The Internet

1
The Internet adoption of change a bit of
history and outlook

• Michael Haberler
• Internet Foundation Austria
• July 2004

2
outline

• three examples of adoption flops of
  Internet-related change of course
• lessons thereof
• applying these to IPv6 and ENUM
• a peek on Internet governance and national
  differences
• summary

3
the rollout of the DNS

• DNS development happend around 1985
• this was driven by sheer need host tables
  became unmanageable
• by 1986 DNS came into use in the US academic
  network
• by 1988 most European countries had delegations
  by John Postel and running DNS service
• in the mid-nineties registries evolved and
  started charging for service
• towards the end-nineties the domain service
  started booming years after global footprint was
  reached
• the footprint came about because DNS solved a
  management problem
• the national identity aspect of adoption
  evolved a decade later
• side note the .eu TLD is now into its 6th year
  in the making and the problem isnt the
  delegation or the service
• Q what would the DNS look like today if
  governments had to approve John Postels
  delegations beforehand?
• NB this is going to haunt user ENUM

4
the transition to classless IP addressing

• in the mid-nineties a major transition in address
  management happened
• driven by routing table growth
• the Class A/B/C distinction was dropped and
  routing aggregation introduced
• providers were encouraged to upgrade to new
  allocation methods BGP4
• users werent supposed to notice any change
• this was a substantial operational investment
  with no immediate upside for providers
• speed picked up when route filtering was
  introduced the unconverted providers were cut
  off from connectivity by some backbones, leading
  to massive customer complaints
• the driver a sudden change in economics

5
how ADMDs vanished from the earth

• X.400 operator style mail routing was PC and
  massively supported by the EC
• by 1993 ISPs had to beg to be able to send mail
  to X.400 users (and pay per message)
• by 1995 the users had voted with their feet for
  Internet E-Mail - for a monthly access charge
  over per-kB billing with lousy connectivity
• how many ADMDs have you registered lately?
• both the operational model and the economics had
  broken down

6
what do we learn from this

• change happens if the underlying economics change
• technical merit rarely counts as an adoption
  driver
• do regional initiatives change the economics
  sufficiently?
• Metcalfes law applies coverage wins over good
  intent any day
• users walk away if there is choice and better
  solutions elsewhere
• now lets apply these observations to adoption
  hopefuls IPv6 and ENUM

7
IPv6 adoption

• there are good reasons for ipv6
• end-to-end reachability without NAT breaking
  media streams is IMO the strongest one
• address depletion is not the killer app
• Q1 whose PC today has a publically reachable IP
  address in his office ?
• if not is the reason for that IPv4 address
  shortage?
• if addresses were not scarce, would you give your
  PC a public address?
• what will your firewall manager say about this?
• Q2 which broadband application is impossible
  with IPv4?
• Q3 what will be the impact of e.g. large-scale
  use of IPv6 in Asia, in mobile networks, or for
  each power plug?
• if applications assume end-to-end, IPv4
  interworking is required
• which takes the pressure of IPv4-only operators
• which means IPv6 will remain VPNs for a long
  time
• the cost is in running dual stack networks
• the benefit is mostly with specific applications
  and equipment manufacturers

8
A peek on Internet Governance
IETF standards process
gTLDs
ccTLDs
government land national regulation and numbering
Internet land
RIR
user ENUM
addresses routes ports AS es...
ICANN
IANA
9
ENUM adoption

• NB ENUM is a booster shot for E.164 lifespan
  help save the whales!
• utility of ENUM comes through a globally
  available adressing system
• by adoption in large numbers (by whom, btw?)
• user ENUM coverage 2004 DNS coverage late 1985
• were back to the John Postel approval problem
  see next slide
• public ENUM will result in miniscule resolution
  rates for years to come
• availability suitable E.164 number ranges is a
  key precondition
• as tariffs become meaningless on-net, so does the
  geographic connotation of a number
• the equivalent of a .com domain is needed in
  E.164 because some 150 governments are asleep at
  the switch help support VisionNGs 878 10 !
• the consequences
• to reap the ENUM benefits, ITSPs start to use
  ENUM outside the golden tree today
• if numbers arent available, they are hijacked or
  invented
• so hurry up, girls guys

10
user adoption competition in DNS service
11
need some examples of E.164 evasion?

• sideways numbers from Singapore in US, St.
  Helena in Europe
• hijacked
• iaxtel 1 (700)

12
summary

• djihad initiatives have limited impact - the
  economics needs to change
• make sure you have a rational motiv for spending
  taxpayers money
• availability is a precondition for adoption
• the RIRs get it right on IPv6 supply
• national governments get it wrong (so far) on
  ENUM adoption, E.164 ranges for VoIP
• ISPs are already moving sideways with their
  users
• sometimes flooding helps - sometimes it helps
  somebody unintended
• as the vertical network model and its tariffs
  vanish, national resources are exposed to global
  competition your national regulation walled
  garden might develop major holes in the wall
• the operator as a target of regulation blurs
  vanishes partially
• rethink national regulation wrt a horizontal
  network environment