Please help spread the word!

My colleague, Josh King, and I have been working since 2005 to get IPv6 (Internet addresses) for community networks and everything may come down to the next few weeks. We're asking ARIN to create a process for allocating address space to local broadband networks and could use your support for this proposal. A brief e-mail to the ARIN list is all that's needed. It will take you 1-2 minutes and could help establish a policy that has wide-spread (though little-appreciated) ramifications for the future of community broadband networking. More information is below -- please take 120 seconds to draft an e-mail of support for this proposal.

Thanks,

--Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [CWN-Summit] 2008-3 Needs Your Support!
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:21:29 -0500
From: Joshua King

Greetings,

For quite a while now, Acorn Active Media Foundation has been pursuing a IPv6 addressing policy change at the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN). This policy proposal (numbered 2008-3) is to establish Community Networks as entities which can receive IPv6 address allocations. This policy was pursued for a few reasons:

1. To establish a niche for Community Networks to apply. When Acorn initially applied for an allocation, they didn't know what to do with us. It can be difficult for a disaggregated network to demonstrate the necessary subscribers to qualify as LIR (a Local Internet Registry, usually an ISP).

2. To allow Community Networks to future-proof their networks. Not many upstream providers currently support IPv6.

3. To simplify network architecture. IPv6 mitigates the need for NAT or even DHCP, and can support large single-subnet clouds without collision.

4. For Community Networks to experiment with unique mobile addressing between networks.

5. To try and establish lower fees. Although the policy manual can't contain anything about fees (fees are decided by a separate process), this gives something for the reduced fees to be applied to.

And last and I think most importantly:

6. This policy bucks the trend of just large ISPs having address allocations. There isn't any reason that there shouldn't be an allocation available for community networks, because IPv6 addresses are plentiful. This is the stage where, if we don't want the IPv4 situation of a few large institutions having most of the address space, we should carve out a niche for Community Networks to have their own spot on the Internet.

So if you think this is a good idea, please send a message to the ARIN Policy Proposal Mailinglist voicing your support. The proposal has gone into an comment period before it is decided on by the ARIN Advisory Committee in a couple weeks, so this is the time for the people in ARIN to be reassured that there are actual Community Networks out there who think this is a good idea. It's a small step, but may be a useful one for the greater community of Community Networks. Please forward this message on to anyone you think might be interested. Time is of the essence!

ARIN PPML Contact Address: arin-ppml@arin.net

PPML Archives: http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml

Full text and process background of 2008-3: https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2008_3.html

Mike Leber over at Hurricane Electric put out a reminder that some estimates are now putting IPv4 number exhaustion at less than 1000 days out.

Having raised this issue with folks here in DC quite a bit, I've been intrigued by the lack of regard with which this problem has been met. In fact, it seems like few folks want to really address the issue, even though it's a problem that's certain to only grow in complexity and dysfunction as we near exhaustion.

Having just attended the most recent ARIN meeting in Denver, CO, I know that the scientific, research, and general IP communities have been ringing the klaxon for awhile now. Impressive amounts of information on the impending IPv4 exhaustion are readily available, and there's even some of us inside the beltway who are available resources to talk with anyone who'd be interested in addressing the problem (so do give a call).

What's worse, IPv6, while the only solution available, has its own scalability problems.

All I'm saying is, when this becomes "the big story" -- remember, lots of us have been working to proactively address the problem for years. We certainly can't say we didn't see this coming.