On 30 Jul 2021, at 14:29, Charlie Smurthwaite via 44Net 44net@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