[address-policy-wg] 2013-06 New Policy Proposal (PA/PI Unification IPv6 Address Space)

Dear all,


I support the general direction of this proposal. If it included v4, I
would still be in favor.


That being said, I am not sure about the prefix sizes listed in this
proposal. According to section 5.1.2 of the new text, everyone will
receive at least a /32 unless the addresses will be used for a special
purpose as per section 6. In this case, allocations can be made in
allocations of /48:

* Operating a TLD: 1-4 * /48
* Operating an ENUM: 1-4 * /48
* Operating an IXP: 1 * /48
* Operating a DNS root server: 1 * /32

There are three concerns with this:

1) Assuming everyone will get at least a /32, why limit core internet
infrastructure, i.e. TLDs, ENUMs, and IXPs to a mere /48? The combined
amount of those allocations will be dwarfed by the combined amount of
LIRs and End Users.

2) While there are a _lot_ of addresses with IPv6, handing a
multi-homed End User who will be able to operate on a single /48 for
the foreseeable future a whole /32 appears to be wasteful. Maybe
that's v4 speaking through me, but still...

3) Becoming a LIR costs several thousand Euros up front and then per
year. Not being a LIR and simply getting the same /32 will, under
current pricing schemes, cost €50.
Becoming a LIR would become an extremely stupid business move over
night. This means the existing LIRs will be stuck with paying whatever
price increases happen over the years. That, in turn, means LIRs will
start trying to redistribute the cost. And _that_ will become ugly
very quickly.


I am not saying my suggested answers are perfect, but my gut feeling
tells me that while the distinction between "this is PA, hand it to
your customers" and "this is PI, don't you dare using it for anyone
but yourself" does not make sense, there should still be a distinction
between "we need a few v6 addresses" and "we need a lot v6 addresses".

Two possible approaches:

* Non-LIR allocations could be limited to a single aggregated
equivalent of, e.g. a /40 or /41. If someone needed more, let them
become a LIR.
* Do away with the flat fee of €50 per Independent Number Resource and
charge based on size. This would also somewhat prevent people from
grabbing as much IP space as possible.


As an aside, reading [1] is needlessly hard. There are several
sections where text on the left-hand side does not appear on the
right-hand side. New text on the right-hand side is marked in blue;
disappearing text on the left-hand side is not marked in any way. This
is yet another reminder of why migrating to plain text with an
automated storage and diffing back-end ASAP will be a Good Thing.


Richard

[1] https://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/other-documents/draft-ipv6-address-allocation-and-assignment-policy-current-policy-text