I’m a Team ARIN guest blogger! =)

My guest post is on BCOP and talks about the origins, the goals, and how you can get involved. BCOP stands for Best Current Operational Practice and the primary goal of the BCOP project is to create “a living library for network engineers by network engineers.” As I state in the post:

The premise is simple; virtually all network-engineering tasks have been performed and perfected by someone, but those practices also change over time as more experience is gained and new tools become available.

Interested? Check out my guest post, and then get involved in the BCOP effort!

Also, don’t forget that you too can become a Team ARIN guest blogger, all the info to get started is on their site and ARIN staff is a pleasure to work with. Give it a shot – what have you got to lose?

Team ARIN Guest Blog on BCOP is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

OK, I’m slacking this time – we are already a whole month into the second quarter and I already spoke at a major event in that month. I even already posted the slides from one of my talks at that event. Oh well, nobody’s perfect right?

For posterity’s sake, I’m going to list everything for the second quarter of 2012, even though I missed some of it by posting late…

2012 North American IPv6 Summit

• 9-11 April 2012
• Denver, Colorado
• I co-taught the intro to IPv6 tutorial on day one, moderated the World IPv6 Launch 2012 panel on day two, and presented on CGN the final day

ARIN XXIX

• 22-25 April 2012
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• I was forced to participate remotely for this one :/

Interop

• 6-10 May 2012
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• While I won’t have a spot at any podiums for this event; I will be manning the ARIN booth much of the time answering questions and speaking with whoever passes by

Incognito Community Exchange

• 26-28 June 2012
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• I will be part of the “IPv6 State of the Union” panel session

As always, if you’ll be at one of these events please feel free to let me know – perhaps we can grab a hallway chat, a drink, or even a meal. =)

Speaking Engagements and More – 2Q12 is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

The 2012 North American IPv6 Summit has come and gone but requests for my slides from the third day continue to roll in. So I’ve decided, as I often do, to post them up here. My talk “Carrier Grade NAT – Observations and Recommendations” was given as part of the “IPv6 Transition and IPv6 in the Home” Track on day 3 of the Summit. In it, I cover as much of our work here at CableLabs around CGN/LSN that I could squeeze into 45 minutes. I start with a brief overview of what NAT and CGN/LSN are and how they work. Then I report on the testing that CableLabs has conducted on CGN/LSN over the past two plus years, and on the challenges we’ve discovered. Next I cover many of the workarounds, mitigations and potential solutions to those challenges, including some novel ideas invented at CableLabs. I wrapped up my talk with some conclusions and parting recommendations. Enough of me yammering though – the slides should give you a decent understanding of what I presented:

A few things before I let you go:

First, slides 7 and 8 rely heavily on animation to describe the workings of a NAT444 and a DS-Lite deployment respectively. To make that a little clearer without the animations, here are the two graphics rebuilt for static viewing:

Second, if you’d like the rest of the story on CGN (all the details not in the slides), give me a shout – perhaps I can come give this talk at your event as well. This of course goes for any of the talks you may have seen me give and slides I may have posted.

Finally, as always, your comments, questions, suggestions, and other feedback is very welcome. Did I get something wrong? Miss something? Bore you? Blow your mind? Let me know!

CGN :: Observations & Recommendations is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

One of my favorite ways to spark creativity is through exploration. Exploring exposes you to new things. New things are inspiring.

While exploring you might stumble across a new way of doing something, a new thing to do, or something more subtle.

Sometimes you uncover a bit of information that clicks with things you’ve been thinking about and completes (or helps to complete) the picture you’ve been developing in your mind. Other times you may discover a tool, a process or an approach that others are using which is unrelated to you but is still inspiring in its ingenuity. If they can do that, I can certainly do my thing!

OK, so exploration can fuel our creativity, but what does “exploration” really mean?

Well, according to Wikipedia:

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain (including space, see space exploration) for the purpose of discovery of resources or information.

Dictionary.com gives the following definitions:

1. an act or instance of exploring or investigating; examination.

2. the investigation of unknown regions.

And now that we’ve agreed on a definition, we can explore some different methods of exploration. =)

Urban Exploration

Go into your city (your city is the one you live in, or the nearest one to where you live) and spend a day walking the streets. Visit local, independent shops. Vintage and secondhand clothing stores, antique shops, craft shops, toy stores, flea markets, museums, and art galleries are great places to seek out. Find new parks, beaches, monuments, and other gathering areas. Talk to the people you meet – strike up conversations with everyone!

