[arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-153 Correct erroneous syntax in NRPM 8.3

[John Curran]

On May 28, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Owen DeLong wrote:
>> To answer your question we would first need to know how to handle the
>> transfer of a smaller block than the party actually qualifies for, and
>> whether it is as a circumvention of policy.  For example: a party (X),
>> needing a /15 for 12 months growth, will get told by ARIN that they
>> will actually only receive a /17 (because we're only providing space 
>> to meet 3 months of need).  If X instead opts to get space from party 
>> (Y), who is is willing to transfer their /16 to X, does ARIN approve 
>> the transfer fully knowing that it is not an exact match but is actually 
>> less then X's documented need?  Or do we tell X that they need to find
>> a willing party Z who has two contiguous /16's available in order to 
>> meet X's *exact* need?
>> 
> 
> The intent of the policy would be that ARIN would decline the particular
> transfer due to mismatch and could reiterate the need to find a /15
> or blocks which can be assembled into a /15 (contiguous bit-aligned
> /16s would qualify, disjoint or non-bit-aligned /16s would not, but
> 8 contiguous bit-aligned /18s would also qualify, for example).

Acknowledged. 

The exact match constraint will obviously make finding acceptable address 
space much more difficult, due to the need to find not just any available 
space up to the documented need, but instead require finding a party which 
has the exact amount of space available and as a contiguous block.

>> If we do approve the /16 transfer to X, then a subsequent request for 
>> a transfer to meet their residual need is both quite likely and would 
>> not be circumvention of policy.  If we reject the transfer due to being
>> smaller than the documented need, then the "end-run" described above
>> cannot occur.
>> 
>> Which interpretation best matches your policy intent?
>> 
> 
> Rejecting the transfer and, as I expected, said end-run would be blocked
> by ARIN. Would the language in 153 as written be interpreted to
> mean that the transfer would be rejected, or, is there further clarification
> of that needed?

As the general principles in 4.1.8 may easily be read to allow a party to 
request a transfer of a smaller block due to availability, and your intent
is clearly to disallow such, it might be best to clarify that point when 
changing the syntax to require transfers in the exact amount the documented 
need of the recipient.

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN