[lir-wg] Summary of PI Task Force Discussion

Dear Colleagues,

At RIPE 44, earlier this year, the LIR WG formed a Task Force to 
investigate possible changes to the current policy for assigning 
Provider Independent (PI) IPv4 address space.

    <http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail-archives/lir-wg/2003/msg00108.html>

The Task Force's discussion is summarised below.

The discussion started with a provocative statement that the concept of
PI address space is broken. It was also noted that the current policy
requires assignment of space that may not be globally routeable as the
prefix length will be filtered. This space may be suitable for networks
that do not need to be globally routed but can be inconvenient for
others.


There was support for the continued availability of PI address space to
End Users - and a recognition that IXPs and root DNS servers do require
PI address space. Nonetheless, there were worries that liberalising the
policy by having a minimum prefix length for PI assignments could result
in an increase in the number of requests for PI address space and a
consequent increase in the size of the IPv4 DFZ. One particular
concern was that those not qualifying for a /24 of PA may would
request a /24 of PI, instead.


Finally, it was noted that if the policy for assigning PI address space
is changed the usage hurdle for new LIRs to receive a first allocation
should be reviewed, too.


No consensus for a recommendation to change the existing policy was
reached.

Regards,

-- 
leo vegoda
RIPE NCC
Registration Services