[ipv6-wg] IPv6 questions regarding ripe and address ranges

> From what i've learned so far this could 
> basically result in a /32 for a 100-user location which 
> cannot be the goal, even though i might be stuck in IPv4 ways.

Yes, you are stuck in IPv4 ways. If you have an independent network with
a unique routing policy and you allocate IPv6 addresses to the customers
who connect to your network, then you are clearly an ISP and should get
a /32. If you have some network infrastructure in another continent that
does not randomly route traffic across the ocean and back, then it has a
unique routing policy, etc. 

> - Isn't it possible to get a /32 and allow us to divide it 
> between our sites with /48sh (and allowing them to advertise 
> /48sh globally)?

Why? A three /48 blocks take up just as much routing table space as
three /32 blocks. More importantly, if you the ISP only have a /48 then
you cannot assign /48 blocks to customers which is bad, bad, bad.

The most important concept in IPv6 addressing that is different from
IPv4 addressing, is that the IPv6 address space is very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, big.

The second most important concept is that the subnetting architecture is
designed to waste large amounts of address space. This "wasted" address
space buys certain advantages. First, it means that most subnets can
grow for a long, long, long time without running out of addresses.
Secondly, it means that automated address assignment techniques can be
used, which rely on randomly assigning addresses from a block that is so
large that collisions are very unlikely. See RFC 4193
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4193.txt> for one example of this.

Also, there is no global policy that requires a network operator to get
all of their global addresses from a single RIR, and there is also no
global policy that requires them to get their addresses from each RIR in
which they have network infrastructure. Just do whatever works best for
your network. That is what other network operators have done in the
past.

--Michael Dillon