Subject: IPv4-mapped API [Re: [dhcwg] Re: WG last call on draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-opt-dnsconfig-02.txt]

From: Mika Liljeberg <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Feb 2003 15:25:31 +0200

[Topic changed. If you respond to this, please drop unrelated mailing
lists.]

On Sat, 2003-02-22 at 14:54, Bill Manning wrote:
> regarding the use of mapped addresses:
> 
> draft-cmetz-v6ops-v4mapped-api-harmful-00.txt
> 
> might be a useful ID to review before committing this draft to the
> stds process.

These issues are completely unrelated. The API issues are real but they
are not something that can or should be considered in a protocol
specification.

[Sorry for the off-topicness of the following]

I'm not too happy about RFC2553 myself in this respect, and I strongly
support the "Alternative solution" (fully specify IPv4-mapped behaviour)
in the above mentioned draft.

I can attest from implementation experience that it is possible to
create a hybrid IPv4/IPv6 stack implementation that uses around 80-90%
shared code between IPv4 and IPv6. All IPv4 addresses are handled in
IPv4-mapped format internally inside the stack.

Our sockets API is (mostly) version agnostic. Most applications are not
even aware which IP version they are using. The OS is not a unix
derivative and did not have the legacy baggage of the BSD style sockets
API. The API that was already defined for IPv4 yielded very easily to
support IPv6.

	MikaL

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