On 30 Jul 2021, at 14:29, Charlie Smurthwaite via
44Net <44net(a)mailman.ampr.org> wrote:
Apologies for more email, but I would just like to throw in my own (very simple) personal
opinion on this topic. I strongly believe that the correct solution is to divide up the IP
address space geographically (ie by country), and then simply give out allocations,
regardless of purpose, as is the case already both with 44net and the rest of the IP
address space.
This gives people the flexibility to use the IP addresses in whatever way they see fit,
whether that be a well known radio protocol, an experimental radio protocol, a tunnel, an
experimental wired protocol, or just Amateur radio related services on the public
Internet.
Let the users, who are technologists after all, work out how to route traffic based on
their own needs. Any attempt to artificially carve up the address space by purpose will
only further confuse matters. There isn't a single unified 44 network, and not
everyone who runs by RF necessarily wants to be connected to or disconnected from any
other network, including the Internet.
Charlie
This is something similar to what we have now, only that some country users were not
satisfied with how their country’s IP space is managed, or their local coordinator, etc.
and they decided to get addresses outside of their country’s space. So this has already
created some fragmentation.
There are countries in which the coordinator is just giving users allocations and there
are countries that force people to follow a specific method or network and they cannot use
their country’s allocation with the way they prefer.
Moreover, I’m told that the State and Country model that is currently used came from back
when there was a single packet network and geography played a much more important role
into routing and the equipment capabilities were far more limited. So just because we
stuck to that for a few decades, does not mean that it continues to serve us today. Things
constantly change, and it’s always good to hang on to the past too much. Something a fresh
new look is required.
Finally, for all the other reasons why such a split makes sense (over a country-based one
like now) have been discussed in length in my previous e-mail and there is no point in
repeating them.
Thanks,
Antonis