[arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-137 Global Policy for post exhaustion IPv4 allocation mechanisms by the IANA

[Martin Hannigan]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 1:49 PM, Jeffrey Lyon
<jeffrey.lyon at blacklotus.net> wrote:

[ clip ]


> >From the APNIC transcript:
>
> --
> Why did we do this? Without this policy, any space returned to the
> IANA would be stranded, because we have triggered the allocation of
> the last /8s from IANA, it's questionable as to what would happen to
> returned space, because there's no current mechanism for IANA to
> distribute space to the RIRs, especially space that's smaller than a
> /8.
> --
>
> Is this factual, or does APNIC have a policy requiring the return of
> unused space to IANA? Would IANA even accept returns at this point?
> Additionally:

APNIC has no requirement to return address to IANA. Future actions
directing the IANA specifically related to this issue are non
existent. That means that between the IANA and the NRO, we could end
up with completely unpredictable and undesirable results.


> As evidence to that, Interop returned almost a full /8 and their press
> release is quite clear, I'll read it from it here: "After the hold
> period, ARIN will follow global policy at that time and return it to
> the global free pool or distribute the space to those organizations in
> the ARIN region with documented need." So, I think it's very clear
> that if there is a global policy in place that allows ARIN to return
> this space to IANA, they will do that, if they think that's the right
> thing to do.
> --
>
> I for one, do not.
>

I highly doubt that any address space will ever be returned to the
IANA. Aside from that, the proposal is weak in many areas and is
unlikely to reach consensus in the ARIN region anyhow and IMHO. We
also already have adopted a proposal to address this issue. It's
unfortunate that at least one region opted for politics over
cooperation hence here we are again. What I find most interesting with
this latest proposal is that need seems to be rapidly collapsing as a
concrete basis for continued allocations.  YMMV.

Best,

-M<