[address-policy-wg] [policy-announce] 2012-04 New Draft Document Published (PI Assignments from the last /8)

* Randy Bush

> i can not speak to the intent in the ripe region.  but the principal
> intent of the final /8 policy in the apnic region was so that *new*
> entrants could get one small piece of the pie.
> 
> in the years when we have a mixed 6/4 internet, folk will need a wee bit
> of v4 space for things such as nat64 and other ways face the dual stack
> world.
> 
> pissing it away in greed and/or arrogance is not responsible to our
> children.

Hi Randy, and thanks for bringing up the equivalent APNIC region policy.
That is definitively relevant to this discussion.

I doubt that allowing organisations to be greedy is the intention of
2012-04, it is rather to also allow non-LIRs to get «a wee bit of v4
space» from the last /8. Currently, this is set aside for LIRs only
(both existing and new).

Looking at the latest delegated stats file from APNIC, there appears to
have been made 510 assignments out of 103/8. They are listed with
«ASSIGNED PORTABLE» in whois, which I believe is the equivalent of
«ASSIGNED PI» in RIPE land? So it is my understanding that 2012-04 would
actually make the RIPE  «last /8 policy» more similar to the APNIC one
than it currently is.

With 2012-04 in place, the largest remaining difference that I could see
would be that in the APNIC region assignments up to /22 would be
allowed, while in the RIPE region they would be capped at /24 (unlike
LIR allocations, which would be capped at /22 - same as APNIC).

That said, the «run on the bank» scenario that Erik was concerned about
might turn out to be much worse in the RIPE region than in the APNIC
region in spite of this. It is my understanding - please correct me if
I'm wrong - that in order to get an assignment out of APNIC's last /8,
you'll have to become an APNIC member, which currently costs at least
AU$1180/year (~€955). If 2012-04 passes, a RIPE region organisation
could grab its last /8 piece for €50/year without becoming a RIPE NCC
member, which is much less of a barrier.

Considering the current pricing and membership structures, getting an
last /8 assignment from APNIC is perhaps more comparable to becoming a
RIPE region LIR, getting the last /8 allocation, and then make a single
assignment to its own infrastructure - which is obviously always an
option for an organisation seeking IPv4 address space.

-- 
Tore Anderson
Redpill Linpro AS - http://www.redpill-linpro.com/