Sometimes it helps to have a goal, or set of goals, to provide some structure to your creative wanderings. You could set out to find at least 6 new art galleries (without the aid of GPS or maps), to explore 2 new museums, or to speak with at least a dozen shop owners whom you’ve never met before.

One of my favorite structured creative explorations is photographic scavenger hunts. These can take many forms. You can create and execute one completely on your own or you can share the experience with a friend or a group. When including others, you can all work together or make it a competition. The hunt itself can be as mild or wild as your imagination allows. You could have a list of different objects to photograph (very specific lists and very vague lists both spark creativity in their own ways) or shoot for the most pictures of a single type (most street signs, most houses with turrets, most graffiti, most bicycles, most gargoyles, most people, etc.). There are plenty of other ways to play this type of exploration scavenger hunt – get creative!

Another great way to see new parts of your city is with a random bus or train ride. Get on a bus or train you’ve never ridden before and find out where it goes (don’t cheat, just look out the window). If you see something interesting – jump off and check it out, talk to some folks, then get on another bus/train and travel some more.

Many cities have self-guided historical tours which can often be another great way to experience your city in new ways.

Of course this doesn’t have to be your own city. Try exploring a new city as often as you can. This often steps up the amount of new information you can glean, especially when the new city is also in a new region, country, or continent!

Rural Exploration

Another simple form of physical exploration is to investigate the countryside outside of your city (or the city you happen to be in). Often a bicycle is more efficient than walking due to the distances that are often involved, but either one works. While walking or riding through the countryside, you can use many of the same tools that you used for exploring your city. Talk to everyone you meet! Seek out yard or, even better, barn sales. Check out some farm equipment. Discover a country shop (of any type). And of course, take lot’s of pictures! Scavenger hunts, hitchhiking, and road trips all make fun ways to explore the rural areas of this planet. Get out there!

Online Exploration

We are no longer constrained to the physical realm for our explorations. Thanks to the Internet and the World Wide Web, there are vast tracks to be explored without ever leaving our homes. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) allows the linking of data in ways and on a scale that scientists could have only dreamed about 25 years ago, and the web continues to grow. So take advantage of it! Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Type random words into a web search, explore the links
• Type random words into an image search, explore the sites hosting the resulting pictures
• “Stalk” a friend’s social profile (pictures, likes, updates, etc.), explore the things they’re into that you weren’t aware of
• Search Twitter for random or meaningful hashtags, explore the people and the links
• Play with StumbleUpon, explore the web with other users as your guide
• Find new or new-to-you applications and explore the web in new ways, with new tools

Other Explorations

Obviously this post is barely scratching the surface of possibilities for creative exploration. Exploration is a category of action as vast as creativity itself. My hope here is not to create an exhaustive record of ways to explore creatively. Rather, I seek to make the case for exploration as a creativity sparker, and to provide some examples and starting points for your own creative exploration.

With that in mind, I leave you with this list of a few more areas for creative exploration:

• Musical Exploration: New music is new information and can be just as inspiring as seeing a new painting or a new business. A bonus is that exploring new music is pretty easy these days. With all the online tools for finding and hearing new music, I sometimes wonder how I ever lived with just the am/fm radio. Then I remember that I never really did – I used to buy albums in physical format. And you know what? Exploring an independent music store is still a great way to find new and new-to-you music. When I can’t make it to the store, my online favorites at the moment are: Hype Machine, Pandora, Pitchfork, and Spotify. Where do you find new music?
• Exploring Human Knowledge: It sounds very lofty, and it is, but it’s not as complicated as you might think. Learn something new. Yep, that’s it. Learn a new language. Learn a (new) programming language. Go hear a speaker talk about a topic you know nothing about. Take a class. Attend a workshop. Learn to tie 10 different knots. The sky’s the limit here – knowledge is out there, waiting for you to explore it!
• Explore Your Mind: This is another one that often sounds harder than it is. Start with daydreaming. Try meditation. Think about thinking. What makes you tick? What are your hopes? Dreams? Fears? What do you do well? What could you do better? Start practicing observing yourself – you’ll learn a lot, I promise.

That’s all folks. There’s nothing left but for you to set out on your own creative explorations! I’d love to hear all about them; drop me a line sometime.

(Photo Credit)

Creative Exploration is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

On Monday I covered all of the policies that have been implemented so far this year in part 1 of this update. Today I’ll give you some info on the draft policies that are still active; the policy changes that will be discussed at ARIN XXIX in Vancouver, British Columbia 22-25 April 2012.

