Hi David,

In order to forecast exhaustion rates, we needed something to measure against. 
It would be rather naive of us to assume that allocation policy would remain 
the same tomorrow as it was yesterday, if APNIC received a /8 from IANA. This 
is where we looked at pre-prop127 delegation sizes of up to a /22. If we were 
to allow applicants who have received either a /23 or /24 post-prop127 to apply 
for resources up to a maximum holding of /22 this would last (again, under 
current policy) 20+ years. These of course as mentioned are dependent on 3 x /8 
prefixes.

The intent of this isn't just to drop more space into the wild to be snatched 
up by the highest bidder, it's supposed to afford new players an opportunity to 
connect without having to fork out a small fortune to do so. I can only hope 
that people understand and see this, and instead of selfishly saying no, see 
what it's trying to do, who it can impact and at least understand. I definitely 
understand that RIR policy can change in as little as 12 months and it very 
well could happen that policies will change that see the exhaustion policies 
implemented over the last 15 years all undone for the sake of being able to get 
a quick /20 and for space to disappear in a few years (again) which I don't 
really think is the right way to go. This is a second chance to purposefully 
ration out a finite resource.

Regards,
Christopher Hawker
________________________________
From: David Conrad <d...@virtualized.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 10:24 AM
To: Christopher Hawker <ch...@thesysadmin.au>
Cc: North American Operators' Group <nanog@nanog.org>
Subject: Re: The Reg does 240/4

Christopher,

On Feb 13, 2024, at 2:15 PM, Christopher Hawker <ch...@thesysadmin.au> wrote:
Let's not think about ourselves for a moment, and think about the potential 
positive impact that this could bring.

Let’s assume that the class E checks in all IP stacks and application code that 
do or can connect to the Internet are magically removed (not going to argue 
feasibility of this) and control of 240/4 is put into the hands of IANA to 
allocate to the RIRs. Subsequent steps would be:

1. RIRs, following 
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/allocation-ipv4-rirs-2012-02-25-en, would 
request new /8s, and receive those allocations.
2. Entities[*] with pent up demand would submit requests and have those 
requests filled by the RIRs
3. While more /8s in 240/4 remain, go to step 1
4. Return to status quo ante.

In other words, while the IANA free pool is not (again) empty, network 
operators would be able to get IPv4 address space at a fraction of the market 
price, and then we’d go back to the way things are now.

This suggests the length of time the primary benefit (cheap IPv4 addresses) 
would be enjoyed depends on RIR allocation policies.  ISTR a comment from you 
earlier suggesting that based on current consumption rates, 240/4 would fulfill 
needs for 50 years.  However, this appears to assume that current “soft 
landing” (etc) policies would remain in place.  Why would you assume that?  I 
would imagine there would be non-trivial pressure from the RIR memberships to 
return to the pre-runout policy regime which was burning through multiple /8s 
in months. In particular, I’d think the large scale buyers of address space (as 
well as IP market speculators) who tend to be the most active in RIR policy 
forums would jump at the opportunity to get “huge tracts of land” at bargain 
basement prices again.

This doesn’t seem all that positive to me, particularly because it’s temporary 
since the underlying problem (limited resource, unlimited demand) cannot be 
addressed.  What positive impact do you predict?

Thanks,
-drc
* I’ve purposefully ignored the geopolitical aspect of this here. In reality, I 
suspect there would be pressure for ‘entities’ to include countries, etc.


Reply via email to