[ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region

[william at elan.net]

Add the following into this since we're talking about African Region.

"4. All allocations and assignments for African Portion of ARIN Region 
 will be made out of distinct /8 reserved for such purpose and it should
 be reported to IANA which ip block is reserved for African Region. The 
 first such reserved African Region ip block shall be 196/8"

Reasoning is to do it similar to LACNIC (for which ARIN was using 200/8
for all allocations) and when AfriNIC to ready to be able to transfer /8 
to it with as little outside pollution as possible, plus since we have 
this special /22 allocation policy, it would be good to have exact /8 
identified in ARIN region as being used for /22 allocations.

Reason for 196/8 is because this ip block currently has enough free space
(9227 /24 blocks allocated - 14%, 56309 /24 ip blocks not allocated - 85%) 
for Africa and of the allocation 14% of the blocks, about 1/3 are already 
for organizations in Africa - largest portion of African allocations then 
any other ip block ARIN has. Do note that currently IANA identifies 196/8 
as "Various Registries - Early Internic Registrations" which generally 
means ARIN is not allowed to make current registrations out of it (but I 
have in fact seen new registrations as close as 2001 made to africa out of 
this ip block), ARIN should oficially request IANA to change it and 
identify to IANA that it will be making new allocations out of this ip 
block for African portion of the net.

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Member Services wrote:

> ARIN welcomes feedback and discussion about the following policy 
> proposal in the weeks leading to the ARIN Public Policy Meeting 
> in Chicago, Illinois, scheduled for October 22-23, 2003. All feedback 
> received on the mailing list about this policy proposal will be 
> included in the discussions that will take place at the upcoming 
> Public Policy Meeting. 
> 
> This policy proposal discussion will take place on the ARIN Public 
> Policy Mailing List. Subscription information is available at
> http://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/index.html 
> 
> Member Services 
> American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) 
> 
> ### * ###
> 
> Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for the Africa 
>                          Portion of the ARIN Region
> 
> 1. Minimum Allocation. The minimum allocation size for ISPs from the 
> African portion of the ARIN region is /22. 
> 
> 2. Allocation Criteria. 
> 
> a. The requesting organization must show the efficient utilization of
> an entire previously allocated /22 from their upstream ISP. This 
> allocation (/22) may have been provided by an ISP's upstream 
> provider(s), and does not have to be contiguous address space. The 
> organization must meet the requirement of efficient use of 4 /24s.
> 
> b. A multi-homed organization must show the efficient utilization of
> an entire previously allocated /23 from their upstream ISP. This 
> allocation (/23) may have been provided by an ISP's upstream 
> provider(s), and does not have to be contiguous address space. The 
> organization must meet the requirement of efficient use of 2 /24s. 
> 
> 3. Utilization Reporting and Justification. All other ARIN policies 
> regarding the reporting of justification information for the 
> allocation of IPv4 address space will remain in effect. 
> 
> ******************************************************************** 
> 
> Discussion: 
> 
> This proposal is the result of the discussion and agreement of those
> ISPs in the ARIN region that were in attendance at the AfriNIC 
> meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 17, 2003. 
> 
> This policy proposal is submitted with the intent it only be applied
> to the Africa portion of the ARIN region, i.e., those countries in 
> Africa that are in the ARIN region. 
> 
> It is proposed the minimum allocation criteria and minimum allocation
> size for ISPs in Africa be modified. Specifically, the following 
> modifications to IPv4 policy are proposed: 
> 
> Change the minimum allocation size from a /20 to /22. 
> Change the ISP criteria for obtaining an allocation to the following. 
> 
> CRITERIA POINT 1 
> 
> Current Criteria: The current IPv4 policy for ISPs calls for "the 
> efficient utilization of an entire previously allocated /20 from 
> their upstream ISP" in order to qualify for a /20 allocation from
> ARIN. 
> 
> Proposed Criteria: It is proposed the IPv4 policy for ISPs call for 
> "the efficient utilization of an entire previously allocated /22 
> from their upstream ISP" in order to qualify for a /22 allocation 
> from ARIN. 
> 
> CRITERIA POINT 2 
> 
> Current Criteria: The current IPv4 multi-homed policy states "Multi-
> homed organizations that have efficiently utilized a /21 may be 
> allocated a /20." 
> 
> Proposed Criteria: It is proposed the IPv4 multi-homed policy state 
> that, "Multi-homed organizations that have efficiently utilized a 
> /23 may be allocated a /22." Due to the emerging nature of Internet 
> services in Africa and the economic environment, it is often not 
> possible for ISPs to meet the current ARIN criteria for the smallest 
> allocation size of a /20, or to obtain the IPv4 address space they 
> need from an upstream provider in their area of operation. It is due 
> to these reasons, and others listed below, that this proposal is 
> submitted. 
> 
> Arguments for Policy Change 
> 
> The economies of Africa and those of other countries in the ARIN 
> region (United States and Canada) are not of the same scale. The 
> number of Internet users inside Africa is much fewer than in the 
> other countries in the ARIN region. Whereas it may be reasonable to
> expect that the user numbers in North America support an ISP's 
> ability to meet the current ARIN IPv4 criteria, it is not reasonable
> in Africa. Unable to meet the current criteria to obtain IPv4 address
> space from ARIN, and unable to obtain adequate address space from 
> upstream providers; African ISPs must resort to solutions such as 
> NAT, or sometimes are simply not able to provide services to 
> customers due to the lack of IPv4 address space. Lack of adequate 
> IPv4 address space may be slowing down the growth and development of
> the Internet in Africa. 
> 
> Proposed Timetable for Implementation 
> 
> It is requested this policy proposal be discussed on the ARIN public 
> policy mailing list and at the ARIN public policy meeting in October
> 2003. It is further requested this policy proposal receive immediate 
> attention of the ARIN Advisory Council and Board of Trustees 
> following the October 2003 meeting for implementation before the 
> close of the 2003 calendar year. Implementation of this policy change
> is critical to the growth and development of the Internet in the 
> Africa portion of the ARIN region.