Before diving in I want to remind you all again that, if you have not already done so, now is the time to register for this Public Policy Meeting (PPM). Don’t let the future pass you by when all you have to do is speak up to be heard.

Draft Policies

The following draft policies are currently on the AC’s docket and will be discussed at ARIN XXIX in Vancouver. Let’s make some sausage!

ARIN-2011-1: ARIN Inter-RIR Transfers

This draft policy seeks to replace NRPM section 8.3 Transfers to Specified Recipients with language that allows the transfer of IPv4 addresses between organizations in different regions (i.e. served by different RIRs). Currently, specified transfers can only take place between two organizations in the same RIR service region.

This policy change was actually recommended for adoption by the AC following the previous PPM in Philadelphia last October. Because of some confusion and complaints primarily regarding textual changes by the AC after the community discussion at ARIN XXVIII, and due to some concerns regarding the need for further safeguards in the policy, the Board has requested further discussion at ARIN XXIX.

There are two factors of interest here. One is that while the Board did not adopt the policy, they did direct the President to “immediately start implementation of this policy in parallel, with final policy availability held until otherwise directed by the Board.” In other words, this policy change will be teed up and ready to implement immediately following the discussion in Vancouver, should that be what the community decides.

The second thing worth noting here is that in response to the ongoing and current concerns about specified transfer policy safeguards, new policy language for NRPM section 8.3 has been proposed. This newer proposal is contained in draft policy ARIN-2012-1 (below) and covers both inter and intra regional specified transfers. This means that there is now a slightly more complicated decision to be made. Instead of a binary, yes or no to ARIN-2011-1, we now have a third option to consider.

ARIN-2011-5: Shared Transition Space for IPv4 Address Extension

With the adoption of RFC-weil-shared-transition-space-request-15 (currently in the RFC Editor Queue), and the subsequent reservation of 100.64.0.0/10 as Shared Transition Space, this policy is no longer needed and will likely be abandoned by the AC at our next meeting.

ARIN-2011-7: Compliance Requirement

This policy seeks to strengthen ARINs ability to enforce compliance with addressing policy, particularly WHOIS information requirements and also provide some additional checks on ARINs power in these proceedings. It was discussed in Philly at ARIN XXVIII but failed to gain consensus. A strong majority of the community did express interest in continuing to pursue the idea however so it will be discussed again at ARIN XXIX.

An interesting dynamic to this policy change is that most of the objections raised have actually been to current policy language, rather than to the actual changes being proposed. A careful analysis of the current policy text and the new policy text is required to fully understand what is and is not changing in this case. As the primary shepherd on this draft policy, I have revised and re-written the text several times in response to community feedback, most recently in February 2012, when I posted the current (fifth) revision. I hope that this newest text provides more clarity and also addresses all legitimate concerns raised.

The key changes are threefold:

• Adds “update reassignment information” as a requirement when an organization is out of compliance with ARIN policy. This is in addition to the current requirement to return resources. If an organization is efficiently utilizing their number resources but have failed to make the proper WHOIS entries, they should be required to make the entries, not return the resources.
• Adds “cease providing reverse DNS services” as an enforcement mechanism available to ARIN staff. This provides a means to attempt to grab the non-compliant organization’s attention before resource revocation is required.
• Adds a 90 day minimum timer before resource revocation can be initiated.

There is also some general language clean-up included, much of which was recommended by ARINs legal counsel.

ARIN-2012-1: Clarifying requirements for IPv4 transfers

As mentioned above, this draft policy seeks to rewrite the specified transfer policy in order to provide additional checks and balances into the process of paid transfers. The policy would place the following conditions on the source of a specified transfer:

• The source entity must be the current registered holder of the IPv4 address resources, and not be involved in any dispute as to the status of those resources.
• The source entity will be ineligible to receive any further IPv4 address allocations or assignments from ARIN for a period of 12 months after a transfer approval, or until the exhaustion of ARIN’s IPv4 space, whichever occurs first.
• The source entity must not have received a transfer, allocation, or assignment of IPv4 number resources from ARIN for the 12 months prior to the approval of a transfer request. This restriction does not include M&A transfers.
• The minimum transfer size is a /24

It would also place the following conditions on specified transfer recipients:

• The recipient must demonstrate the need for up to a 24 month supply of IP address resources under current ARIN policies and sign an RSA.
• The resources transferred will be subject to current ARIN policies.

