[44net] Future of AMPRNet Should NOT BE AMPRNet

This is not a direct reaction to the TAC proposal, but something that's been on my mind in watching the discussion about the TAC proposal unfold on the 44Net mailing list - specifically around what the "goals" should be of... AMPRNet... ARDC... something else? This community needs to be looking to the future and not the past. The 44Net AMPR "network" is part of the past. It's a key resource, and currently, an exceptionally valuable one based on the current market for large contiguous IPv4 address blocks. Personally, I think selling off part of that IP range was a great move to fund the future. But I think that the future needs to be talked about beyond a reallocating of existing 44Net space and/or how people interact with it (e.g. the apparently now-defunct 44NGN project). The future of Amateur Radio needs to be in modern technologies and for this community that means IPv6 networks. Specifically, the goal for the future of ARDC/AMPRNet should be that AMPRNet as it exists today is just not that important anymore 5-10 years down the road, and hopefully closer to five. IPv6 has been hyped for decades now and if you've worked in and around networking, IPv6 is "just around the corner" according to the media and industry rags. But what many don't realize is that IPv6 is already here and has been for a long time. For example, Google already sees 35% of its worldwide traffic access using IPv6. The US-based adoption rate is 48%. Japan is 42%. Germany is 52%. India is 61%. My local club sites and personal websites see on average about half of all real connections using IPv6. Mobile phone networks are almost exclusively Carrier Grade NAT for legacy IPv4 + global IPv6 with the IPv6 traffic preferred. I'm sure the other large providers such as Microsoft would see something similar if they published such statistics. Major ISPs here in the US have handed out /64 and /56 IPv6 address blocks to properly configured/enabled equipment by default for at least five years. My point here is that while many pundits keep talking about an IPv6 "cliff event", the adoption of IPv6 was only going to be an over-time uptake and it's been going on in the background for years. IPv6 is very much here, has been for awhile now, and is of paramount importance to emerging countries in regions like APNIC and AFRINIC that don't have massive holdings of legacy IPv4 space like ARIN and RIPE regions do. 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. 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. 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. 1. Work with countries/regions/communities on their radio-based networks. Encourage and support the adoption of IPv6 addressing across these networks including making equipment recommendations, sample configurations, case studies, etc. 1. Help hams understand different protocols that are essential to operation of IPv6 networks. This includes things like SLAAC, DHCPv6, Route Advertisements, Neighbor Discovery, and basic dynamic routing protocols (static routes are wholly impractical in IPv6 networks). 1. ARDC should consider standardized IPv6 capability an essential component of any grant of funds for a project when a project has a networking component. 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. Heading outside now to dig out a bunker.... Jason N8EI [1] https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Internet_registry#Local_Internet_reg… [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_local_address