shim6 (was Re: IPv6 news)

[David Conrad]

Joe (or anyone else),

On Oct 14, 2005, at 7:57 AM, Joe Abley wrote:
> The big gap in the multi-homing story for v6 is for end sites,  
> since those are specifically excluded by all the RIRs' policies on  
> PI addressing right now. Shim6 is intended to be a solution for end  
> sites.
Since shim6 requires changes in protocol stacks on nodes, my  
impression has been that it isn't a _site_ multihoming solution, but  
rather a _node_ multihoming solution.  Is my impression incorrect?

> Are you suggesting that something else is required for ISPs above  
> and beyond announcing PI space with BGP, or that shim6 (once baked  
> and real) would present a threat to ISPs?
If my impression is correct, then my feeling is that something else  
is required.  I am somewhat skeptical that shim6 will be implemented  
in any near term timeframe and it will take a very long time for  
existing v6 stacks to be upgraded to support shim6.  What I suspect  
will be required is real _site_ multihoming.  Something that will  
take existing v6 customer sites and allow them to be multi-homed  
without modification to each and every v6 stack within the site.

Rgds,
-drc