[address-policy-wg] 2013-03 New Policy Proposal (No Need - Post-Depletion Reality Adjustment and Cleanup)

* Scott Leibrand

> I was not very clear.  I was just making the (obvious and possibly
> irrelevant) point that LACNIC and AfriNIC won't want to do something
> like 2013-03 until their free pools are exhausted.

Indeed (this goes for the ARIN region too actually).

Something like 2013-03 in a region with an unexhausted free pool would
lead to the Tragedy of the Commons pretty quickly, I'd expect.

>     2) According to Ingrid Wijte's MENOG12 presentation
>     (http://www.menog.org/presentations/menog-12/127-IPv4_Transfers-RIPE_NCC_Update.pdf),
>     there have been only a measly 17 permanent transfers in the RIPE region
>     in the last three months. It would surprise me greatly if the amount of
>     assignments having been made by the LIRs in the same period is not at
>     least two orders of magnitude more.
> 
> 
> I am somewhat baffled by this.  Do you (or does anyone) have a good idea
> as to what ISPs are doing instead?  Are they improving utilization
> efficiency within their network?  Still using up space they got before
> the free pool was exhausted?  Or (I doubt this) putting new users on IPv6?
> 
> I know that the RIPE intra-RIR transfer policy is somewhat strict
> compared to those in APNIC and ARIN (not allowing transfers to end
> users, for example): is that likely playing a part as well?

I can only answer for myself and the LIR I represent, and we're going
for the "improving utilization efficiency" approach. We do absolutely
not want to end up being dependent on transfers for business continuity.
FWIW (and shameless plug alert), what I've been working on to this end
you can read about at http://goo.gl/zVF3O.

> The inter-RIR transfer policies were specifically designed to prevent
> the free pool of one region from being drained via transfers to another
> region. [...]

>     4) Again, ARIN is soon depleting. As I mentioned in the proposal itself,
>     this might cause the ARIN community to do a reality adjustment similar
>     to 2013-03, and rescind the need requirement for inter-region transfers.
>     After all, there is little point in trying to prevent other regions from
>     "bleeding them dry" if they have nothing left anyway. So that's your
>     item #3, essentially. If you're willing to suggest that to the ARIN
>     community now, I'm all for it.
> 
> 
> We will undoubtedly discuss this (at least informally with interested
> parties) at next month's ARIN meeting.  I suspect that if the discussion
> gets any traction, any resulting proposal will be to relax needs
> assessment requirements on transfers and reassignments only after the
> ARIN free pool is exhausted.

Good luck! :-) If indeed the goal of the need requirements of ARIN's
inter-region transfer policy is only there to prevent the draining of
ARIN's free pool, I'd think that the actual (and inevitable) exhaustion
of the free pool should make it rather obvious that the requirement has
outlived its utility, and can be safely removed.

If that happens, especially if you get the ARIN PDP started in advance
so that the requirement is ready to be rescinded immediately when the
pool depletes, the amount of time with a "uncomfortable intermediate
state" isn't likely to be more than a few months at most (both 2012-02
and 2013-03 must first pass the RIPE PDP, and ARIN must still have
addresses left). Making any special policy in either region to handle
that short period is probably not worth the effort.

Tore