I completely disagree. Keeping significant reserves of IPv4 on the shelf such that it can effectively never be utilized makes absolutely no sense to me.
I think that reserving a /9 is prudent and provides more than enough cushion for any foreseeable growth in the APNIC region after IPv4 runout. I think that a /8 is, as the math has shown, excessive and that failing to correct this will actually present an image of poor resource management to the broader community impacted by this decision.
Owen
On Jan 20, 2011, at 2:20 AM, Matthew Moyle-Croft wrote:
Hi,
I don't support this proposal. I don't see the point in deliberately running out the IPv4 space earlier for short term gain. The fact that this space may not be allocated for a long time doesn't seem important. It's the last lot, let's treat it as precious and leave some for those who will need it in small quantities.
MMC
On 20/01/2011, at 7:22 PM, Gaurab Raj Upadhaya wrote:
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Dear SIG members,
The proposal, 'Limiting of final /8 policy to specific /9', has been sent to the Policy SIG for review. It will be presented at the Policy SIG at APNIC 31 in Hong Kong, 21-25 February 2011.
We invite you to review and comment on the proposal on the mailing list
before the meeting.
The comment period on the mailing list before an APNIC meeting is an important part of the policy development process. We encourage you to express your views on the proposal:
- Do you support or oppose this proposal?
- Does this proposal solve a problem you are experiencing? If so, tell the community about your situation. - Do you see any disadvantages in this proposal? - Is there anything in the proposal that is not clear?
- What changes could be made to this proposal to make it more effective?
Information about this and other policy proposals is available from:
prop-091-v001: Limiting of final /8 policy to specific /9 _______________________________________________________________________
Author: David Woodgate
Version: 1
Date: 20 January 2011
1. Introduction - ----------------
This is a proposal to modify the policies for distribution of the
"final /8" to only apply to a specific /9 block of the final /8, on the basis that the current policies would unnecessarily prevent the use of over 8 million IPv4 addresses that otherwise should be used to enable
user connections.
2. Summary of the current problem - ----------------------------------
The original final /8 policy proposal assumed that small amounts of IPv4 addressing would still be needed for some years into the future to
successfully operate an Internet business, even with IPv6 use growing rapidly in the industry. Therefore, the aim of the final /8 policy was to ensure that new ISPs and other businesses would continue to have access to IPv4 addresses to initiate their services.
The current final /8 policy [1] allows for one minimum allocation per APNIC account holder from the entire final APNIC /8. This results in the following potential numbers of allocations:
No. of /22s available from /8: 16,536
No. of /22s available from /8 (reserved /16 removed): 16,320
This is a large number of potential allocations when compared with APNIC's current numbers of account holders and recent annual growth:
No. of APNIC account holders (Aug 2010) [2]: 3,132 APNIC acount holder growth per annum [3]: around 320
If the APNIC account holder growth rate were to increase up to 480 new
account holders per year (a 150% increase on the current growth rate), it would take over 27 years to make every one of the possible 16,320 allocations from the final /8 (minus the reserved /16).
It is reasonable to expect that within the next 10 years IPv6 will be
thoroughly deployed throughout the Internet as the preferred protocol and that IPv4 address allocation will no longer be sought. Looking at a 10-year forecast of annual account holder growth of 480, only a /9 would be consumed within this timeframe, leaving another /9 never used
under current final /8 policy.
This would seem to be an undesirable situation for the APNIC community, as this unused space could be used to provide IPv4 Internet connections to millions of users (whether that be prior to or as part of dual-stack
IPv6 deployments). The release of these addresses would not be expected to make a significant change to the overall IPv4 exhaustion timeframes, but it would allow the addresses to be used for their designed purpose
of enabling user connections.
If the pool reserved for the final /8 allocation policies were to be reduced to a /9, it would result in the following potential numbers of allocations:
No. of /22s available from /9: 8,192
No. of /22s available from /9 (reserved /16 removed): 8,128
3. Situation in other RIRs - ---------------------------
AfriNIC:
AfriNIC do not have a confirmed final /8 policy yet, but are
considering the "IPv4 Soft Landing Proposal". If this proposal is adopted, AfriNIC would continue to allocate from their final /8, but with greater limitations on allocations particularly for their
final /11: http://www.afrinic.net/docs/policies/AFPUB-2010-v4-005.htm
ARIN:
Section 4.10, "Dedicated IPv4 block to facilitate IPv6 Deployment", of the ARIN Number Resource Policy Manual, specifies that ARIN will reserve a /10 from their final /8 to facilitate IPv6 deployment. https://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html#four10
LACNIC:
Section 11, "Policies Relating to the Exhaustion of IPv4 Address Space", of the LACNIC Policy Manual specifies that LACNIC will restrict allocations for their final /12: http://www.lacnic.net/en/politicas/manual11.html
RIPE:
Proposal 2010-02, "Allocations from the last /8", which appears to be based on APNIC's current final /8 policy is currently "Awaiting Decisions from WG Chairs".
It therefore appears that most of the RIRs have policies or are
considering proposals that will reserve blocks that would be smaller than the /9 being considered by this proposal. Only RIPE is considering a proposal that would duplicate APNIC's current policy for the entire
final /8.
4. Details - -----------
It is proposed that the policy, "Distribution of the final /8 worth of space in the unallocated APNIC IPv4 address pool" be adjusted as follows:
4.1 The policies be applied to a specific contiguous /8 block received from IANA.
4.2 The specific block from IANA be divided into two /9 blocks.
4.3 One of the two /9 blocks will have the following policies applied
to it:
- The policy for allocations to LIRs currently described in section 9.10.1, "Allocations to LIRs" - The policy for reserving a /16 for future use, currently
described in section 9.10.2, "Allocations for future uses"
4.4 The other /9 block will be allocated according to current IPv4 allocation policies, and in particular the policies described by:
- 9.3 Criteria for initial allocation - 9.4 Criteria for subsequent allocations
5. Pros/Cons - -------------
Advantages:
- - Adoption of this proposal would provide over 8 million additional
IPv4 addresses for use by the APNIC community for user connections
Disadvantages:
- - If there were an unforeseen explosion of APNIC account holders in the the near future, there would be a slight risk that new Internet
businesses might not be able to obtain IPv4 addresses for their business before IPv6 were generally deployed. However, historical data [2][3][4] indicates that this would seem a very unlikely scenario within a 10-year timeframe.
6. Effect on APNIC - -------------------
Adoption of this proposal would require APNIC to manage the allocation of an additional /9 prior to moving to the "exhaustion phase" of allocations. This would be expected to add only a couple of months at
most of allocations according to current practices, and this extra work would be within the standard scope of APNIC's purpose.
7. Effect on NIRs - ------------------
There would be no significant impact on NIRs arising from this proposal
other than the potential allocation of additional IPv4 address space to them by APNIC.