Why do you think we originally recommended /48 for all SOHO customers,with some recent pressure to accept /56 as well? Clearly prefix delegationhas to be automated, though. Bridging is bound to fail, if we see non-802 networks in the home.
I agree.I think our ability to predict what will be needed in the future home networks 5, 10, 15,... years from now is very limited. It's not so long ago that the home consisted of a single dialup host. Many of the early DSL and cable modem tried to replicate that with things like PPPoverEthernet. Now many homes have a one or two networks bridged or routed/NATed together. Some mix of wired Ethernet or WLAN. Note, that some cable and DSL operators still seem to want to lock a customer to a single machine. Many customers work around this with a NAT.
Is it likely that this will be the model going forward? I doubt it and think we need to make architectural and policy decisions today that don't lock us into what is common today and allows for future flexibility. There is a lot of things happening in home networking today including video, home automation, home security, VoIP, home servers, etc., etc. I suspect that some of these like video will work better with distinct IP subnets. This is today.
I think in five to ten years the future home network will end up looking like today's small enterprise. This means there will be multiple subnets, different technologies, different administrative domains, and different speeds. One big difference between the enterprise and home network won't be size, but will be that the home network will be auto-configured. The enterprise will be managed, the home network will be unmanaged. This will require enough address space to permit multiple subnets with room left for future growth.
Bob