[ppml] Getting aggressive about vetting

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> My guess is that doing some very simple things like this would 
> likely uncover a large amount of unused space.

It's easy to be suspicious and it's easy to assume the worst in other
people. It's easy to guess. But it's not easy to come to consensus on
public policies.

When the atmosphere is poisoned with ungrounded suspicions, and
unsubstantiated guesses it is even harder.

The fact is that the network *IS* growing. Everybody's network is
growing except for a few cases where companies are sliding towards
bankruptcy. The fact of growth means more addresses are being used. This
also means that if any company has some fat internally, address-wise,
because of the telecom collapse, they are likely using it up as we
speak.

No amount of auditing will change that basic fact of growth which drives
IPv4 towards exhaustion. Even the best estimates of idle addresses
tucked away here and there, only suggest enough to provide a few more
months growth.

It is not ARIN's job to solve the IPv4 exhaustion problem. ARIN has
addresses and it hands them out to people who will *USE* them. ARIN has
IPv4 addresses which are becoming in short supply, and it has IPv6
addresses which are plentiful. Ask for what you want, and if ARIN has
them in stock, you will get them. If ARIN's supply of IPv4 dries up,
that is not an ARIN problem. 

However, there is one aspect of IPv4 exhaustion which does fall into
ARIN's lap. That is education. ARIN could do more to publicise the fact
that IPv4 supply is running low while at the same time IPv6 uptake is
slow. What percentage of ARIN allocees (orgs that have a direct
allocation) have also received an IPv6 direct allocation. What
percentage of assignees have received an IPv6 direct assignment. ARIN
can't force people to use IPv6 but it can provide more information about
IPv6 uptake which will help educate people to the situation. In fact,
such IPv6 uptake stats should be released by ARIN in the form of
press-releases to the technology press, things like Information Week and
CIO magazine.

--Michael Dillon