NAT-PT applicability considerations

[Pekka Savola <pekkas@netcore.fi>]

Hello all,

(WG chair hat=on)

The NAT-PT Applicability Design Team's draft has been published as:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-satapati-v6ops-natpt-applicability-00.txt

Now, it's the WG's turn to give input on how to proceed.  This topic will
also (barring last-minute changes) be discussed in Minneapolis.

As an input to the working group process, there were a couple of topics
which were not animous among the Design Team -- if you read the
draft, it might make sense to pay special attention to (at least) these:

 1. The definition of NAT-PT.  Some felt that the term "NAT-PT" can also 
    be used when ALGs (e.g. DNS-ALG) are not being used; the others 
    disagreed.  The draft is closer to first at this point.

    It is not clear whether this is appropriate as the NAT-PT mechanism
    does not seem to even really function without additional code 
    as a replacement for DNS-ALG.
 
 2. The treatment of IPv6-only networks.  It was not clear whether it 
    makes sense to include either:
     a) generic IPv6-only networks (currently in the Appendix), or
     b) only a more limited set of IPv6-only networks
    in the applicability statement.  These scenarios, may be 
    counterproductive in the face of dual-stack deployment.

    As an additional point, if the deployment of IPv6-only networks were
    decreed out of scope, some felt that no NAT-PT applicability statement 
    would need to be published in the first place as it would not be 
    applicable anywhere.  Some disagreed, in that the analysis of the 
    shortcomings of NAT-PT would still be useful.

 3. The recommendation of the specific scenarios.  In the body of the 
    text, some applicability was identified in two kinds of networks: the 
    legacy IPv4 equipment and 3GPP.  There was no full consensus that
    going down that deployment path (the point above) would 
    necessarily make sense.

Pekka, Jonne, Bob
 v6ops co-chairs

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings