July IETF: IPng Decision Process BOF (ipdecide)

[Brian Carpenter CERN-CN <[e-mail]>]

The ipdecide BOF at Amsterdam IETF
==================================

Title: IPng decision process

Description: The goal of this BOF is to seek rough consensus on
how to progress in the decision process about the next generation
of IP.

A set of decision criteria has been established (see Internet Draft
draft-partridge-ipv7-criteria-01.txt) and the BOF will not re-discuss
them. A set of four candidates for IPng has emerged (PIP, SIP, TP/IX,
TUBA in alphabetical order) and the BOF will not discuss their details
or merits. Very short term measures (CIDR) and very long term measures
will not be discussed.

The topics to be discussed include:

  - Who is qualified to decide on behalf of the Internet community?
    Another way to ask the question: should there be a decision point,
    or can we let the market decide?

  - What procedures (analysis, bake-off, etc) should be used to
    evaluate each candidate against the criteria?

  - Whether, when and how to open up the IPng discussion among
    the Internet user community (broadly defined to include
    WAN and LAN network operators as well as end users)? How
    does this community interact with the decision takers?

  - What timescale is realistic for the decision process?
    There is a subsidiary technical discussion here: if
    the Internet truly runs out of addresses in year N,

      when (year N-x) should the decision be made?

      when (year N-y) should the software be ready for field test?

      what is the latest time (N-z) to start the transition?

  - And some hard questions from Dave Piscitello: how do we get folks to
    implement multiple alternatives (the bake-offs) if the market is
    indeed going to decide? How do we measure market approval?
    Is it sufficient to simply have camps who champion each candidate
    solicit regional and enterprise networks for connectivity and
    experimentation?

  - Does the decision process need specific financial or manpower
    support? (Some people think this question is a joke :-)

with the goal of being able to write an Internet Draft on the
decision process after the BOF.

Regards,
	Brian Carpenter CERN, [e-mail]
			voice [phone], fax [phone]