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

[william at elan.net]

Procedural matters are sometimes important too as is informing the public
about things like regional reserved blocks. I did quite a bit of statistical
analysis of RIR whois data in the last few weeks so I already figured you 
were using it for African allocations - however if it were somebody else 
they would never know the ip block is actively being used for African region
(and that 197/8 is on reserve when AFRINIC becomes RIR). For LACNIC everybody
knew in part because it was mentioned by IANA and the ip block was also
mentioned as part of statistics for active ARIN blocks.

If you do not want it as part of policy and are willing to self regulate
(I'll hold you to this promise, I now have scripts running that can easily 
detect new regional allocations and in which ip blocks they are being made) 
to make sure all ip allocations being made to African region are being 
made in that ip block, then at the very least:
 1. Contact IANA to change the ip blocks designation in their file
    at http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space
 2. Put information on ARIN website by listing it as one of ARIN ip 
    blocks and commenting that it is being used for African region
 3. If policy is passed inform public about minimum allocation & 
    assignment size that applies to that ip block

For those interested for last 1.5 years, I have kept my own file on how 
ip allocations are made for /8 ip blocks to RIRs (its based on IANA data, 
but I added my own comments and new fields), its at:
 http://www.completewhois.com/iana-ipv4-addresses.txt

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Ray Plzak wrote:

> ARIN already exclusively uses 196 /8 for allocations to the African part
> of the ARIN region.  ARIN is in negotiation with RIPE NCC and APNIC with
> using this block for their allocations.  Since this is a procedural
> matter and not a policy matter wrt to a specific /8 the policy propsers,
> (the African ISPs) did not think that this was important.
> 
> Ray
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-ppml at arin.net [mailto:owner-ppml at arin.net] On 
> > Behalf Of william at elan.net
> > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:25 PM
> > To: Member Services
> > Cc: ppml at arin.net
> > Subject: Re: [ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation 
> > Policy for the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region
> > 
> > 
> > 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.