Subject: [smartpowerdir] Pushing IPv6

From: Russ Housley <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:58:57 -0500

ARIN has sent NIST a message saying that it is not possible to get 
enough IPv4 addresses to support SmartGrid.  However, the NIST document 
does not include a statement of preference for IPv6.  How can we make 
that happen

Russ

---

From: Sam Hartman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:48:37 -0500

>>>>> "Russ" == Russ Housley <[email-masked]> writes:

    Russ> ARIN has sent NIST a message saying that it is not possible to
    Russ> get enough IPv4 addresses to support SmartGrid.  However, the
    Russ> NIST document does not include a statement of preference for
    Russ> IPv6.  How can we make that happen

There's probably a part of this that is political.  However, I've often
found that even when there is a political part to something like this
there is also a part that has to do with uncertainty and fear of the
new.  We've all at some point in our lives pitched some technology that
was not mature enough and we've definitely all received proposals to use
some research technology when we need a production solution today.

I don't have the personal background to address the political aspects of
this, but addressing fear of the unknown seems like something we should
be very good at.

I'll admit that even I'm not 100% convinced that V6 is the answer.  It
seems like you have two potential options: use IPv4 but not the
Internet--accept that to some lesser or greater extent your addressing
plan will overlap with the Internet's and that you'll have a lot of NAT.
Alternatively, use IPv6.  Obviously, the long-term story is better with
V6.  however, there are areas where v6 does not shine today.  I've been
looking at firewall and network management products for one of my
clients, and the v6 story there is not great.

So, an area where we can give technical input and perhaps use our
technical input as a way to get a voice in the political discussion
follows.  We understand what the needs of SG applications are and put
together realistic comments on how well v6 can deal with that today and
how feasible it would be to correct any gaps in the deployment time
line.