Michel,
My $0.02 about the hash/random/collision issue: It's a non-issue.
I would agree with you, but only if I shared the same view of the GUPI prefix usage. That is, if GUPIs are really used only by explicit administrator action in big corporations, then fine. But unfortunately I don't believe so.
The prefix generation happens only one time for the site. Collisions would not be detected until two sites merge or establish a VPN connection.
Agreed. Though, I can vision dynamic "sites" that are created and dismissed fairly often. OTOH, if we decide to define a GUPI address space, we can formulate the usage guidelines so that they should not be used in such a case, and that a still another type of addresses are needed for such "sites".
The site gets its GUPI /48 prefix once, then the network administrator configures all routers within the site with subnets that fit in that prefix. This could be automated, but the fact of the matter is that there needs to be a router somewhere that seeds this prefix. If what you are talking about is automatic subnet number generation, this would be a zeroconf issue.
Agreed. But I can also see a "semi-automatic" case; a SOHO or non-IT company configuring their network, and pushing a "button" to generate a site prefix for their network. Most probably they would not want to pay the *trouble* of registering their prefix; still the fee might be a non-issue for them. A site note: The reason for the registration fee is to discourage prefix hoarding. The fee can be lower than the trouble needed for registering a single prefix. (When registering multiple prefixes, the trouble for the subsequent prefixes is much lower than in the beginning, since learning is a big part of the initial trouble.)
Besides the fact that making site-locals too easy is bad, I don't see why obtaining the prefix should be generated by a router. It is clear that the first thing the network administrator would do is to write down the /48 s/he will be using, and would be the one requesting the prefix in the first place.
Hmm. I would agree that this is the case today, more or less. But, iff small sites become common, the situation would be different. If I remember correctly, one of the design goals in the whole IPv6 standardization has been minimization of human intervention. That's the reason why we have address autoconfiguration, that's the reason why we have been developing router renumbering etc. Or am I mistaken? Thus, I think that *if* we create these GUPI prefixes, their creation should be semi-automatic. Not fully automatic since they are not always needed. But, sure, we can start with a completely manual process and revise it later, if people feel that there is some danger is such a semi-automatic creation.
Also, whatever the random/hash algorithm is chosen and published, it also is clear that the first thing that the network administrator would do is to go to the web to find if someone has already written an applet that would do the job.
There will be "sites" that do not have Internet access at the time they want to configure their prefix. Either they will hand pick one, most probably causing unnecessary collisions, or the process should be semi-automatic, with built-in assistance in routers or in router configuration software. --Pekka Nikander -------------------------------------------------------------------- IETF IPng Working Group Mailing List IPng Home Page: http://playground.sun.com/ipng FTP archive: ftp://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng Direct all administrative requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------
