[pim] IPv6 Inter-domain Multicasting and Address Assignments

Hello,

SI International represents and contracts with DITO (DoD IPv6 Transition
Office) on a number of IPv6 issues.  In this case we are providing DITO
with a white paper on IPv6 Inter-domain multicast address assignments
and issues/problems (expected or realized) regarding IPv6 multicast
implementations.

To begin, I have gone over a number of RFCs (including RFC 3306, 3956,
3307, 2375, 4607, ID draft-ietf-mboned-ipv6-multicast-issues-02.txt
among others) but they are vague as to actual working implementation of
inter-domain multicast address assignments and how they will or might
work proceed.

I wrote to IANA and it was suggested I might contact the IEFT MAGMA and
PIM groups, so I am forwarding this letter; any advice is greatly
appreciated.

=====my questions or issues =====

In IPv4 GLOP was developed but not widely used, where an organizations
ASN is embedded in the 223.0.0.0 / 8 multicast range.  In IPv6 I have
seen V6UPBM (RFC 3306) and "Embedded RP" (RFC 3956) as similar proposals
for IPv6.  

However, I am still not clear of the "reality" of IPv6 multicast address
assignments especially with regards to globally unique (by organization,
domain, site, etc.) inter-domain multicast.  

That is, how far have actual address assignments proceeded?  

What is just proposed versus being implemented or to be implemented?  

Are there actual standards being followed?  

Are there any referential real-world implementations?  

Are there known/expected issues/problems with IPv6 inter-domain
multicast and address assignments?

Maybe a quote from my actual assignment will further clarify what I am
looking for:

"DITO is having some concerns with IPv6 multicast address space and how
it should or should not be provisioned.  You should start the study with
regards to how IPv4 multicast addressing worked in the past.  If you
ever worked with it you would know there was never official group
reservations made with regards to address blocks.  However, this was
never a real issue since its popularity died.  So except for what was
deemed to be the well-known addresses there was never any reservations,
unlike how unicast is reserved.  One thought might be the Army gets a
block of addresses, Navy, and so on."

===============

Again, any help is appreciated.  

Thanks,

James Gibbons

Senior Network Engineer

SI International

Tel: 703.234.6894