[address-policy-wg] can deadbeat LIRs reverse IPv4 exhaustion?

[Jim Reid]

> On 7 Feb 2019, at 07:59, Carlos Friaças via address-policy-wg 
> <address-policy-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
> 
> Even when the pools reach ZERO, if 1000 LIRs stop paying fees (and that's 
> only one example/route), the "runout" will be temporarily reverted, and 
> handing out IPv4 addresses will be again, in theory, possible.

How is that possible? Once the pools reach zero, there are no more addresses to 
hand out.

An RIR can't conjure up IPv4 address space out of thin air. If it was able to 
do that, we could just continue forever with business as usual and allocate v4 
until the heat death of the universe.

Besides, there’s no mechanism or policy for the NCC to recover addresses from 
LIRs that don’t pay their bills. If such mechanisms or policies existed, they’d 
be unworkable. There’s no way of knowing for sure that those addresses weren’t 
being used. So if they were reclaimed, the addresses couldn’t be allocated to 
someone else.