[arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2021-1: Intentional distinction?

[John Santos]

On 4/19/2021 2:00 PM, John W. O'Brien wrote:
> Good day PPML,
> 
> With Emerson's admonition, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little 
> minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.", firmly in 
> mind, I wonder about a few lingering inconsistencies in the proposed changes.
> 
> Of the different ways that IPs are referred to in the proposed replacements, are 
> any intended to have a different meaning or implication than the others?
> 
> *   "IPv4 address space" (8.2)
> *   "IPv4 address resources" (8.3, 8.4)
> *   "IPv4 addresses" (8.4)
> *   "IPv4 address blocks" (8.5.6, 8.5.7)
> *   "IPv4 space" (8.5.6)
> *   "space" (8.5.7)
> 
> My impression is that there is really only one kind of entity in play here, the 
> canonical name of which is "IPv4 address resource(s)". "blocks" strikes me as 
> semantically equivalent insofar as a block is the unit in which address 
> resources are measured. "addresses" and the variations on "space", imply---or at 
> least encompass---collections of individual addresses that are non-contiguous 
> and/or non-co-terminal with CIDR boundaries.
> 
> -John

"IPv4 address block" has a distinctly different meaning from generic "IPv4 
address space" in policy discussions.  There are many circumstances where the 
number and size of address blocks matters and has important policy implications.

If that wasn't true, ARIN could allocate individual, non-contiguous addresses to 
any recipient.

I think (but am not certain), all the other terms are equivalent.

As to whether the terms are used appropriately or correctly in all instances in 
the PPML, I have no idea.

-- 
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539