Scaling ARIN proposal

SS>>The average cost of an IP address drops precipitously under ARIN's
SS>initial >proposal. For $2500 I can get 256 addresses or 8,192
SS>addresses - a drop from >about $9.76 each to under $0.31 each. The
SS>slope of the cost/address curve >gets even worse as you get into the
SS>"medium and higher categories. This is >stupid economics.
SS>>
SS>>Since public IP addresses are a finite resource, each additional
SS>address you >want should cost *more* than the last one. That's how
SS>>the real estate market works. As land becomes scarce, the price of a
SS>lot goes up. Why not license >IP addresses one at a time for $10
SS>each, 10 for $110, 50 for $1000, etc.?


SS>If the sole concern was number space allocation, you'd be right.
SS>What has come out of much of this discussion is that there is a
SS>serious side issue: backbone routing.  It's a technical thing, not
SS>political.  (At least not political on the surface, although what
SS>technical discussions are ever completely non-political.)  I'm still
SS>learning about the problems myself so I can't talk intelligently
SS>myself.

SS>The pricing structure is designed to encourage the consolidation of
SS>IP addresses geographically (both in physical terms and in terms of
SS>the connectivity topology) so to reduce the capacity requirement on
SS>the router. You might think that routing is scalable, but some people
SS>I've talked to (plus papers I have in my files from my APRAnet days)
SS>show that there are significant problems that get real, real nasty as
SS>you increase the number of nodes at a given level.

SS>By the way, the gross revenue is to fund the registry and its
SS>operation. The rate schedule is not intended to *increase* total
SS>revenue, but to use revenue to encourage certain practices which are
SS>(arguably) in the best interest of the Internet.

SS>Stephen Satchell, a founding member of the Internet Press Guild


I understand this but believe it is the wrong way to approach the
problem.  You've said we have an engineering problem yet we are trying
to solve it via economic pressures.  Look at the federal government when
they try to impose political pressures via economics.  It doesn't work
or has an effect they never anticipated.  I'm saying if we have an
engineering problem then come up with an engineering solution or
technology will do it for you.  Do we think that the current suite or
routing protocols is then end of them ?  Applying economic pressure may
lead to the development of other solutions which will solve the
engineering problem and leave ARIN 's function in question.

Jeff Binkley
ASA Network Computing

CMPQwk 1.42 9999