Commons network

The Commons aims to provide a new baseline for digital network infrastructure. The goals and implementation roadmap therein is summarised here as the Commons network.

Eschewing IPv6

The push for IPv6 as a replacement for IPv4 has been dubious since its inception. One reason often given is IPv4's need to violate the "end-to-end principle" of the Worldwide Web – this by itself is of unknown relevance to the architectural integrity of the Web. Another, more common reason given is the mythos of "IPv4 address exhaustion", so ubiquitous in fact that it even has its own Wikipedia article. The intractable problem is usually the result of peer-to-peer network architectures assuming all clients can also be servers. Instead of finding alternative solutions, like e.g. FTP PASV or public-private relays, IPv6 sought to quadruple the number of address bits, effectively creating an entire separate Web.

Instead of enjoining this, Commons network infrastructure will remain IPv4 only, and will provision a system of Local, Campus and "Massive" Area Networks (LANs, CANs, and MANs), each with different private address allocation schemes.

Address hierarchy

From the start, the layout of the private network will support ample growth according to its spatial level.

Level	Address block	Address range	Count	Description
LAN	192.168.0.0/16	192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255	65,536	Apartment unit local network. Every connected device in the unit has its own address.
WCAN	172.16.0.0/12	172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255	1,048,576	Wireless campus area network. Access is secured with WPA2 Enterprise and clients are issued normal DHCP leases for addresses in the range above. The Wireless CAN relies on NAT for access to the Worldwide Web, and does not offer any timed leases for public IP address-port combos or MAN-tier IP addresses.
CAN	198.18.0.0/15	198.18.0.0 – 198.19.255.255	131,072	Campus area network. The MSB of this subnet is divided such that each apartment unit has two CAN-level addresses, one 198.18.*.* address and another 198.19.*.* address with matching lower 16 bits. This is so tenants may use one address as a dedicated tunnel to the Worldwide Web, leaving another open to network directly among their peers on the premises.
MAN	10.0.0.0/8	10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255	16,777,216	Backronym for "massive area network". This is shared among all Commons-operated properties worldwide, providing an address pool for a no-charge timed lease system for network subscribers to be able to directly access and be accessed by any computer on the Worldwide Web.
WAN	Varies	Many	Unknown	The Worldwide Web. There are no permanent specifications for how many public IPv4 addresses will be in use or how they may be distributed amongst the Commons, although when the Commons come to be built there will be policies instated for it, subject to change. Tenants are not given a dedicated public IPv4 address, and by default must rely on NAT for communications with the outside world. However, there will be a timed lease system for port forwarding to enable tenants to work around this when necessary.

Ethernet layout

Each apartment unit will have two (2) dedicated ethernet drops each running at 1 Gbps. Absent any routing inside the apartment, one of these drops will have a locally-assigned CAN address of the form 198.18.x.y, while the other will have a matching CAN address of the form 198.19.x.y. Any device connected to these will be peering with all other apartments on the premises in the same address range, and will be able to initiate connections with computers bearing MAN-level and WAN-level IPv4 addresses.

Wireless access

Due to the ubiquity of 802.11 wireless networking, providing wireless access to tenants is a requirement. The most logical level to insert this is at the campus level, hence the creation of the Wireless Campus Area Network, or WCAN, using private address range 172.16.0.0/12. This part of the network will not provide the timed leasing of public IPv4 address-port combos nor leases of MAN-level addresses, since it is mainly for providing network access to the wealth of mobile devices people use every day. It will, however, peer bidirectionally with wired CAN-level addresses.

Subscription model

Much like the apartment rent, a nominal monthly fee will be assessed for network access. If a tenant does not subscribe, their ethernet drops will simply be turned off; if they do have a subscription, they will have full access to the local network and the rest of the Worldwide Web, including the privilege to obtain WPA2 wireless credentials.

DNS

Full-fat DNS servers will be provisioned in a low reserved portion of the CAN-level address space. These will fulfil requests as needed by users of the network.