[governance] Re: IPv[4,6, 4/6] was IGF delhi format

[Stephane Bortzmeyer]

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 02:04:51PM +0530,
 Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote 
 a message of 102 lines which said:

> (1) I understand v6 and v4 as applications on which Internet runs.

No. The word "application" has a very different meaning in networks
(an application is something that the user sees, for instance a Web
browser or an IM client). IPv4 and IPv6 are network protocols, not
applications.

> We know of numerous applications where upgrades keep hitting us by
> the day. But almost always they are backward compatible. What is so
> unique about this set of applications that such compatibility was
> not possible?

Well, I do not really know what to say. Network protocols are very
different from applications. When you say that an application is
"backward compatible", you probably mean it can read its old data
files. But, for a protocol, you need not only to read the packets sent
by another host, but also to write to it. 
 
> (2) What special gains were obtained in the new design v6 to make it
> in manner that it is not backward compatible.

Extension of the addressing space. From 2^32 (not enough to give an IP
address to every human being) to 2^128.

> Were these gains evaluated against the losses of non-compatibility,
> or non-seamless-compatibility.

Thomas Narten explained very well the gains (or, rather, the losses we
sustain every day because of the IPv4 address scarcity).

Remember there never was an alternate proposal, keeping the
compatibility (there have been some back-of-the-enveloppe thoughts but
that's all).

> who evaluated it,

IETF. In one way, every Internet actor who decides to support IPv6 or
not does its own evaluation.

> and what were the principal criteria/ objectives/ values being
> followed for this evaluation?

The main objective was to restore the end-to-end model, the very model
that allows new applications to be developed.

> So from a socio-political point of view it is important to know if
> v6 contributes to further moving of the Internet towards a
> commercial applications (controlled by big IT companies)centered
> Internet from a more open end-to-end common IP based one.

I hope so but be careful: the evolution of the Internet
(corporation-controlled or open) depends mostly on socio-political
factors, not on technical ones. IPv6 helps to keep an open model but
that's all.
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance