Draft Policy ARIN-2012-4: Return to 12 Month Supply and Reset Trigger to /8 in Free Pool [Archived]

Status: Abandoned

Tracking Information

Discussion Tracking

Mailing List:

Formal introduction on PPML on 14 March 2012

Origin - ARIN-prop-162

Draft Policy - 14 March 2012 (with staff assessment)

Abandoned by the AC - 30 April 2012

Public Policy Mailing List

ARIN Public Policy Meeting:

ARIN XXIX

ARIN Advisory Council:

AC Shepherds:
Robert Seastrom and David Farmer

• 8 March 2012
• 25 April 2012

ARIN Board of Trustees:

Revisions:

Implementation:

Draft Policy ARIN-2012-4
Return to 12 Month Supply and Reset Trigger to /8 in Free Pool

Date: 14 March 2012

Policy statement:

4.2.4.4. Subscriber Members After One Year

After an organization has been a subscriber member of ARIN for one year, they may choose to request up to a twelve (12) month supply of IP addresses.

When the ARIN Free Pool is down to the equivalent of one /8, excluding all special reservations, the length of supply that an organization may request will be reduced. An organization may choose to request up to a three (3) month supply of IP addresses. Any request that reduces the ARIN free pool below the /8 threshold above will trigger the reduction for that and all subsequent requests by all organizations.

Rationale:

There has been discussion in the community that ARIN’s inventory of IPv4 addresses may be excessive given the reduction in the rate of consumption which is concurrent with the reduction to a 3 month supply when ARIN received its last /8 at IANA run-out. And that such an excess inventory in the ARIN region may be damaging the transition to IPv6 by elongating the amount of time between ARIN’s exhaustion and exhaustion by other RIR’s, thus creating a dangerous skew across parts of Internet in the need to transition to IPv6. One solution for this issue is to increase ARIN’s rate of consumption by restoring the a 12 month supply of addresses.

ARIN’s stewardship responsibilities are of primary concern in this region. However, restoring the a 12 month supply of addresses is consistent with these stewardship responsibilities. Asking businesses to request addresses on a three month basis with such large inventory available at ARIN unnecessarily increases the cost and complexity of operating networks; repeated and slow interactions with ARIN, duplicate paperwork requirements and an inefficient use of resources by all compound the pain.

The original intent of ARIN-2009-8 “Equitable IPv4 Run-Out” wasn’t necessarily to slow the consumption of IPv4 but to limit the competitive disadvantage created by unequal run-out. However, when the trigger of IANA run-out was selected it wasn’t anticipated that ARIN would have more that 5 /8s in inventory when the IANA run-out occurred. Therefore, restoring the 12-month supply and resetting the trigger for a reduction to a 3-month supply to a locally controlled event seems consistent with the original intent of ARIN-2009-8 as well.

Considering that the ARIN region has consumed significantly less than a /8 since the 3-month supply was triggered at IANA run-out approximately a year ago; Resetting the trigger for the 3-month supply to /8 in the free pool, excluding all special reservations, seems reasonable. The special reservations to be excluded, should include all reservations made in policy, including those in sections 4.4, 4.10, any new reservations made by subsequent policies, and may also include reservations for draft policies in process at the board’s discretion, such as Draft Policy ARIN-2011-5: Shared Transition Space for IPv4 Address Extension.

Please Note: By triggering on any request that would drop the free pool below /8 it is possible that there will be slightly more or slightly less than /8 available after the triggering request is fulfilled. The size of the triggering request and the exact amount above /8 available in the free pool will determine how much more or less than /8 will be available after the triggering request is fulfilled. This could be as much as 3/4 of the triggering request above /8 or as much as 1/4 of the triggering request below /8 available after fulfilling the triggering request.

To help clarify how this policy proposal changes Section 4.2.4.4, the current policy text as of Feb 10, 2012 is included below;

4.2.4.4. Subscriber Members After One Year

After an organization has been a subscriber member of ARIN for one year, they may choose to request up to a 12-month supply of IP addresses.

When ARIN receives its last /8, by IANA implementing section 10.4.2.2, the length of supply that an organization may request will be reduced. An organization may choose to request up to a 3-month supply of IP addresses.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate