[AusNOG] Less than 10% of IPv4 Addresses Remain Unallocated

[Mark Newton]

On 22/01/2010, at 3:56 PM, Daniel Hooper wrote:

> I don’t see many larger providers in .AU supporting ipv6 yet, congrats to internode and those that have deployed ipv6  for having the balls to get on with it and get something moving but until we see the iinet’s, telstra’s, aapt’s etc fully jump on board,  ipv6 is still pretty much dead in the water IMHO.

No, it isn't dead in the water.  It's going to happen anyway, it's just
a question of whether the ISPs you've cited are going to be sipping
coffee on the bridge or below-decks pumping out the bilges as the
mess unfolds. :-)


> It does look to be a good task for our favourite minister for broadboand & communications mr conroy, whether it be in the form of consumer education or legislation that gets it moving I feel the government needs to be sending the message out that it’s time to move on.

The best thing the Government can do is set their own procurement
standards.

They're a very large purchaser of IT equipment and communications
services.  If they say, "Right, this is it, from next year onwards we're
simply not going to spend any money whatsoever on anything that
doesn't do IPv6," then the vendors and telcos will very rapidly get
behind it.

The Government has made some recent positive moves by bringing
forward their own migration schedule.  Perhaps that should be sending
some messages to vendors and network operators too.


> Possible consumer education:

Misplaced expenditure.  This is happening whether or not consumers
approve, whether or not they think it's a good idea, whether or not
they're even aware of it.  They aren't educated about IPv4 right now,
and don't need to be, and show no desire to be; so why do we need to
make them care about IPv6?

>  
> ·          A flurry of television commercials with a simple 30 second explanation that the internet is running out of numbers, look for the ipv6 enabled sticker on your next purchase.

Not helpful right now, because hardly anything has IPv6-enabled stickers
on it.

One consumer CPE vendor brought out an "IPv6 Ready" ADSL2+ modem
a few years ago with an official Phase-1 logo approved by the IPv6 Forum.
The certification essentially means, "This device would be capable of
running IPv6 if we ever write the software, which we haven't done, and
probably won't ever do.  Suck it up, Princess."

There is no point trying to educate consumers about what they should
be buying until we've convinced vendors to get what they should be buying
onto the market.  Said vendors are so deeply unimpressive in this space
right now, they really should be embarrassed, and if they aren't it's 
probably our job as procurers to embarrass them.

All of the major vendors trade on their expertise, on their market leadership,
on being ahead of the pack with useful stuff we need.  Yet by not supporting
IPv6 they're essentially telling all of us (and certainly all of our residential
customers), "Equipment you buy from us today probably won't be useful
in 2 years time.  Everyone knows what's coming, and we know you're trying
to prepare for it, and we probably ought to have a complete portfolio of
solutions ready for you, but sorry, we just can't be there for you.  Because
even though we keep telling you we're the best and brightest in the business,
we're completely incapable of seeing past the horizon of IPv4 exhaustion,
and we have nothing worthwhile to say to you right now."

That should be beyond unacceptable at this stage in the game.

> Possible legislation:


Given the utterly disastrous way that Governments of all stripes impose
regulations on this industry whenever they try, I'd respectfully suggest
that calls for legislation fall somewhere on a spectrum between "not
helpful" and "downright rude."  Honestly, if you want to kill some aspect of
the Australian Internet, the best way you can do it is to urge an Australian
Government to try to regulate it.  Calling for legislation is a hostile act.

The best thing the Government can do is set its own procurement standards.
The best thing we can do is stop debating it and start doing it.

  - mark


--
Mark Newton                               Email:  newton at internode.com.au (W)
Network Engineer                          Email:  newton at atdot.dotat.org  (H)
Internode Pty Ltd                         Desk:   +61-8-82282999
"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton"  Mobile: +61-416-202-223





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