All, Ruben,
I maintain very large parts of HAMNET and by that represent a very large
user group of our network. I just want to start with a huge thank-you to
our TAC team as they did spend a large amount of their spare/free/family
time working and researching the proposal that we are so intensively
discussing here. Please let me respond to this; please see inline:
On 30/07/2021 08:34, Ruben ON3RVH via 44Net wrote:
Antonios,
I really don't get it.
I still have no answer to the question what that intranet is/will be hosting that is not
suited for the general public. The answer "because we can" someone made is not a
valid answer. Translated that would mean you oblige everyone to renumber, just for the fun
of it, just because you can make everyone renumber.
What I also don't understand is the stated fact that no one should be forced to buy
hardware or should know routing protocols to be able to connect to the network or
intranet. BUT, after reading through the hamnet documentation that you linked in the
"proposal", which is from 2014, it clearly says that you have to have the
wireless hardware to connect, buy a (quite expensive license) to connect to, and set up
BGP and a route reflector to connect to HAMNET.
This sounds like you DO need to know your way around networking and have to invest in
hardware to connect to the intranet.
Let me describe how it really works and how most people operate:
* Ubiquiti/Mikrotik device on the roof and connected to their HomeLAN
* Ubiquiti/Mikrotik gets an IP allocation per DHCP from HAMNET
* Ubiquiti/Mikrotik gets an IP allocation per DHCP (or static IP) from
HomeLAN (eg 192.168.1.44)
* Router has 44.0.0.0/8 -> 192.168.1.44 routing configured
* Anyone in HomeLAN can access HAMNET (Radio does NAT)
This is extremely simple and our less experienced OM's can easily deal
with this (and please, I do not want to hear comments anymore like "do
we want such people on our network")
ISP provided routers are not able to connect via RF to
another network. Also, the ISP provided routes I have in my setup, do not even allow
VPN's. My cable provider router is completely locked and nothing can be added or
changed, the only thing I can change, is my MAC address for my fixed IP because I pay
extra for a fixed IP.
This was answered by Antonis I believe a bit earlier. Its a pity your
provider is so restrictive. Here, luckily, we haven't seen this yet.
My backup internet provider's DSL moden, a fritzbox, is not capable of
OpenVPN neither, not any other kind of VPN. So those would not be suited
for either part of the 44 network. Thus the argument of making it easy
for hams to connect via their ISP provided routers is also mute..
I dont think that statement is fully correct, please see here:
https://www.afu.rwth-aachen.de/projekte/hamnet/anwendungen/vpn-zugang
Here where we have HAMNET, there are really no big burdens accessing
HAMNET. Of course, with the exception of simple/clear routing from our
ISP routers. We don't have a network like HAMNET in any other parts of
the world currently, but I can tell you its really a great success and
the community is highly excited about the ease of use of this platform.
Since HAMNET is built upon BGP, one should only have to point 44/9 and 44.128/10 towards
HAMNET and then automatically be able to connect to the "intranet" and then
HAMNET should function as a POP towards the current IPIP mesh (which from the
documentation it does) but HAMNET should also function as a gateway towards the current
IPIP mesh and internet connected 44 ranges. Which it should know how to do since HAMNET is
built upon BGP and BGP only contains routes that it receives from it's neighbours and
sends the rest to the kernel default routing table, which for the internet connected 44
ranges would be towards the internet. And from the HAMNET document,(page 40) the HAMNET
pop at DB0FHN IS the gateway to the IPIP mesh.
Why should a packet which should belong in internet be send over RF?
Performance? NPR Users have 100kbit/s that they share even with other
users. It would be nice to just be able to answer the question of which
route a user should add to their router..
This questions pops up nearly every day for me from the region I manage
so you can imagine overall how often we get that question asked from the
whole user community.
You also state that the intranet is RF only. This again puts a barrier between hams,
those that know how to setup their RF environment and know networking, and the rest of the
hams that do not. Also with making the intranet RF only, those of us that have no way to
connect via RF (Belgium for example has no connection with HAMNET, and I am too far from
the German border or Americas to be able to connect via WIFI)
I think this is a misunderstanding. Eg Berlin is not yet per HF
connected to the HAMNET either. That's why we use VPN_Tunnels to connect
isolated regions. Maybe the term "amateur radio only" is the better one
to use.
And of course the goal is to connect the whole of Europe through HF
links. That was possible when we did this using Packet Radio, so why not
do this with HAMNET? We currently have interconnected many regions
already, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and parts of France,
Netherlands and Italy.
We know through the sale of part of the 44/8 we have project budgets
that we could use to solve also this and we could easily start a project
to connect Belgium to HAMNET. This would also help to use the
radio-bands we got allocated to use for this.
I still don't know what you are trying to solve with this proposal. The object was to
make it EASY for EVERY ham to connect to ALL parts of the 44 range, whether that is on
HAMNET, IPIP or internet connected ranges, not to make it harder and make a niche
intranet. Because a part of Germany wants it.
