Peter Sherbin writes: > It is worth about the same as a postal address that comes > naturally when they build a new house. In a similar way when a new > device comes to existence it gets an address out of infinite > universe of 0 and 1. That would only be true if IP addresses were geographically assigned, which they aren't. You know, you could assign IPv6 addresses in a strictly geographic way and you'd have more than enough for everyone, everywhere, with very simple routing. But of course that won't be done. > The actual cost driver here is a need for an operator (e.g. > Postal Service or ISP) to maintain a list of all existing addresses > to be able to provide their services. Not necessarily. If the addressing is strictly geographic--n addresses for each area of m square metres on the planet--routing would be very simple and wouldn't require much in the way of tables. With 78 bits, you can address every millonth of a second of arc in latitude and longitude on the planet. That's an area of about 0.00095 square millimetres. _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf