Re: quality of v6 connections [Re: unmanaged scope comments]

[Pekka Savola <pekkas@netcore.fi>]

On Tue, 24 Sep 2002, Margaret Wasserman wrote:
> >Routing is independent of addressing.
> 
> No, it's not.  :-)
> 
> Seriously, I hear this statement a lot, and it is pretty clear to me
> that routing is not independent of addressing, since IPv4 and IPv6
> both imbed topological routing information in the address prefixes.

Well.. I made a presentation in a conference about "IPv6 routing and
addressing" where I showed their connection so they aren't with current
policies.. but for all practical purposes they're not.  Let me elaborate a 
bit.

Routing is completely independent of the addressing in the sense that I 
can advertise any prefix I want in the routing protocols (in this case, 
BGP).

Therefore, when I receive a 2001::/16 or 3ffe::/16 prefix, there is *no* 
way to say "2001" is production while "3ffe" is not.  Indeed, both 3ffe 
prefixes are advertised over production backbones, and 2001 prefixes over 
6bone.

The only connection in routing/addressing is that currently there is a  
widely-implemented prefixlength restrictions in place everywhere.  This 
restricts a bit what you can do with your addresses.  But if you're a 
major player like an ISP, that's entirely up to you (and your neighbors).
 
> In what sense to do you consider routing and addressing to be independent?
> 
> > > What I'm trying to say is that the current 6bone should not be seen as a
> > > model or a reference of the "ipv6 internet". it is a testbed, experimental
> > > network, crash and burn, ...
> >
> >Sure.. sure.. but before we can have *any* credibility, we must have a
> >network that is reasonably global.  Today that that is 6bone,
> >unfortunately.
> 
> From what I heard in our meeting, NTT has a "reasonably global" commercial
> IPv6 backbone active in Asia, Europe and North America...

Market speak, I'd say.

The more important point is, how many other IPv6 backbones they connect
to.  Private walled gardens help no one.

When you can reach e.g. 80-90% of all IPv6 users through commercial-grade
networks, we're in a very good shape.. that's not happening yet.

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "Tell me of difficulties surmounted,
Netcore Oy                   not those you stumble over and fall"
Systems. Networks. Security.  -- Robert Jordan: A Crown of Swords