[arin-discuss] /29 limit for ARIN SWIP whois

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: arin-discuss-bounces at arin.net
>[mailto:arin-discuss-bounces at arin.net]On Behalf Of Joe Maimon
>Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 7:23 AM
>To: arin-discuss at arin.net
>Subject: [arin-discuss] /29 limit for ARIN SWIP whois
>
>
>Hey all,
>
>Is there any overriding reason to limit ARIN swip to /29 or bigger?
>

Back when that limit was setup, few were assigning a /32 or /30 to
corporations, single IP number assignments invariably were to
residential end users.  Often, to dialup users.  As a result it
seemed logical to make a tradeoff between number of total entries
in the SWIP database with the speed of searching them, and the need
to provide information to the community.

Assignment of less than /29 these days is really prompted by IPv4
conservation efforts.

IPv6 does not have such restrictions, so it would really be meaningless
to allow single IP number SWIPs for IPv6.

ARIN has an alternative to it's whois server - allowing the 
so-called "local numbering authority" (ie: the ISP) the ability
to run their own rwhois server in lieu of filing SWIPS.  That is
what we do, for example.  You can put single IP assignments in
that, if you want, we do.

My belief is that we should be concentrating on making good policy
for IPv6, and forget about IPv4.  It's going to be gone soon anyway.
Since you have an alternative that allows you to list /32's in
rwhois, I suggest you use it, rather than trying to get the rest of
the world to change.

Ted