[address-policy-wg] 2009-01, Global Policy for the allocation of IPv4 blocks to Regional Internet Registries

Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 11:32:10AM -0400, John Curran wrote:
>   
>> The reality is that returned address space has been going back to IANA  
>> and will continue to do under current practices; see <http://blog.icann.org/2008/02/recovering-ipv4-address-space/ 
>>  > for more information.
>>     
>
> I think that this is a fairly important bit to comprehend the full
> picture.
>   
Well, this is slightly disingenuous, as IANA currently only accepts
returned /8s. Part of the global policy proposal was to encourage IANA
to accept smaller blocks for distribution that would otherwise be stuck
with the RIR in which they were returned.

Also of course, the argument that this policy does not comply with the
"at need" practice currently followed by RIRs is a little shaky too.
This policy only kicks in once the IANA pool is completely exhausted.
All RIRs will be able to make justification for the tiny remaining
dribbles of IPv4 space that this policy will generate. As noted several
times today, this policy is not about usefully extending the life of
IPv4. It is about showing that RIRs are able to act in a magnanimous and
equitable fashion with the last remaining dregs of an irreplaceable
resource.

Nigel