[137366] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: IPv6 mistakes, was: Re: Looking for an IPv6 naysayer...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Dillon)
Fri Feb 11 16:46:32 2011
In-Reply-To: <op.vqpze2fhtfhldh@rbeam.xactional.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:44:30 -0800
From: Michael Dillon <wavetossed@googlemail.com>
To: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
> Using public address space for private networking is a gross misuse of th=
e
> resource.
No it is not. IP was invented to enable internetworking. The IPv4
address registry
was set up so that anyone who wanted to use IP for internetworking could ge=
t
unique addresses. The key here, is internetworking, which refers to exchang=
ing
packets with other networks. It is possible to internetwork without
ever exchanging
packets with the public Internet.
> =A0Go to any registry and ask for address space for your private
> networking that you do not intend to announce to the internet. =A0They wi=
ll
> laugh at you, and point you to RFC1918. (and likely flag you as someone t=
o
> whom address space should never be assigned.)
Not true. Two of my former employers went to ARIN every year or two and
received blocks around a /16 in size, specifically for use on global IP net=
works
that did not intend to ever announce those addresses on the Internet. There
are several other companies which operate somewhat similar networks.
Also, "announce to the Internet" doesn't mean what you think it does. First
of all there is no Internet to announce to, only peers, There are a
lot of smaller
networks which do announce routes to a small number of regional peers, but
those routes are NOT transitively announced to the rest of the public Inter=
net.
These networks *ARE* connected to the Internet, but you won't see their
routes in any of the major views (routeviews, ris, etc) which are considere=
d
as the global routing table.
>=A0The only reason legacy
> holders get away with such crap is because there's no clear contract
> governing their assignment.
All of the companies that I am aware of who get RIR addresses with no inten=
tion
of announcing it on the Internet, are paid up members in good standing of o=
ne
or more RIRs. Legacy holders really don't play in this game except for the =
DOD.
> First off, someone will have to do a lot more than 5 minutes of poking
> router-servers to see just how sparsely used ("announced") the space real=
ly
> is. =A0That includes digging through BGP histories to see if it's ever be=
en
> announced. =A0Then research who should be in control of the space (announ=
ced
> or not.) =A0Then send out nasty sounding letters informing whomever that =
X
> address space has not been announced to the public internet in Y years; o=
n Z
> date, the space will reenter the IANA/ICANN free pool for reassignment. (=
cue
> lawyers :-)) =A0They'd also be highly motivated to return unused space if=
they
> were being billing for it.
First of all, tools like RIPE's RIS make checking BGP history child's
play. Secondly,
you left out the court cases where the companies all get injunctions
against ARIN
because ARIN did regularly give them addresses under ARIN policy and nothin=
g
has changed to justify pulling the addresses back. These addresses are in u=
se,
i.e. configured in devices that provide a commercial internetworking
service with
packets flowing 24 hours a day.
--Michael Dillon
