Re: July IETF: IPng Decision Process BOF (ipdecide)

[Vince Fuller <[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.

While CIDR is most definitely not a candidate for the "IPng solution", I think
catagorizing it as a "very short term measure" is misleading. There is reason
to believe that deployment of CIDR (which already under way) will provide a
sufficient short-to-medium term solution to the routing and addressing problem
to forestall the need for IPng for some time. This is significant because some
of the motivation to develop and deploy an IPng quickly appears to be driven by
a false sense of panic or doom in the community. IMHO, it would be a serious
mistake for the community to rush into picking a long-term IP successor based
primarily on how rapidly it can be deployed rather than on the functionality
it offers.

	Vince Fuller, BARRNet (and CIDR co-author)