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

On Oct 8, 2009, at 6:31 PM, Nigel Titley wrote:
>
>
> 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.

If the RIR's are drawing from the IANA pool in relatively small  
amounts on intervals based on their actual documented need, the runout  
of the IANA free pool is quickly followed by runout of available space  
for new ISP/NIR/LIR allocations in all regions at roughly the same  
time globally (this excludes consideration of the "final /8's", which  
may or may not be available for such allocations depending on regional  
policy).

All RIR's running out together at the about same time is certainly  
"equitable".

Globally, we're presently going through 10 to 12 /8's each year.   
Under today's policies, if one assumes that a handful of /8's were to  
be reclaimed through focused efforts and returned to the IANA, we'd  
continue allocations for few months.

Post-IANA runout, this global policy sets fixed allocation sizes which  
will likely be less than some regions need yet larger other regions  
needs for years to come.  This effectively insures that a subset of  
economies need to deal with IPv4 address depletion first.   
"Magnanimous" applies to such a situation, but "equitable" is a matter  
of perspective.

The altering of IPv4 depletion impact among economies is not  
necessarily a bad thing, and in fact, may indeed be the right choice  
for the best chances of global IPv6 deployment.  While the discussion  
of this policy has recently focused on the mandatory/optional IANA  
return issue that ARIN introduced, the larger implications of  
departing from strictly need-based policy is likely the redirection of  
the IPv4 depletion impact to a subset of RIRs.

/John