ARIN-2011-1 would also place similar conditions on sources and recipients within the ARIN region when transferring resources into or out of the ARIN service region.

ARIN-2012-2: IPv6 Subsequent Allocations Utilization Requirement

The purpose behind this draft policy is to make it possible for an organization that erroneously requests too little IPv6 space initially to be able to come back to ARIN and get more space when the problem is discovered. In the policy proposers own words (from the original rationale):

If you are executing to a long-term plan, you should be able to continue to execute on your approved allocation and assignment plan regardless of the number of regions/groupings you originally planned for. We want to promote tie downs on nibbles and long-term planning.

This is a noble goal, and one that I support. Unfortunately, the current text is problematic and simply untenable. I have suggested an alternative approach to the policy’s shepherds and I hope that we (the originator, the ARIN community, and the AC) can find a suitable solution to this problem in the near future.

ARIN-2012-3: ASN Transfers

This draft policy reads:

In NRPM 8.3, replace “IPv4 number resources” with “IPv4 number resources and ASNs”.

As you might guess, this change would allow Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) to be transferred between organizations at will, under similar conditions as IPv4 addresses.

We should weigh the necessity for such a policy against the known and as of yet unknown dangers associated with the paid transfer of Internet number resources. Is there enough need for the transfer of ASNs to mitigate the risks involved? If you believe that there is, you should support this policy (and I’d love to hear about that need). If you don’t, you should oppose this policy, at least until such time as we better understand the full impact of specified transfers.

ARIN-2012-4: Return to 12 Month Supply and Reset Trigger to /8 in Free Pool

OK, first a bit of history on this one. Previously, organizations who had been ISPs in the ARIN region for more than one year could request up to one years worth of IPv4 addresses. As the world neared IANA IPv4 free pool exhaustion, the ARIN community adopted a policy which changed that from 12 month windows to 3 month windows effective on the date of ARIN receiving its last /8 from the IANA. In other words, once IANA handed out its last five /8s to the five RIRs, ISPs in the ARIN region had their maximum allocation cut to %25 of what it had been the day before.

The reason for this was an attempt to make IPv4 run-out in the ARIN region more fair. There is a large disparity between the largest and smallest service providers in our region. This leads to a large disparity in address consumption. There was a fear that with the 12 month justification window, a large ISP could come in and potentially take the entire remaining IPv4 free pool. The 3 month justification window helps mitigate that threat by forcing every ISP to take smaller bites and thus even out the consumption disparity a bit, allowing smaller ISPs a better chance to run out of IPv4 at about the same time as larger ISPs.

So far, this seems to be working – perhaps too well. IPv4 address consumption in the ARIN region has slowed considerably since the implementation of this policy in February 2011. This, coupled with the growing disparity between the specified transfer justification window (free pool = 3 months / transfer = 24 months) led to ARIN-2012-4.

This draft policy therefor seeks to re-set the justification window on ARIN free pool allocations to 12 months and then move it back again to 3 months when ARIN reaches its last /8 in inventory.

I have heard two strong sentiments from the ARIN community during (and previous to) my tenure as an AC member:

1. Predictability as IPv4 free pools exhaust must be a primary policy goal. Folks don’t want to have to plan for constantly shifting policy in addition to the already uncertain timeline and consequences of IPv4 run out.
2. Stop mucking with IPv4 policy. The Internet Protocol is dead, long live the Internet Protocol! IPv4 is moving steadily into legacy protocol status, IPv6 is obviously the next generation Internet protocol; it’s time to leave IPv4 be and focus on the future.

With those recurring themes in mind, I have a hard time justifying the request to undo the already executed change from a 12 month window to the current three-month window by moving back to a 12 month window… Only to once again shift back to three months at some point in the next 12-18 months (perhaps much sooner with a 12 month justification).

Miscellaneous

A couple parting shots:

First, some of you may remember that there is a global policy currently in flight. ARIN-2011-9, otherwise known as GPP-IPv4-2011, is a global policy which provides a mechanism for the IANA to receive and allocate IPv4 addresses to and from the RIRs post free pool exhaustion (aka: now). This is needed because upon reaching the final five /8s, the IANA entered the “exhaustion phase” which does not allow for any further allocation of IPv4 addresses. Since all five RIRs have adopted the policy, it is now in ICANN and, more specifically, the IANAs court. Louie Lee summed up the current status on 15 March 2012:

On behalf of the ICANN ASO Address Council and the global IP addressing community, I have forwarded the global policy proposal GPP-IPv4-2011 (also known as ARIN-2011-9 in the ARIN region) onto the ICANN Board of Directors for review and ratification.  The ICANN Board’s Review Procedures for such global policy proposals require a 21-day comment period.  ICANN has acknowledged receipt of this global policy proposal from the ASO AC and began a public comment period which will end on April 4, 2012.

