Why a feature introduced for a handful of members became one of the RIPE NCC's most complex operational challenges.

It's only ARP. It works. So how much can it really matter? The answer lies beyond ARP itself, in the IPv4 layer cake that grew around it over four decades. The IPv4 internet is not going away in bounded time, and nobody should pretend otherwise.

IPv6-only networks often still depend on IPv4 subnets and ARP. This article introduces an IETF proposal to eliminate both, allowing IPv4 to operate as a service over IPv6-only infrastructure without translation or tunnelling.