggest you flame 
me appropriately off-list instead, or suggest a more suited venue for it 
instead. :)

/leg