The ASO Address Council expects ratification by the ICANN Board within 60 days.  Please stay tuned for further updates.

I will of course let you know when the ICANN board makes their decision.

Finally, for those of you who are not familiar (and even those that are), it’s a great idea to review and understand the process for creating policy change int eh ARIN region. The ARIN Policy Development Process (PDP) is available at: https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html.

Cheers!

ARIN Update APR-2012 – Draft Policies is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

Calling all Internet policy wonks; it’s time for another ARIN Public Policy Meeting (PPM)!

ARIN XXIX (the 29th ARIN PPM) will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, 22-25 April 2012. Registration is still open and while it may be a little late to show up in person, ARIN’s remote participation is pretty fantastic (and totally free). So if you are interested in the future of Internet number policy at all, there really is no excuse for you not to take part. Like at all RIR meetings, important decisions which affect the way the Internet works will be made in Vancouver. If you’re not there (physically or remotely) to influence those decisions and have your voice heard, you have no one to blame but your self.

For those of you who will be there but have not been able to keep up with the discussion since my last ARIN update, I’ve put together a quick look at what’s what going into ARIN XXIX. Because it ended up being quite long winded, I have split this update into two parts. Part 1, here, is an update on policy changes that are no longer under discussion, because they have been adopted by the ARIN Board and implemented by ARIN staff. While these policies will not be discussed at ARIN XXIX, they are important to understand for two reasons. First, they have altered the ARIN Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM) which may affect your next interaction with ARIN. Second, they provide some background and history on the current policy debates. You may be able to glean a sense of where the ARIN community’s focus is (or at least has most recently been) by understanding the policy changes which have made it through to adoption following the previous PPM.

Part 2 of this update covers the draft policies that will be discussed in Vancouver, as well as all miscellaneous information that may help you prepare for ARIN XXIX.

Enjoy!

Policies Implemented

There have been two new versions of the NRPM published this year (2012.1 in Jan and 2012.2 in Feb). Between the two updates, five policies have been fully implemented.

NRPM version 2012.1 (published 30 January 2012) contained the implementation of three new policies:

ARIN-2011-3: Better IPv6 Allocations for ISPs

This policy was previously “partially implemented” by ARIN staff and as such, I previously opined about it:

At it’s most basic; this policy allows for ISPs to follow the Best Current Operational Practices (BCOP) for IPv6 subnetting, namely to allow one-dip (or close to it), uniform subnetting. By “one-dip” I mean getting enough IPv6 space up front for long-term growth. This eliminates the need for ISPs to continually come back to ARIN for more addresses, which results in less required disaggregation of the address space. This is a new concept allowed by IPv6′s vastly larger address space. By uniform I mean a hierarchical addressing architecture in which each tier uses the same size subnets. This improves operational clarity (especially when used with nibble boundaries) and the ability to aggregate internal IPv6 routes. Here again this is a paradigm shift from IPv4 address planning – which is why this policy was needed; to bring ARIN policy in line with operational experiences.

According to ARIN; “2011-3 is now fully implemented to allow larger allocations in accordance with the policy.” That’s great news for all of us!

ARIN-2011-8: Combined M&A and Specified Transfers

This policy statement is fairly short, simple and straightforward – just the way we like ‘em. It reads, in full:

To section 8.2 change “… ARIN will work with the resource holder(s) to return, aggregate, or reclaim resources as appropriate via the processes outlined in current ARIN policy (for example, sections 4.6, 4.7, or 12 of the NRPM).” to “…ARIN will work with the resource holder(s) to return, aggregate, transfer, or reclaim resources as needed to restore compliance via the processes outlined in current ARIN policy.”

This means that now, when there is a merger or acquisition and the resulting combined organization can no longer justify all of their number resources, they have the option to transfer those resources to another organization. This allows the merged organization to monetize their excess resource holdings, rather than return them to ARIN directly (and without compensation).

Regardless of people’s individual opinions on specified resource transfers, this was widely held as a good change primarily because it cleared up what was effectively a sequencing problem in the previous policy. The old policy language made it possible to transfer number resources to a specified recipient before an M&A transfer, but not after. This was seen as a fairly clear injustice (it would suck for an organization and ARIN to both end up with their hands tied on a technicality) and I think we’re better off having rectified it.

