[ARIN-consult] [ARIN-Suggestions] Response to Suggestion 2015.9: CONVERT IPV4 COUNTDOWN TO SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

[David Farmer]

On 7/6/15 16:51 , ARIN wrote:
> ARIN has issued its response to ACSP Suggestion 2015.9. The suggestion
> and response text are provided below. This suggestion is now closed and
> is available at:
>
> https://www.arin.net/participate/acsp/suggestions/2015-9.html
>
> Regards,
>
> Communications and Member Services
> American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
>
> ****
> Suggestion: *
>
> Value to Community: As the available IPv4 free pool becomes
> progressively more infinitesimal, the legibility of the tiny fraction of
> a /8 remaining will be much better in scientific notation. For example,
> today we are at 0.00847. 8.47E-3 is a bit easier to read. As the decimal
> moves farther to the left, the effect will be more pronounced.
> This is semi-tongue in cheek, but I couldn't resist. The reality is I
> don't expect the counter to be relevant long enough for this suggestion
> to get implemented. It's time to recognize that IPv4 is over and turn
> our focus to IPv6 deployment.
>
> *Response:*
>
> Thank you for your suggestion (2015-9) on the topic of changing how ARIN
> displays the last remaining IPv4 free pool inventory. Although this type
> of notation could be helpful to some, we have received only one
> suggestion (from you) to make this change. We agree with your statement
> that indicates the IPv4 free pool may deplete sooner than we could
> prioritize this suggestion for implementation. For that reason, we are
> closing this suggestion without taking further action.
> Thank you for using the ARIN Consultation and Suggestion Process.

While I agree with the response given to the specific suggestion of 
using scientific notation, it may be useful to consider part of the 
value statement more as problem statement.  As the available IPv4 free 
pool becomes progressively more infinitesimal, representing the 
available free pool as /8 equivalents will become more and more problematic.

The primary point being that an accurate representation of the free pool 
inventory will be useful even if it is in fact zero, however usefulness 
of the current representation, based on a /8, is degrading and almost 
useless at this point.

Given that the free pool is currently slightly more than 500 /24s, and 
not likely to exceed more than a couple thousand /24s for the 
foreseeable future, I would recommend changing the representation from 
/8 to /24 equivalents.  This would probably be forever, but if somehow 
the inventory made it above say 20 or 30 thousand /24s then maybe the 
representation could be increased to /16 equivalents or beyond as 
appropriate.

If necessary I can submit this as a new suggestions.

Thanks


-- 
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David Farmer               Email: farmer at umn.edu
Office of Information Technology
University of Minnesota
2218 University Ave SE     Phone: 1-612-626-0815
Minneapolis, MN 55414-3029  Cell: 1-612-812-9952
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