The RIPE-55 meeting takes place this week in Amsterdam. The hot matter currently is the expected death-by-[address-]exhaustion of IPv4.
So, on Monday, the main matter was IPv6 deployment (a lot of interesting stuff, most presentations are accessible as PDF files).
IPv4 address depletion was on the agenda Tuesday afternoon:
IPv4 Depletion Session
- ETNO Common Position on IPv4 Exhaustion – Mark McFadden, BT – pdf [ 29 KB ]
- Changing IPv4 Allocation Policy – Remco van Mook, VIRTU – pdf [ 76 KB ]
- IPv4 Depletion and the Afterworld – Geoff Huston, APNIC – pdf [ 2.25 MB ]
- Open Microphone / Discussion
Tuesday’s first two presentations reflect on future IPv4 address allocation policies. They don’t agree on what needs to be done; the first one, from ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators Association), is firmly opposed to a would-be “IP address marketplace”. The second document, from VIRTU (a Netherland-based hosting provider) holds almost the opposite view, saying that the various regional RIRs should be able to exchange address blocks to adapt to local needs, and leave LIRs invent and apply their own policies regarding address trading.
My personal conclusion is that a lot of wrestling over IPv4 addresses is to be expected in the coming years, and it will only get worse and worse with time.
The third document is a must-read, an updated version of the Geoff Huston presentation I already wrote about [fr] . I liked the train crash illustrations :-). The conclusion obviously remains: we’ll need to transition to IPv6 no matter what, and the sooner the better.
In that spirit, RIPE is discussing a Community Resolution (draft) on its IPv6 and Address-allocation mailing lists. Such a communication is desperately needed: most professionals (network administrators, network consultants) I spoke with about the Geoff Huston documents had a skeptical reaction along the lines of “Transition? Yeah right, I’ve been hearing that for 8 years now, so maybe one day”.