ARIN-2011-10: Remove Single Aggregate requirement from Specified Transfer

This is another short and sweet piece of policy intended to clean up the transfers section of the NRPM:

Modify Section 8.3 as follows: Change “can demonstrate the need for such resources, as a single aggregate, in the exact amount which they can justify under current ARIN policies” to “can demonstrate the need for such resources in the amount which they can justify under current ARIN policies”

The history here is that ARIN staff’s interpretation of the original policy language did not match many community members expectations regarding that same language. Those folks believed that the single aggregate statement should apply to the actual block transferred (that only transfers of a single prefix should be allowed) while ARIN staff took the original language to mean that the single aggregate applied to the justification, not to the block transferred (that one or more address blocks could be transferred, as long as the blocks transferred added up to the same or less addresses as contained in the largest single prefix the receiving organization could justify).

This policy change was therefore a no-op in that it did not change the implementation of the original policy. Instead, it brought the language of the NRPM into more clear alignment with the previous/current implementation.

NRPM version 2012.2 (effective 10 February 2012) is the current version of the NRPM and it contains the implementation of two new policies:

ARIN-2011-11: Clarify Justified Need for Transfers

This policy statement reads:

Add to Section 8.3:

“…they can justify under current ARIN policies
showing how the addresses will be utilized within 12 months.”

Remove from 4.2.4.4:

“This reduction does not apply to resources
received via section 8.3. An organization receiving a transfer under
section 8.3 may continue to request up to a 12-month supply of IP
addresses.”

By moving the location of the 12 month justification rule, this policy effectively removed slow-start for specified transfer recipients. Slow start is the name given to ARIN’s process of vetting new resource holders. Traditionally, when a brand new organization shows up asking ARIN for resources, they are given a very small amount and told to come back for more only when they have efficiently utilized those resources. This gave ARIN a chance to validate the claims of the new organization, to build a relationship and a record of trust.

This policy change removed that buffer and now (in combination with the below ARIN-2011-12 policy change) brand new, never before seen organizations can show up and request a full 2 year supply of IPv4 addresses via specified transfer. I think this was a mistake and worse, that many of the folks who supported the change are still not fully aware of the potential ramifications.

ARIN-2011-12: Set Transfer Need to 24 months

If ARIN-prop-146 passes, also modify “will be utilized within 12 months” to “will be utilized within 24 months”

First off, the whole “if X than Y” binding of policy proposals is unnecessary and unwise. Both the ARIN AC and ARIN staff are fully capable of merging policy changes when needed. Doing so ahead of the fact simply causes confusion. If policy proposals like this are submitted in the future, I will fight even harder to clean that type of language up before accepting them onto the AC docket.

Ranting aside, this policy (fairly obviously I assume) changed the 12-month specified transfer justification requirement to a more generous 24-month justification. That means that now organizations who will receive addresses in a specified transfer are allowed to accept twice as many addresses as they could previously.

FYI – ARIN has posted full Transfer Guidelines at: https://www.arin.net/resources/request/transfers.html

Be sure to check out part 2 of this update as well, which covers all of the draft policies going into ARIN XXIX!

ARIN Update APR-2012 – Policies Implemented is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

I am super excited to tell you about the upcoming North American IPv6 Summit!

It will be held 9-11 April 2012 at the Grand Hyatt in beautiful Denver, Colorado.

To register, click right here: 2012 IPv6 Summit Registration Site.

Why so excited?

I have been attending the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit – put on by the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force (RMv6TF) – since they started four years ago in 2008. So after already attending 4 of these events, how can I be so excited about the 5th?

First, and most obvious, is the name. This year’s summit is the North American (not Rocky Mountain) IPv6 Summit. More than just a moniker, this change signifies that all the other North American Regional IPv6 Task Forces have chosen to support and help organize this Denver event. This includes Texas, California, Northwest, Southeast, Hawaii, Mid Atlantic, Canada and Mexico! Very cool. What hasn’t changed is that this years summit will again be the largest IPv6 event in North America and it will be even bigger than last year with a long line up of fantastic speakers and over 500 IPv6 networking professionals in attendance.

Another thing that has not changed but that still gets me excited is that the Colorado Chapter of the Internet Society (CO ISOC) is once again sponsoring the event.

