Policy Statement on Address Space Allocations

> We are now closer to running out of Router capability than IP numbers
> to hand out.  A rational solution to that would be to allocate IP
> space in a manner such that we don't run out of Router capability
> before we run out of IP space, by assigning easier-to-route,
> larger CIDR blocks to large providers, and allowing growth space
> in allocations so that small allocations can grow without having
> to add more announcements.  If the allocating agencies continue to
> insist on being as sparing as possible with block allocations, which
> is noticably increasing routing problems, then we are going to face
> Internet partitions sooner rather than later, based on router load
> rather than running out of IP space.  This is, in my opinion, a poor
> choice for overall growth.

But note well that current routers can't last forever (if you want them
to we might as well give the next 120 requestors a class A chunk and then
forget about address allocation altogether), and if you're looking for
short-term relief address allocation policy is not the place to get it.
Because the current forwarding table size is a result of the integral of
all past allocation policies, it takes a while (a year or two, certainly,
a lifetime in this industry) for any current address allocation changes
to have any measureable effect.

If you really need it, a much more effective method to get short term relief
is to squeeze some of the "history" out of the forwarding table.  The 192.*
block, and some of the high 190's, look like swamps that are ripe for the
picking.

Dennis Ferguson