[GLOBAL-V6] up a few thousand meters

[Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>]

the rirs, as the meeting place of those responsible for prudent operation
of the network, have traditionally been where the compromise between the
three *competing* and *conflicting* vectors of
  o address space conservation,
  o routing table growth, and
  o ease of allocation for isps
have responsibly reached compromise.  this has not been an easy balance
because the three really are in conflict with each-other.  but, as prudent
operators, and as shepherds of a public good, we have struggled along to
manage in a really pretty responsible fashion.  witness that one can get
and use the ip space one needs, the routing table has not gotten completely
unmanageable (especially if you filter prudently <g>), and there is a fair
amount of v4 space left.

as we move into the v6 world, prudent folk find it hard not to assume that
the same or similar forces will be at work.  v6 gives us zero leverage on
the routing table expansion problem.  there is no reason to believe that
the seemingly enormous 128 bit address space of v6 will turn out to be any
more infinite than the seemingly enormous 32 bit address space did some
decades ago.  and, as operators, we still have the annoying problems and
responsibilities of acquiring, tracking, allocating, ... the address space
which is vital to our businesses.

in moving forward, it would seem irresponsible to let one consideration
obviate all others.  e.g. some once thought tlas would solve the routing
table growth issue by limiting the global universe to 8k isps.  this month,
others think ease of allocation is most important, and the problems of
address consumption and routing table growth are old-fashioned fears.

sadly, as we have discovered in exploring the issues of multi-homing and
routing table growth, and as we learned that frequent and rapid renumbering
may not be the realities, we seem to need to be a bit cautious about the
new world, and not leap to bold conclusions and make radical changes based
on yet to be proven assumptions.

as isps, in our rush to make life easy for ourselves at the possible
expense of other considerations, let us not again demonstrate george
santayana's wisdom by repeating history, again creating a swamp, losing
track of detailed allocation data, ...

as far as i can tell, v6 deployment is not being inhibited by issues
surrounding address space allocation.

randy
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