IPv 6 Documentation Address Policy APNIC Policy SIG

IPv 6 Documentation Address Policy APNIC Policy SIG Meeting Kitakyushu, September 2002 Philip Smith <pfs@cisco. com>

The Problem n n No IPv 6 address space which can be used for documentation APNIC has no criteria for allocating IPv 6 address space for documentation

Background n Documentation authors are using Internet Resources from a variety of sources: n n n RFC 1918 IPv 4 space and private ASNs From their employer’s blocks From well known ISPs Easy to remember values for IPv 4 addresses and ASNs Unassigned/unallocated resources at the time of writing (e. g. network 222/8 or ASN > 32000)

Background – Problems n Apart from private IPv 4 and ASN space, all other address ranges conflict with existing or future assignments on the commercial Internet n n “cut-and-paste” testing of documentation examples “cluelessness” Commercial impact on operational networks – $$$ May be seen as DOS attack

Current Status n IPv 4 addresses n n n ASNs n n n RFC 1918 address used Not ideal, but most ISPs filter private addresses Private ASNs used Not ideal, but more ISPs are now filtering private ASNs IPv 6 addresses n n Nothing available Address space is either reserved or allocated

Proposal n The RIRs set aside a block of IPv 6 address space exclusively for the purposes of documentation

Detail One n Address space allocated for documentation purposes n n Should be same size as RIR minimum allocation This is so that documentation examples can match real life

Detail Two n Address space allocated for documentation purposes n n Should come from global unicast address space Use of site local or link local makes no sense – it is different from global unicast address space

Advantages n n Documentation authors no longer have to use IPv 6 address space of their employers, or of other Internet entities, for worked examples in published works No more possible risk to the commercial Internet

Disadvantages n An IPv 6 netblock will be added to the list of non-routable IPv 6 address space n n Most ISPs filter IPv 6 address space anyhow, so this is only one extra network Some people might think that this is private IPv 6 space – it is not

Implementation n APNIC should implement this policy three months after consensus has been reached All supporting docs will be updated before this date Community will be informed before this date

Questions?