29 Jul
2021
29 Jul
'21
10:47 a.m.
On 29/7/21 6:07 am, Jason McCormick via 44Net wrote:
ADRC/AMPRNet should be working with and encouraging the amateur radio community to make
progress on tools and technologies that render IPv4, and notably the 44.0.0.0/8(ish)
allocation, obsolete. Some areas that cry out for an active community leader include:
1. Make useful, educational information available accessible to the amateur operator
that helps them understand what IPv6 is, how to use it with their ISP where available, how
it's 90% the same as IPv4, benefits of IPv6, etc. I don't think this all needs to
be net new material. Perhaps a curation effort with some original content that fills in
the gaps important to radio users.
This is related to a suggestion I made earlier -
that ARDC could have a
role in education, and IPv6 would certainly fit here. I've had native
IPv6 myself for over 10 years, and I was able to ensure all of my VPSs
have global native IPv6 within a couple of years after that.
1. Work with hams and the major projects to enable IPv6 natively for common
application such as digital voice (D-STAR, YSF, DMR, etc.), Pi-STAR, Allstar Link, IRLP,
APRS, etc. This would include providing some funding, maybe in a Google "Summer of
Code"-style project, and some expertise. Our area WAN network currently using 44Net
space has been dual-stack IPv6 for years. However while our core non-radio systems could
all be 100% IPv6, basically nothing about any of the amateur radio stuff we operate even
knows what IPv6 is let alone has a prayer of working on it. There's a lot of great
stuff out there that was written by someone who wanted to scratch an itch. All that
software is great and serves the need, but it requires help and resources to move forward.
M17 at least supports IPv6 from the outset. My M17 reflector listens on
both IPv4 and IPv6, and when I connect using DroidStar, the connection
is always IPv6, from what I recall. Reflector based networks like M17
are relatively easy, because if the reflectors run dual stack, the
clients can connect using what they have. IPv6 is definitely
preferred. Networks with heavy point to point traffic (IRLP, Echolink,
AllStar) are much harder, because there's more possibility for IPV4 only
and IPV6 only (may have IPv4, but not public) systems to be unable to
communicate with each other.
1. ARDC/AMPRNet should consider the merits of either outright becoming an LIR[2] and
issuing global IPv6 space OR, at minimum, create a formalized "non-collisions
registry" of the IPv6 ULA fc00::/7 space[3]. As part of the latter option, it should
also define a set of rules for Global/ULA interoperability for "ham purposes"
when operators may want their own global IPv6 space to interact with some common/shared
ULA space.
There have been proposals for hams to be able to dedicate part of their
ISP provided IPv6 space to hame service and have that listed somewhere
with ARDC in a registry. For me, that would work, as I have a static
/56 (could easily dedicate a couple of /64s to ham use), and they don't
filter anything (unless I ask them to - but I've turned the filtering
off). But some people may need IPv6 space from elsewhere, to work
around ISP restrictions like filtering and dynamic prefixes.
None of the above is exhaustive, nor any sort of
immediately workable plan. But all of this discussion on the re-re-allocation of the 44Net
space has had me thinking today about what goals of this community should be and it struck
me that we're all talking about a technology from the 1970s that most of the world is
actively trying to replace or, at least, deprioritize.
I think 44Net will still be
important, but encouraging adoption of IPv6
does make sense for looking to the future, as something to do alongside.
--
73 de Tony VK3JED/VK3IRL
http://vkradio.com