[address-policy-wg] 2010-02 New Draft Document Published (Allocations from the last /8)

>From the analysis:

> This address space may not be a single aggregated /8 and can contain
> prefixes as long as a /29 or more. Therefore it is possible that at
> some point the RIPE NCC will be unable to allocate a single /22 
> block to an LIR and will have to allocate multiple prefixes that 
> total 1,024 IP addresses. Because of this situation, there will 
> effectively no longer be a minimum allocation size within the RIPE 
> NCC service region when this happens.

As I understand it, RIPE NCC is guaranteed to receive one last
contiguous /8 from IANA (cf.
http://www.icann.org/en/general/allocation-remaining-ipv4-space.htm
section 2.1).  I think it would be prudent to reserve this particular /8
for the implementation of this policy, instead of specifying «a
threshold of a total of one /8».  That way the potential problem with
fragmentation will only occur once the entire /8 has been allocated and
the only thing that is remaining in the pool is returned allocations
smaller than /22.

>From the proposed policy:

> a. LIRs may only receive one allocation from this /8. The size of the
> allocation made under this policy will be no larger than a /22.

This obviously conflicts with the current minimum allocation size (/21).
 Does the proposed policy intend to change the minimum allocation size
to /22 so that all LIRs are eligible to receive a /22 (no more, no
less), or to remove the minimum allocation size completely as suggested
by the analysis - even when contiguous /22s are available in the
unallocated pool?

The language of the policy seems to imply the latter, as it says
specifically «no larger» and «at most» (but makes no mention of «no
smaller» and/or «at minimum»).  I can easily see that being perceived as
unfair, as one RIR might only be allocated a /23 at first and then be
unable to come back later for another /23 (due to the one allocation
only rule).  So I'd favour it being a /22, no more, no less (until
fragmentation makes that impossible).

Best regards,
-- 
Tore Anderson
Redpill Linpro AS - http://www.redpill-linpro.com/
Tel: +47 21 54 41 27