On 15/12/2008, at 5:23 PM, Cameron Kerr wrote:
IPv6 supports a much larger pool of addresses, enough to assign an IP address to each grain of sand in a fine layer covering the entire planet.
Does anyone else get really fed up with this analogy? Given that addresses aren't used contiguously its a really pointless thing to say; its more likely to engender thoughts of "why?" rather than "cool, must have". Better, I think, to say things like "IPv6 will enable people to easily create a home network environment with your computers, printers, personal communications devices, home theatre etc. [ie. auto-configuration], communicate and share with others using rich media [ie. no NAT] and make it more affordable to create rich content [ie. multicast, hopefully]... all without needing your ask your neighborhood geek."
I'm not sure IPv6 will make multicast any more likely to actually happen. If someone thought deployment of multicast to the consumer was useful, it would already be happening - multicast goes through NATs OK in the UK, where I understand the BBC are testing delivery of content using multicast[1], and I'm pretty sure Kiwi NATs aren't functionally different from British NATs :) So, if I may hijack this thread slightly to ask a question: Is anyone using multicast across AS boundaries in NZ right now? If not, why not? There are several streaming media providers in NZ for whom multicast would surely save a lot of bandwidth at the source. [1] http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/ -- Jasper Bryant-Greene Network Engineer, Unleash ddi: +64 3 978 1222 mob: +64 21 129 9458