NAT in the original Internet (RE: [wg-b] RE: [wg-c] IAB Technical Comment on the Unique)

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <Harald@Alvestrand.no>]

At 10:16 19.12.99 -0800, Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> > Behalf Of Eric Brunner
> > Sent: Saturday, December 18, 1999 7:31 PM
>
> > The IAB has put out a number of technical statements over the
> > past decade,
> > I can't recall one which has been eroded over time. I wish
> > they'd stomped
> > out NATs before they spread, but thats a taste issue.
>
>NAT has saved the Internet where IPv6 couldn't and is now exactly what is
>holding back deployment of IPv6.

Distastefully enough, I think you've got a point.

>Taste issues aside, NAT was part of the
>original design concept behind the Internet, where local networks were only
>assigned a few public IP addresses and the remainder were internal-only
>addresses. Public IP addresses were only to be assigned to gateway and
>front-porch systems. NAT is only the enablement of this, already extant,
>concept.

Hmm.....I'd like a reference (and date) for which "original design concept 
behind the Internet" NATs were a part of.
The Internet grew from a number of ideas, including the famous "catenet", 
but I think that at the time of the Great Changeover (ARPANet turned off 
NCP and turned on TCP/IP, all in one night - Jan 1, 1983), the idea that 
all end-nodes had globally unique addresses was a fairly well established 
part of Internet "orthodoxy".
Always willing to learn...

                             Harald A

[reference for NCP changeover: RFC 2235, "Hobbes' Internet Timeline"]

--
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, EDB Maxware, Norway
Harald.Alvestrand@edb.maxware.no