Return of Legacy Space

Dear colleagues,

In preparation for the ratification of "Global Policy for Post 
Exhaustion IPv4 Allocation Mechanisms by the IANA" (GPP-IPv4-2011) by
the ICANN Board of Directors, we will remove from the available pool of 
IPv4 address space the IPv4 legacy space that has been returned to the
RIPE NCC by various members.

1,368,576 IPv4 addresses were removed from the available pool of IPv4 
address space on 14 March, 2012.

It is intended that any IPv4 legacy space returned to the RIPE NCC will 
be placed in IANA's Recovered IPv4 Pool.

Until now, legacy space returned to the RIPE NCC has been returned to 
the RIPE NCC's IPv4 available pool but is not re-distributed. By 
removing the legacy space from the RIPE NCC's IPv4 available pool, a 
more accurate overview of the actual space that can be distributed can 
be seen.

As legacy space was distributed before the RIR system was introduced,
the RIPE NCC does not have any policy governing the re-distribution of
returned legacy space. We believe that placing this legacy space in the 
IANA's Recovered IPv4 Pool for redistribution to the RIRs will 
contribute to the future well-being of the Internet.

The Global Policy can be found at: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-529

More information about the policy and the ratification process can be
found at:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-26apr11-en.htm

The total amount of available IPv4 space that the RIPE NCC holds can be 
found at:
http://www.ripe.net/internet-coordination/ipv4-exhaustion/ipv4-available-pool-graph

Regards,

Axel Pawlik

Managing Director
RIPE NCC