Tim Hartrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
|>
|> In order for Brian's argument to be correct in practice, then, I think we
|> need (in addition to painless renumbering) a reasonable number (say, > 5)
|> or truly independent ISPs competing for the business of the end user in
|> question. I just don't see this happening for the majority of users any
|> time soon.
|>
|
|I don't disagree with your analysis, but I think that you would agree that
|there is nothing that we can put in the protocols that is going to break-up
|a telco oligopoly.
Actually, I'm not sure I do agree. I can imagine address allocation and
routing protocols which would vest far less power in the existing oligopoly,
thus promoting true competition.
|The best we can do is design tools that, when applied
|to a competitive environment, will yield the desired results.
Designing tools that yield the desired results only when applied to a
competitive environment (assuming there is no valid technical reason
for the limitation) is at best bad engineering. Doing so when there
is good evidence that the competitive environment will not exist begins
to look disingenuous.
|The desired
|results in this case would be an end to the proliferation of NATs.
Provided we maintain the functionality. Buggering applications to make
NAT impossible in order to force users to pay ISPs for more global addresses
is not an acceptable approach.
|Ensuring
|the competitive environment is definately out of scope for the IETF. That
|doesn't mean we have to completely ignore market realities when designing
|the tools.
It is a difficult line to tread. However, as long as anyone is suggesting
that we must avoid doing things which would work around the ISPs' "desires"
I think it is also valid to talk about the end users' requirements...
Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com
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