Hijacking of prefixes - IPv4 class E (was: Announcing 2003::/16 during tests of "shipworm")

[Bob Fink]

Michel,

At 01:47 PM 12/8/2001 -0800, Michel Py wrote:
>6bone folk,
>
>In IPv4, there is something called class E (first bits 1111, 240 to 255)
>that is "Experimental ".
>
>The 6bone, IMHO, is not big enough in some experimental situations.
>There will be a few protocols (think about 6to4) that need the full 32
>bits between the TLA and the SLA, which means they would need a /16 to
>test.
>
>Maybe it would be a good idea to create IPv6 "Experimental prefixes",
>allocate to it a handful of IPv6 /16 prefixes, well know to host wild
>experiments, that everybody could choose to filter or not.

The 6bone only has control over the 3FFE::/16 prefix by direct allocation 
of the IANA per RFC2471.

My take is that, at this stage, it would take a very compelling technical 
reason to allocate a further /16 for testing purposes, as well as a very 
strong show of community support to do so. Neither of which is yet obvious.

If, over time, it becomes obvious that there is need and support, we can 
bring it to ngtrans for further evaluation. Meanwhile, I would wait and see 
what happens to the idea on the 6bone mail list.


Thanks,

Bob