[address-policy-wg] Policy proposal - Cooperative distribution of the end of the IPv4 free pool.

Policy Proposal Name: 	 Cooperative distribution of the end of the IPv4
free pool.

Author name:  Tony Hain
email:  alh-ietf at tndh.net
telephone:  +1-425-468-1061
organization:  Cisco Systems
Proposal Version:  1.0
Submission Date: Oct-30-2007
Proposal type:  new 
Policy term:  permanent 

Policy summary:
This policy will establish a process for RIR-to-RIR redistribution of the
tail-end of the IPv4 pool, taking effect after the IANA Reserve is
exhausted. Each redistribution Allocation will be triggered by the recipient
RIR depleting its reserve to a 30 day supply, and will result in up to a 3
month supply being transferred from the RIR with the longest remaining time
before it exhausts its own pool.

Policy statement: 
At the point when any given RIR is within 30 days of depleting its remaining
IPv4 pool, a survey will be taken of the other 4 to determine the remaining
time before each of them exhausts their pool (including both member use and
recent redistribution allocations to other RIRs). The one with the longest
window before exhausting its pool will be designated as the source RIR. The
recipient RIR will follow procedures for an LIR in the source RIR region to
request a block that is expected to be sufficient for up to 3 months, but is
no larger than 1/8th of the source RIR's remaining pool. At the point where
no RIR can supply a block that is less than 1/8th of their remaining pool
that will sustain the recipient RIR for 30 days, the recipient RIR will
collect its requests each week, and forward those individual requests to the
source RIR designated that week. 

Rationale: 
This policy will establish a mechanism for the Allocation of IPv4 address
blocks between RIR's, but will not go into effect until the IANA pool has
been depleted. 

It is really bizarre to watch the maneuvering as the global RIR community
grapples with 'fairness' of distributing the last few IANA Reserve /8
blocks. On one level this just appears to be petty sibling rivalry, as
people are bickering over who gets the last cookie and whimpering about
'fairness'. At the same time, each RIR is chartered to look after the
interests of its membership so it is to be expected that they will each want
to get as much as possible to meet the needs of their respective membership.
Existing practice requires RIR's to acquire blocks from IANA, which leads to
the current round of nonsense about optimal distribution of the remaining
pool based on elaborate mathematical models.  

This globally submitted policy proposal attempts to resolve the issue by
shifting to an RIR-to-RIR Allocation model after the IANA pool is depleted.
This policy would effectively result in each RIR becoming a virtual LIR
member of all of the other RIR's for the sole purpose of managing the
tail-end of the IPv4 pool.

Timetable for implementation: 	Before 1/1/2009