The timing of this years event is pretty exciting too, just two months before World IPv6 Launch on 6 June! This could be your last chance to get up to speed on IPv6 before the big day.

The North American IPv6 Summit and Me

On a more personal level, I will be more involved in the event this year then ever before. In November of last year I joined the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force’s Steering Committee and have since been helping as much as I can with the event’s organization.

In addition to lending my voice behind the scenes, I will also be taking the stage a bit more than last year. It starts on Monday (9 April) when Chris Tuska and I will teach the Introduction to IPv6 Tutorial. Then, on Tuesday (10 April), I will be moderating an all-star panel on World IPv6 Launch including Lee Howard from Time Warner Cable, Richard Jimmerson from ISOC, Tony Lam from Yahoo!, and Tim Winters from UNH-IOL. Exciting stuff!

But wait, there’s more!

I will also be rounding out my participation in the event by speaking on Wednesday (11 April) about Carrier Grade NAT (CGN), reporting on observations from the testing completed at CableLabs over the past 2 years as well as providing some implementation ideas and recommendations.

BONUS!

Just for reading this post, here’s $50!

Because CO ISOC is sponsoring the event, we have a discount code for $50 off registration! The $50 is off the 2-day conference, April 10-11, 2012. It does not qualify for the optional IPv6 training classes offered on April 9, 2012. Just use the following code when checking out: SPON900.

Use the code and go register now: 2012 IPv6 Summit Registration Site. You’ll be glad you did!

2012 North American IPv6 Summit is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

At long last, there is a shared transition space available for all who need it: 100.64.0.0/10

The whois comments provide a brief explanation of this new block:

This block is used as Shared Address Space. [...]

Shared Address Space can only be used in Service Provider networks or on routing equipment that is able to do address translation across router the interfaces when addresses are identical on two different interfaces

This block was assigned by the IETF in the Best Current Practice document, RFC-weil-shared-transition-space-request-15 which can be found at: http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-weil-shared-transition-space-request/

Shared transition space is meant to be used primarily in the middle layer of a service provider’s NAT444 deployment. In the illustration below, the green ‘IPv4 Internet’ uses globally unique “public” IPv4 addresses, the orange-ish ‘Customer Network’ on the bottom uses RFC1918 “private” IPv4 addresses, and the blue ‘ISP Network’ in the middle is where these new, shared transition (100.64.0.0/10), IPv4 addresses should be used. Global IPv6 addresses should be used throughout.

For more information on the history and on the need and use-cases for this shared transition space, see draft-bdgks:

Abstract
This memo discusses the applicability of a Shared Transition Space, an IPv4 prefix designated for local use within service provider networks during the period of IPv6 transition. This address space has been proposed at various times in the IETF, and more recently come to consensus within the ARIN policy development community where it was recommended for adoption as Draft Policy 2011-5.

To all who fought the good fight and prevailed: Kudos and Congratulations! Although it did not come easy, the Internet will now be allowed to run a bit smoother through this protocol transition (even if I do say so myself).

100.64.0.0/10 – Shared Transition Space is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

This is a horror story. Lucky for you, it comes with a happy ending.

I gave a lightning talk on CGN logging at NANOG 54 in San Diego which started with those very words. The abstract lays out the high points:

Per-connection logging is one of the major hurdles when deploying a CGN system in your network. This talk focuses on just how bad it is and on a possible solution that can drastically limit, or even eliminate, CGN logging while still providing traceability for abuse response. Chris will first present data on CGN logging and log volumes from research and lab testing conducted over the past two years at CableLabs and elsewhere. He will then explain a proposed solution: Deterministic CGN. This solution is documented in draft-donley-behave-deterministic-cgn “Deterministic Address Mapping to Reduce Logging in Carrier Grade NAT Deployments.”

Hopefully the slides help fill in the details (if not, feel free to shoot me a question, or an invite to come speak):

I also presented on CGN technology in much more breadth at the 2011 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta, as part of a session on IPv6 Readiness & Transition. If you were at the Expo, look for the paper (titled “The Experience Gap: Coping with the Looming IPv4 Address Shortage“) in your meeting materials!

CGN Logging: Horror Stories and Happy Endings is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.

Just think about it deeply, then forget it…then an idea will jump up in your face.

So said Don Draper in the first season of Mad Men. Those words contain one of the most important (and often hardest to learn) lessons of creativity.

Let Go!

That’s right, one of the most vital skills required to be productively creative is knowing how and when to just let go.

Before I learned this, I used to get discouraged and down on myself quite often when trying to create.

