Re: A Plea for Architectural & Specification Stability with IPv6

Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> Thu, 13 March 2014 17:51 UTC

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Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 06:51:39 +1300
From: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com>
Organization: University of Auckland
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To: "Fred Baker (fred)" <fred@cisco.com>
Subject: Re: A Plea for Architectural & Specification Stability with IPv6
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Cc: "<ipv6@ietf.org>" <ipv6@ietf.org>, RJ Atkinson <rja.lists@gmail.com>
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On 14/03/2014 05:20, Fred Baker (fred) wrote:
> On Mar 13, 2014, at 5:49 AM, RJ Atkinson <rja.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 	The IETF keeps changing IPv6.  Clearly IPv6 is not yet
>> 	ready for widespread use until they stop changing 
>> 	the specifications.
> 
> With respect, if the changes you mentioned are considered fundamental changes to IPv6, the IETF has spent the past 25 years changing IPv4. Nobody anywhere should consider deploying IPv4 until we finish changing it.

Yes, my first thought was that in 1988 or so, when some of us
in European academia and research proposed to abandon the OSI dream
in favour of TCP/IP, the following two statements would both have been
plausible:

 The IETF keeps changing IPv4.  Clearly IPv4 is not yet
 ready for widespread use until they stop changing
 the specifications.

 The ISO keeps changing OSI.  Clearly OSI is not yet
 ready for widespread use until they stop changing
 the specifications.

I think we need to communicate that we are enhancing and
fine-tuning IPv6, not changing it.

I fully agree that changes which invalidate running code
must be avoided. No discussion.

    Brian