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

[Mury]

> It was already pointed out that portable space is needed for multihoming
> and, in Africa, there are more frequent outages for single-homed
> providers, therefore in order to increase service levels a provider
> needs to multihome. And since these are smaller companies on average
> it makes sense to allocate them smaller portable blocks to avoid
> wasting IP addresses.

You can't get IPs from one upstream and have your other one announce that
block?

> Since current policies make it impossible for African ISPs to get
> portable blocks, current policies are making multihoming impossible
> therefore current policies are an indirect cause of low service
> levels in Africa.

I guess I'm still missing the point.  Why can't they get IPs from one
upstream provider and announce those IPs through 2 or more paths?

> >However there are no reasons given.  Why are smaller ISPs in Africa
> unable
> >to obtain IP space from upstream providers?
>
> We went through this discussion several years ago when U.S. ISPs were a
> lot smaller on average. The issue is not lack of IP space, it is lack
> of portable IP space. An upstream provider cannot issue portable IP space,
> only an RIR like ARIN can do that.

I didn't think any IP space was "portable."  Sure it belongs to one
entity, but their customers can't move that IP space.  Where does the
chain end?

We did just fine using our upstream's space until we got our own
"portable" space.  Ya, I bitched and moaned just like everyone else does
when we had to renumber, but it didn't kill me.

> In this special case, I don't see a problem with setting special policies
> for one geographic area. This is a transitional policy that is part of the
> process of setting up an African RIR to handle the needs of ISPs that are
> now served by RIPE and ARIN and APNIC. I would be opposed to special
> policies
> for California or Newfoundland but I support them for continental Africa.

This brings up a new question for me.  When AfriNIC becomes a reality are
they going to implement this policy any way?  If so, we may as well do it
now.  I don't agree with it, but if it's a future reality why wait.

Is there any accountability on the part of a RIR to the other RIR's or to
ICAAN?  For example, could RIPE implement some policies that are good for
their members, but are obviously poor for the Internet community as a
whole?

Thanks.

Mury