Biggest mistake for IPv6: It's not backwards compatible, developers admit

[Steve Wilcox]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 4:55 PM, Thomas Jacob <jacob at internet24.de> wrote:

> On Thu, 2009-03-26 at 15:51 +0000, Steve Wilcox wrote:
> > Well, it was designed 15 years ago with the intention that it would be
> > rolled out in less than aforementioned time period, without a sudden
> > urgency brought on by slow adoption! So to be fair, the design
> > probably could have been better but I guess they were still living in
> > a time period when widescale protocol changes were do-able and taken
> > seriously...
> >
> > Steve
>
> I am sure some people here have already read DJBs abrasive views on the
> matter but if you compare the IPv4/IPv6 switch to the introduction
> MX records in the 80s, as he does, it seems already at that
> time some people were aware of workable methods for making
> such protocol changes be adopted quickly.
>
> http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/ipv6mess.html
>
> The introduction of support for CIDR routes into the BGP protocol in 94
> might be considered another example of prior art.
>
> Sure those things are less fundamental then the layer 3 protocol.


I think thats part of it - they are less fundemental.

Also, none of them required a complete change end to end.. in v6 you need to
have user apps, user OS, access layer, backbone layer, content all enabled
.. its affects all components at most layers.




>
>
> On the other hand, this last statement might equally well be used in
> support for the opposite thesis.
>
> But being wise after the fact is always easy ;)
>
>   Thomas
>
>


-- 
Network Operations - Standards & Design
Google Inc.
E: stevewilcox at google.com
M: +44 7920 041930
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