[arin-ppml] Revised - Draft Policy ARIN-2020-3: IPv6 Nano-allocations

[Owen DeLong]

> As for 40,000 IPv6 customers on a /40, nothing in ARIN policy prevents assigning /56's or even less at this level or even at a higher level than 3Xsmall. There are even operators that only provide a /64 to each node.

Indeed, there is at least one very large eyeball ISP that tragically assigns /60s to their residential customers even though they have so much IPv6 space that they it is impossible for their fees to increase if they use more (based on their existing IPv4 holdings).

> I know many operators that give out /60's or /56's by default and do not provide a /48 except upon request.  Some smarter ones actually do sparse allocation of these smaller sizes, so they can be expanded to /48 when a request is made.

Indeed… As sad and destructive as this practice is, it is widespread either due to v4-think (most common) or due to self-imposed constraints that make little sense (the provider mentioned above told me that they did not want to request a /12 to support their customers because they felt it would be too much space).

Current ARIN policy would allow said provider to expand their block to a /12 without significant difficulty and without increasing their fees.

Admittedly, if they divest of enough IPv4 to make IPv6 controlling for their fees, the change from their current IPv6 it would be a >$1b/year company worrying over $16,000 vs. $32,000.

Owen