Antonis already mentioned that we are not talking about an exception,
like a few users of 44/8. No, we are talking about the largest part of
the current 44/8 users.
Maybe we should rather use 44/9 for the use-case "intranet for radio
amateurs" and 44.128/10 for the use-case "Internet"? Then Germany would
need to renumber a second time, but we have already a lot of experience
doing so.
And just maybe a as piece of information; due to the sale of 44.192/10
more or less the whole of Germany had to renumber their HAMNET sites and
networks. Likely several man-years where spend doing this and nobody
complained as the bigger picture (getting $100+mio in the ARDC) was
accepted as a valid reason for investing this huge amount of effort.
I think the TAC-Proposal is truly interesting as this would actually
allow us to make services available through HAMNET (completely
independent from internet and providers) or via the public internet from
the same host. Being able to build and use a network that is completely
independent from any provider is a unique capability we as radio
amateurs only can do. Giving people the possibility to connect a system
to the internet and HAMNET at the same time will allow new scenarios
like exposing the choice which way to route to end-users.
73
Daniel de DL6FZ
I would like to see details of the poll about the intranet, which markets were questioned
and how they responded with numbers please.
73
Ruben ON3RVH
-----Original Message-----
From: 44Net <44net-bounces+on3rvh=on3rvh.be(a)mailman.ampr.org> On Behalf Of Antonios
Chariton (daknob) via 44Net
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2021 03:19
To: 44Net general discussion <44net(a)mailman.ampr.org>
Cc: Antonios Chariton (daknob) <daknob(a)daknob.net>
Subject: Re: [44net] A new era of IPv4 Allocations
Hello Mario, please find my answers below:
On 29 Jul 2021, at 22:04, Mario Lorenz via 44Net
<44net(a)mailman.ampr.org> wrote:
Dear Antonios,
Am 28. Jul 2021, um 00:31:52 schrieb Antonios Chariton (daknob) via 44Net:
Fellow radio amateurs, I am writing to you on
behalf of the ARDC TAC, which I represent.
Those of you that were on our Community Call last Saturday may remember that I promised
you we would share our first proposal with the community. A few days after that, I am
happy to send that to you for your review, feedback, comments, questions, and
information!
You can find our 5-page PDF here:
https://pdf.daknob.net/ardc/tac128.pdf
<https://pdf.daknob.net/ardc/tac128.pdf>
The title is "ARDC 44.128/10 Allocation Proposal” and it briefly explains what we
propose to do with the IPv4 space of ARDC. It is based on careful consideration, planning,
and actual research[1] performed on the IP network and the Portal allocations.
I have read the proposal, and would like to ask for clarification on a
few points. These points possibly may have been covered in some
discussions on the 44-ngn list, so I wanted to review possible
discussions there, but the link to the archives of that list on
www.ampr.org is currently broken.
a) How do you define the "[amateur] radio network" as used in the
first paragraphs of your proposal? Is there a difference to the term
"Intranet for radio amateurs" as used in your proposed ARDC resolution?
These are equivalent. The radio network and the Intranet are the same for the given
context. Think of it like using amateur radio frequencies vs 4G / 5G frequencies. This is
the first point.
The former reads like a description of involved
hardware/systems,
while the later describes its users (licensed radio amateurs).
We do not want to limit the hardware, but we would like to have an IP version of the
frequency plan: 44.128/10, however you connect to it, is the radio amateur band, and
44.0/10 is the commercial 5G band or the ISM band of WiFi. One is for people that are
licensed, and the other is simply the Internet that anyone can use.
The former could also be read as a
policy/guarantee that no
non-amateur-radio based means of communication are involved.
Is that intended ?
Yes, correct. One of the things that this proposal can bring is that a part of the
network is reserved for radio amateur to radio amateur communication.
I note that you also use the term
"radio-only network" on page 3.
Since 44.0/9 according to your proposal is not "radio-only", this
would mean that 44.128/12 should not be accessible from 44.0/9, which
is the opposite to your proposed resolution.
This is actually (part of) the proposal. That we guarantee that people in 44.128/10 can
only be reached by other people there, and people in 44.0/10 (technically /9) can be
reached from the entire Internet, except 44.128/10 (natively). This is similar to how only
radio amateurs can transmit in a ham band, but everyone can transmit to an ISM band
(including hams).
b) Which route do I need to put into my router to
address the radio
network ? In particular, how can you answer this question without
considering the specifics of each individual case ? Why would there be
only one route?
You can address the “radio network” with a single route: 44.128/10. This proposal
guarantees that everyone there will be on the radio-only network, the same way
transmitting to 144-146 MHz in the EU is to reach hams only. Any traffic you receive is
(should be) from a ham, and you should only send anything if you are a ham, and you intend
to reach other hams. Transmitting to 2.4 GHz in the ISM band allows you to talk to more
people (anyone), but also anyone can talk to you.
c) Can you back up the "originally
intended"
claim somehow ? I note that net-44 originated in the USA, which
historically has rather liberal third-party traffic rules compared to
other countries,
We probably have a lot of people in this mailing list that were even a part of this and
can speak up, but this happened before the Internet was (broadly) adopted and the 44/8 was
a way for this “Internet” project some people were working on to talk to this network of
these “radio amateurs” that they set up in the USA or Europe, etc.
d) You propose a policy of not announcing the
prefix on the internet.
