Christian -
| Sean, the appropriate answer to your question is RTFM (as in, read the
| manual.) The top 48 bits of IPv6 addresses are anything but flat. The flat
| space is initially limited to the top 16 bits, 3 of which are used as a
| format prefix, leaving a "flat space" table size of 8K entries.
I was merely using the wording Harald Alvestrand put forward:
> Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> A /48 leaves 16 bits for subnetting, before you hit the 64 bits of flatspace.
I think by "flatspace" he meant the _lower_ 64 bits here.
| These
| entries are supposed to be assigned to "top level" providers -- the
| equivalent of v4's default-free ISPs. There is indeed a concern that 8K may
| not be enough in the long run, which has lead to place the next 8 bits in
| reserve. Each of these "top level" prefixes thus contains 24 bits of
| address space for organization or delegation by the provider.
So, forgive me for asking a stupid question, but RFC 2374 is
full of oddities, especially in s3.2. Are you of the belief that
as a matter of policy, everyone but "top level" providers will have
addresses from a "top level" provider, with no exceptions?
Do you also beleive that for inter-TLA routing information-exchange
purposes, with respect to the destination address, ONLY the 13 (to
21) TLA (+ RES) bits you mention should ever be considered by a
router in the core of the global network, except where two
directly-peering TLAs agree to exchange some NLA information?
Sean.
