[ih] Some Questions over IPv4 Ownership

[John Day]

>
>Embedding MAC addresses inside IPv6 addresses was one of the dumbest 
>ideas in the history of networking.

Embedding an (N-1)-address in an (N)-address is one of those things 
that sounds right on first blush,but upon closer inspection turns out 
to be a very bad idea.

There was language to that effect in the early versions of the OSI 
Reference Model, e.g. as far back as  N227.  Once we started the work 
on the Naming and Addressing addendum to the Model about 1982 and 
looked at it carefully, we realized our error.  At that point the 
model in the approval process, politics required some slight of hand 
to fix it.

But we have known it is a bad idea for over a quarter century.  It is 
mildly amusing how many professors still propose it.  Tells you how 
carefully they have thought about it.  ;-)  Of cousre, the IPv6 group 
falls in the same category, but then you kind of expect that.

Take care,
John

>
>RB
>
>On 10/14/2010 6:59 PM, John Day wrote:
>>>On 10/14/2010 8:24 PM, John Day wrote:
>>>>Sorry, what was true of telephone numbers?
>>
>>Snip
>>
>>>>>We used to think that was true of telephone numbers.
>>>
>>>("these concepts do not apply to addresses")
>>
>>We already went though this. Although perhaps too indirectly.
>>
>>The cell phone system changed phone numbers from being 
>>physical-connection-endpoint-addresses into application names and 
>>put other addressing schemes underneath the phone numbers so tehy 
>>could route to them and didn't tell anyone.  It became so useful, 
>>that it was decided to make all telephone numbers application names.
>>
>>So what would you like to do?  Make IPv6 addresses application 
>>names? Then what would be put under them to be addresses so we 
>>could route to them?  MAC addresses?   That would be really neat. 
>>Then we could route based on the manufacturer who built the 
>>interface rather than the provider where the interface was.  That 
>>ought to work really well!
>>
>>Take care,
>>John
>
>--
>Richard Bennett