[ppml] IPv4 address exhaustion policy

[Marshall Eubanks]

Hello;

On Feb 5, 2007, at 4:01 AM, Owen DeLong wrote:

>> they don't use on the public network. ARIN's main job is to come up
>> with
>> a clear and public policy on address recycling similar to that  
>> used by
>> the telephony network. If you cease to use a telephone number, the
>> network operator will hold it unused for a certain period of time,  
>> and
>> then reissue it to another subscriber. ARIN should have a similar
>> recycling policy for IPv4 addresses.
>>
> The problem with that theory is that ARIN isn't TPC, it's more like
> NANPA.
> NANPA doesn't assign end-telephone numbers, they just assign
> AC and Prefixes (much like ARIN).  To make matters even more
> complicated, with the advent of LNP (which we will eventually need
> to address in IP, no matter how much the aggregation crowd wants
> to pretend otherwise), phone numbers move around independent
> of their original NANPA block assignments.
>
> Where ARIN differs from NANPA is that ARIN also issues some
> direct assignments (which, to the best of my knowledge, end-
> subscribers can't get NANPA NPA-NXX assignments) in addition
> to Allocations to LIR/ISPs (which more resemble the NANPA
> services).
>
> i agree that ARIN should start considering policy for post-exhaustion
> management of the address space, but, I don't think that a TPC
> style reclamation process quite fits the bill.
>
> For one thing, what mechanism would you use to determine an
> address was no longer in use?  Would you use different methods
> for post-ARIN allocations/assignments vs. pre-ARIN legacy
> assignments in the ARIN region?  If so, what would you do for
> each of those cases?
>

The only safe mechanism I could see is that they are not paying the  
bill, which the
RIR could tell them. The RIR could send out termination notices, wait  
a decent amount of time and
inform IANA. But, how is this different from now ? After all, it says  
right in the ARIN policy manual

4.2.1.2. Annual Renewal

An annual fee for registered space is due by the anniversary date of  
the ISP's first allocation from ARIN. ISPs should take care to ensure  
that their annual renewal payment is made by their anniversary due  
date in accordance with the Registration Services Agreement. If not  
paid by the anniversary date, the address space may be revoked.  
Please review the Annual Renewal/Maintenance Fees Page for more details.

So, it's not clear to me that any action is actually needed here.

For pre-ARIN assignments, you could check for the bankruptcy of the
original assignee, but that would not necessary be safe (companies  
may die without going
bankrupt, and, of course, successor entities routinely pick up such  
assets).
What you could do, although this will not be politically popular I  
suspect, is to start raising the

fees or the burden to get space as exhaustion nears, and then provide  
a discount / rebate / easier assignment for companies that recover  
lost space. In other words, put the burden on the people that want  
the space.

Suppose that if you could show that

- an address block was owned by a bankrupt or defunct entity and

- it had not been advertised since the bankruptcy or for the past  
year, whichever is longest and

- efforts to contact the former assignees were fruitless, including  
at least some effort by ARIN or

- the previous assignees or their successors had signed a quitclaim  
deed.

then, you could get the space.  As it gets harder or more expensive  
to get "new" space, this would become

more attractive.

Regards

Marshall



> Owen
>
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