In my current role at CableLabs I am (very) often responsible for creating presentations on a wide variety of topics surrounding the Internet and computer networking. No, this isn’t fine art, but it is a creative endeavor. I approach everything I do as a creative art form. I back my work with hard science, engineering, and research, but I try to think like an artist, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, every day. Constantly in fact.

My process typically looks something like this:

• Brainstorm for content
• Organize for flow
• Research
• Re-organize as needed
• More research
• Create content
• Final clean up

The most frustrating part of this flow used to lie somewhere around the research and the content creation.

Let’s say I sit down on Monday morning with my team to brainstorm. Monday afternoon I crank out a slide template, basically an outline, or a story board, based on our selected brainstorming ideas. Then on Tuesday I stare at the template, dig into the covered topics, stare some more… Wednesday is the same; staring, reading, thinking, trying to put something into the slides but coming up empty. This is where that discouragement, frustration or disappointment starts to kick in. Sometimes its fear: “Oh shit, this presentation is on Friday and I’ve got nothing!” So I give up. Thursday I work on other stuff. Now all of a sudden it’s Friday morning. I have no choice, I must finish the slides – NOW. I open the file… And out pours this stream of genius (if I do say so myself) content! The slides are done in 20 minutes. The team reviews everything, we do final clean up, and the presentation’s a hit.

But I feel like a lazy bastard. In my mind, I did nothing all week and was able to pull together the needed presentation in 20 minutes. If I can do that, imagine how much I could get done if I hadn’t wasted all that time before I did the real work, right?

Wrong.

Fact is, all that research and concentration earlier in the week needed time to gestate in my brain. The only reason I was able to pump a great presentation out in 20 minutes is because of all that prep work – not despite it. This is the secret of letting go.

And it’s true regardless of your chosen creative endeavor. You can’t force creativity. You must do exactly as Don said: Focus. Let go. Create. Then you repeat as needed. It is when you let go, focus your thoughts on something else, that the deeper parts of your brain get their chance to do the hard work for you. Bits of data, fragments of ideas, parts of facts and figures, all coalesce. And when you return to the project, they flow out of you in ways that you could not have consciously conceived. It’s a metamorphosis of sorts. You must feed the caterpillar but you must also let her crawl away and sleep in the cocoon. You must, that is, if you want to discover the butterfly.

Take a break!

I am now conscience of this need to pause and let my brain do it’s thing. I plan for it. I build my daily rituals and my work habits around this simple truth. I make letting go a frequent and regular part of my schedule. One of the best ways to do this is by breaking up your work.

Psychology Today has this to say about taking breaks:

Taking breaks actually enhances the development of strength. Termed hormesis, we find this principle at work in at least two important biological systems. Muscles grow and become stronger in response to stress (that is, working out) as long as the stress is followed by adequate rest. Recently, we’ve learned that neurons become more resistant to diseases like epilepsy, migraines, and even dementia when stressed and then allowed a period of rest. The thing that stresses neurons and thus ultimately leads to their increased hardiness? Thinking.

So there you have it, the brain needs exercise and rest, just like the body.

Right about now you’re probably asking yourself “how often should I take these needed breaks?” Well, bestselling author Tony Schwartz has this to say:

First of all, I would say you want to work in increments of no more than 90 minutes. You don’t have to work 90 minutes.

Why is it magical? Because there is a rhythm in our bodies that operates in 90-minute intervals. That rhythm is the ultradian rhythm, which moves between high arousal and fatigue.

OK, but how to give your brain that break? I find that the best way to refresh myself is with a short burst of physical stimulation. I also try to switch my breaks up a bit so that I’m not always doing the same thing. Here’s a list of ideas for break activities that will take your focus off of the current project, without wasting your whole day:

1. Grab a bite to eat
2. Do some pushups
3. Do some pull-ups
4. Do some sit-ups
5. Do some jumping jacks
6. Jump on a trampoline
7. Walk a slack line
8. Dance!
9. Ride a bike
10. Ride a skateboard
11. Ride a scooter
12. Ride a unicycle
13. Swing (bonus for a tire swing in a tree)
14. Hang upside down
15. Masturbate (not recommended for office workers)
16. Light a fire (safely and in a designated fireplace please – I take no responsibility for your stupidity)
17. Walk away (sometimes you just need to skip out for a while and go do something completely different)

(Photo Credit)

Give Up to Get Creative is a post from don't panic - One Network Architect's View of Life, the Internet, and Everything.