"the prefix" is presumably 44.128/10. Do I have to understand this as
going back to pre-2012 (no direct BGP) or pre, uh, 1990 (someone
remind me please when mirrorshades started providing encap tunnels and
announcing 44/8).
Yes, correct. This proposal wants 44.128/10 to not have any direct BGP allocations that
appear on the Internet. Connectivity of these networks should happen between themselves
(network to network VPN, radio links, …), the ARDC (or anyone else’s) PoPs, etc. and they
will not communicate through the open Internet.
e) Is there a rationale why existing regional
networks cannot decide
themselves what level of internet connectivity they desire,
considering e.g. the local ham radio regulations and keeping their
numbering and infrastructure which have been assigned to them long
before ARDC existed as an entity. Is there a particular reason for not
grandfathering them ?
Unfortunately this would be difficult to accommodate as the guarantees cannot be offered
then. If radio amateurs don’t have a dedicated band to talk to each other, and they have
to use the ISM bands, there’s no way to distinguish between normal people and licensed
hams. You can’t tell and there’s no guarantee that the person you’re speaking with is a
ham or anyone else.
Similarly to the RF world, in IP there’s this kind of problem as well. If you have IP
addresses on the Internet, you could receive traffic from anyone. Sure, you can use an ACL
or a firewall, but that’s not guaranteed. Packets could be spoofed for example. If you
have a special network where you know that all senders and recipients are hams, then you
can build things with different assumptions. You can build internal tools or apps,
websites, etc. It’s up to you. It’s a band where you will only find people of the same
hobby as you, that are licensed.
The other part is like an ISM band. Sure, you can use this to talk to other hams, and you
can use it to talk to non-hams, and non-hams can use it to talk to you, and you have to
establish by your own means who is who, and ensure that they can’t trick you.
What our proposal aims to do is to create a separate “Ham Band” / Intranet / 44.128/10
and a separate "ISM band” / Internet / 44.0/9. By using simple RF or IP you can’t
have them collocated into the same space.
This is the reason why we cannot have scattered space and we want to have it aggregated
and easy to address. Instead of our “band plan” being hundreds of lines and have it change
daily, and move band from “ISM” to “Amateur Radio” and vice versa, we want to create a
very simple band plan of 2 entries that don’t change. One is, and will remain to be “ISM”
(44.0/9) and one is, and will remain to be “Radio Amateur” (44.128/10).
Having a more stable and simple band plan is easier for everyone. They can make more
informed decisions for the future, they can choose who they want to talk to, and they can
even decide to use both bands: use a handheld radio (Radio Amateur) and a phone with WiFi
(ISM). This is what we try to do on a technical level. Clearly define the two bands, and
make sure that they are very few, and very stable.
In the IP world this translates to easier routing (each “band plan” entry is a route, and
if it’s just one, it could even be a static one), and less frequent changes. I don’t have
to consult today’s band plan to know why 44.5.5.5 does not respond from 44.128.128.128, if
the reason is that 44.5.5.5 decided to be Internet-only today or Intranet-only tomorrow.
We could have made use of complex routing protocols and policies that would dynamically
try to discover what each address or subnet is (because it’s not always clear and we can’t
always tell what each address wants to do, even if we forced everyone to connect to an
ARDC PoP) and then continually adjust this and maintain a complex state. This is something
that a lot of people would also have to do, or they would have to find someone to do it
for them (e.g. the ARDC PoPs). Going towards our value of being as inclusive as possible,
we did not want to force people that don’t want to to have to do this or to have to
connect via an entity that can do this. By having a 2-line band plan that doesn’t change
over time people can even hard-code it if they don’t want to deal with all of this
complexity or necessarily rely on someone to do it for them and then form a dependency to
them.
Furthering the analogy, a handheld VHF manufacturer relies on a constant band plan to
allow TX to 144-146 MHz and doesn’t have to build a system for their product to download
this hour’s or this day’s Amateur Radio allocation and change the functionality based on
that. You can also be sure that your local amateur radio repeater won’t be today at 89.7
MHz and your favorite radio station won’t transmit to 145.500 MHz this afternoon.
f) Would proposed resolution #5, if adopted,
direct ARDC to fund
AMAZON's network connectivity ?
[OK, I don't expect an answer, but ask to consider it as an example
that far-reaching proposals must be worded *very* carefully]
That’s an interesting point, and we could look into improving the language, but we
thought that the “TAC-proposed Global PoP Infrastructure” was specific enough to prevent
ambiguity. In any case, I imagine that after we deliver our proposal to the ARDC Staff, it
will be vetted by both them, and the Board, to avoid problems like that. Thanks for
mentioning it though!
I hope this clarifies it enough for everyone, Antonis
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