[arin-ppml] Statistics request regarding new entrants (was: Re: Stats request)

[David Huberman]

Owen wrote:

> The word you are looking for there, John, is "has become". We've already seen
> multiple reports from members of the community that they are deadlocked on this
> issue because their upstream will not give them more space and they don't have
> enough space from their upstream to qualify through ARIN.

JC wrote:

> I have heard similar concerns expressed anecdotally.

CJ wrote:
 
> I hosted the lunch topic table at the last ARIN meeting that addressed problems 
> faced by small ISPs.   Everyone at this topic table faced the issue we are discussing.  
> They can't get blocks from their upstream and they can't justify blocks from ARIN. 
> Hopefully some of those folks will speak up here too.  
 
This has been a problem for a long time.  The genesis is section 4.2 of the NRPM, which 
prescribes mechanics which were necessary, and worked, in the mid-to-late 1990s, but
aren't necessary now, and are actually pretty unfair to new and small businesses.  NRPM
4.2 has the unfortunate side effect of giving a competitive advantage to larger (or more 
established) ISPs.

As an ARIN hostmaster for 10 years, I worked with engineers from lots of ISP 
organizations who had difficulty dealing with an upstream -- especially in more rural 
areas where they had very little (if any) choice in who they do business with.

Secondly, the mechanic of "you must use space from an upstream first" is not only
anti-competitive, but it's bad engineering.  Forcing everyone to renumber at least once
(and that's only the folks clueful enough to design a long-term numbering plan that
has only one renumbering round) is not necessary.  We aren't desperate for routing slots 
like in 1996.

I believe NRPM 4.2 should be forward looking, and thus read something like:

4.2.0:
An ISP can obtain an initial allocation of a /24 or larger by demonstrating a need to use 
at least 25% of the space within 90 days, and at least 50% of the space within one year.

4.2.1
An ISP can obtain an additional allocations by demonstrating 80% or better utilization 
of existing address space. The additional allocation block size determination uses the 
criterion in 4.2.0

Then we streamline 4.3 (for end-users) so it looks like:

4.3.0
An end-user can obtain an initial assignment of a /24 or larger by demonstrating a need 
to use at least 25% of the space within 90 days, and at least 50% of the space within one 
year.

4.3.1
An end-user can obtain an additional assignment by demonstrating 80% or better 
utilization of existing address space. The additional assignment block size determination 
uses the criterion in 4.3.0

Then throw in a SWIP section, preserve 4.5 (MDN), and voila, you've updated NRPM 4 to 
be relevant in 2014.  It would remove ARIN policy's very unfair slant to large networks. It
would even out the playing field. 

Remember: one out of every three ISP requests that ARIN fulfills are from new entrants.  
Equality is important.  Good engineering is important, too.


David R Huberman
Microsoft Corporation
Senior IT/OPS Program Manager (GFS)