[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal 110: Preservation of minimal IPv4 Resources for New and Small Organizations and for IPv6 Transition

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> > Then you should study survival texts. Turns out that if you 
> are stuck in a wilderness situation with minimal food, you do 
> not actually prolong your life by self-rationing. Your 
> chances of survival actually increase if you continue to eat 
> normally until the food is gone.
> >
> Not if you can drop your metabolism rate to match. IPv4 
> utilization metabolism rate could be cut quite drastically.

Also, you can eat rubbish to extend your life in a situation
like this, i.e. stuff that you might not ordinarily eat mixed
with dirt. I'm not joking. This is exactly what Cabeza de Vaca
did somewhere in Texas (along with a tribe of Indians) as he
tried to make his way back to Spanish territory. 

If you go to this URL, http://www.floridahistory.com/cab-txt3.html
search for "pounding" and read the whole paragraph, you will
see what I mean.

What does this have to do with IPv4 addresses? There is really
no shortage for those who are willing to eat a bit of rubbish.
I know of one company which uses 1/8 through 8/8 and 196/8
internally since before RFC 1918 addresses were created.
126/8 was assigned to Softbank BB in Japan for their 
nationwide network. For those who want predictability in
the quality of rubbish addresses, this is a good block. 
Many people block large chunks of address space allocated to
Chinese networks. Why not use some of these rubbish addresses
as well?

There is plenty of IPv4 food available for the small fry that
might end up in desperate straits when ARIN's cupboard has
gone bare. I don't see any good reason for ARIN to try and
ration out a small reserve supply when there is plenty of
more or less nutritious rubbish around.

Some people may be shocked that I am saying, "Let them eat
garbage", but the fact is that this whole discussion is
already about an outrageously unlikely scenario. And in the
real world, when people actually do fall into dire straits
like this, they still eat the garbage just like Cabeza de Vaca
did back in the 1520's. It is a successful survival strategy.

> They might say that we have not spurred its adoption 
> sufficiently, not just ARIN but as a community of 
> organizations and users, in order to cash in on IPv4, to 
> maintain market lockup and other similarly nasty things.

ARIN's job is not to orchestrate the entire Internet, not even
the North American Internet. We just manage IP addresses in
a way that is fair to all organizations. That doesn't necessarily
mean that all organizations feel "fairly treated". Quite likely
most people feel unfairly treated bu rationally, they realize
that they are not being made to suffer less than their competitors.

If you are saying that ARIN must accept this policy for CYA,
then I object, because ARIN has done a lot of other work
in outreach that is more than adequate for CYA.

> This policy could make things better, were they to head deep 
> south. I believe deliberate inaction is not responsible.

This policy could also make things worse by holding out the
hope of something that ARIN simply CANNOT give. If this 
policy passes, it will be misinterpreted in the press and
people will come expecting a handout and get nothing.

> There is nothing ARIN can do for the larger orgs, no matter 
> what. 

Agreed. By now larger orgs know that there is at most, one
kick left at the can and that will be the last IPv4 allocation
EVER.

> There is something ARIN can do for the new and small 
> orgs. Therefore, they should do it, while they still can.

There is a qualitative difference here, it is not just a matter
of organizational scale. If a large org makes bad investments,
they can get money from the bank to cover up their mistakes and
fix things. But if a small org, encouraged by this wierd policy,
makes mistakes, the banks will pull all their loans and force
the business into bankruptcy. We should not be holding out
false hopes. If you are a small business that wants to expand
or build networks after Christmas this year, it had better be
using IPv6 or some form of NAT. If by some miraculous chance
you actuall get an ARIN allocation next year, count your blessings
as you reduce operational costs (no NAT) and perhaps repurpose
a box or two for some more profitable use.

That is the kind of scenario that we are discussing here.

--Michael Dillon