[arin-ppml] Taking back UNUSED addresses.

[Leo Bicknell]

In a message written on Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 03:19:15PM -0500, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> The only official stats I've seen that break out legacy assignments are at:
> http://www.arin.net/meetings/minutes/ARIN_XIX/PDF/monday/Legacy_stats_Plzak.pdf
> 
> According to that preso, 56% of legacy assignments that don't show up, 
> even partially, in the DFZ.  Also, 52% of the network records and 48% of 

That is what I figured would be the case.

> Not that any of this is going to make any significant difference to the 
> exhaustion date, but IMHO it does make ARIN less of a target for 
> complaints (legal or moral) if we've cleaned up the most obvious waste 
> of space before we have to start denying qualified new applicants.

I agree 100% this will make no significant difference in the IPv4
exhaustion date.  My worry here has nothing to do with "extending"
IPv4.

Today there is a very limited motivation to hijack these fallow
blocks.  Generally hijacking is only done by "bad actors" pushing
spam or malware, and thus is a relatively minor problem that can
be kept under control.

When there are no more free IPv4 addresses though everyone who needs
space has an instant motive to hijack a unused legacy block.  This
activity could grow quite frenzied quite quickly, and cause ARIN
to expend a lot of time and effort to try and keep records accurate.

I would much prefer if this space was all returned to the free pool
first such that it could be given out and used actively, and thus
not be a hijacking target.

I think we need to find a way to solve this, and solve it quickly.
If it means we have to let someone using a single IP address keep
their /16, that's fine with me as long as it is announced on the
global internet.  The legacy space problem isn't about taking away
anyone's space.

Unfortunately I can't think of a more effective way to figure out
which space to reclaim than to tell all those still using the space
to sign a contract and pay a fee yearly, and any block without a
contract after a particular date will be automatically reclaimed.

It's quite possible the LRSA still needs work to accomplish this goal,
but the time is fading fast.

The down side is huge, if 56% of the legacy space ends up being a
"free for all" of hijackers trying to get space it will cost all
of us in the form of huge operational issues, costs for ARIN, and
ultimately the decrease in value of IPv4.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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