Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2014-13: Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24

Tue May 20 08:08:14 EDT 2014

Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2014-13
Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24

On 15 May 2014 the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted "ARIN-prop-208 
Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24" as Draft Policy 
ARIN 2014-13: Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24.

The AC then recommended ARIN-2014-13 for adoption, making it a 
Recommended Draft Policy.

ARIN-2014-13 is below and can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2014_13.html

You are encouraged to discuss Draft Policy 2014-13 on the PPML prior to
the upcoming ARIN Public Policy Consultation at NANOG 61. Both the 
discussion on the list and at the meeting will be used by the ARIN 
Advisory Council to determine the community consensus for adopting this 
as policy.

The ARIN Policy Development Process can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html

Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/index.html

Regards,

Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

## * ##

Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2014-13
Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24

Date: 20 May 2014

AC's assessment of conformance with the Principles of Internet Number 
Resource Policy:

Draft Policy ARIN-2014-13: Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment 
Units to /24 - This proposal will lower all allocation(s) and 
assignment(s) of IPv4 address in section 4.2 and 4.3 to a /24 minimum. 
The policy would also remove section 4.9 as the allocation and 
assignment sizes were now larger than 4.2 and 4.3. As noted in the staff 
report it will also remove the maximum initial allocation that was used 
with the examples in 4.2.2.2. The changes to the NRPM are fair in that 
they would treat all resource applicants equally. They are technically 
sound and have received support from the community.

Problem Statement:

As we approach runout, more and more end users and smaller ISPs will be 
unable to obtain space from their upstreams and will be seeking space 
from ARIN. In order to meet these needs to the extent possible and to 
make policy more fair to a broader range of the ARIN constituency, we 
should reduce the minimum assignment and allocation units for IPv4 to 
/24 across the board.

Policy statement:

Remove all references to minimum allocations /20 and /22 replacing them 
with the term allocation or with /24 when referencing minimum size blocks.

Change the title of 4.2.2.1 to "ISP Requirements" with revised text stating:

All ISP organizations must satisfy the following requirements...thus 
eliminating the entire Multi-homed section and subsections along with 
other superfluous example text.

Delete the special case allocations/assignments for the Caribbean as the 
new /24 minimums are an improvement.

Comments:
a. Timetable for implementation: Immediate b. A red line version has 
been included

Full text version of changes for easy reference:

4.2.1.5. Minimum allocation
In general, ARIN allocates /24 and larger IP address prefixes to ISPs. 
If allocations smaller than /24 are needed, ISPs should request address 
space from their upstream provider.

4.2.2.1 ISP Requirements
All ISP organizations must satisfy the following requirements:

4.2.2.1.1 Use of /24
The efficient utilization of an entire previously allocated /24 from 
their upstream ISP. This allocation may have been provided by an ISP’s 
upstream provider(s), and does not have to be contiguous address space.

4.2.2.1.3. Three months
Provide detailed information showing specifically how the requested 
allocation will be utilized within three months.

4.2.2.1.4. Renumber and return
ISPs receiving a new allocation may wish to renumber out of their 
previously allocated space. In this case, an ISP must use the new 
allocation to renumber out of that previously allocated block of address 
space and must return the space to its upstream provider.

4.2.2.2. [section number retired]

4.3.2 Minimum assignment

4.3.2.1. [section moved to 4.3.2]
The minimum block of IP address space assigned by ARIN to end-users is a 
/24. If assignments smaller than /24 are needed, end-users should 
contact their upstream provider.

4.3.2.2 [section number retired]

4.9 [section number retired]

##########

ARIN STAFF ASSESSMENT
Assessment of: ARIN-prop-208 Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment 
Units to /24
Date of Assessment: 11 May 2014

1. Summary (Staff Understanding)

This policy would reduce the minimum allocation/assignment size to /24 
for all networks, whether end user or ISP and whether single or 
multi-homed. Additionally, it would eliminate the existing multi-homed 
policies.

2. Comments

A. ARIN Staff Comments

1. It is not clear in this proposal what criteria would be used to 
determine any allocation size other than a /24. Current policy provides 
clear criteria for how to qualify for a /22, /21, and a /20. Would the 
same criteria still apply for organizations that request more than an 
initial allocation of a/24?

2. Staff uses current criteria defined in 4.2.2.1.1 in conjunction with 
section 4.2.1.4 (slow start) to establish a de facto /20 maximum initial 
allocation size for ISPs new to ARIN. Staff would recommend that a 
maximum initial allocation size of a /20 be noted in section 4.2.1.5 to 
codify existing practice and provide clarity, and that it be renamed 
to “Minimum and Maximum Allocation”.

3. This proposal would benefit smaller ISPs who are unable to qualify 
currently under ARIN IPv4 policies, and particularly would be unable to 
qualify for 8.3 and 8.4 transfers in a post-depletion world.
*Note, this was a point raised in the policy experience report in Chicago.

4. ARIN will likely have many discontiguous /24s as we near depletion 
and fewer and fewer larger prefixes. This policy would actually allow 
more organizations to use these smallest prefixes, thus ensuring the 
efficient run-out of ARIN’s IPv4 address pool.

B. ARIN General Counsel - Legal Assessment

This proposal does not appear to pose any legal risk.

3. Resource Impact
This policy would have minimal resource impact from an implementation 
aspect. It is estimated that implementation would occur within 3 months 
after ratification by the ARIN Board of Trustees.

The following would be needed in order to implement:
Updated guidelines and internal procedures
Staff training

4. Proposal/Draft Policy Text Assessed
ARIN-prop-208 Reduce All Minimum Allocation/Assignment Units to /24

Problem Statement:
As we approach runout, more and more end users and smaller ISPs will be 
unable to obtain space from their upstreams and will be seeking space 
from ARIN. In order to meet these needs to the extent possible and to 
make policy more fair to a broader range of the ARIN constituency, we 
should reduce the minimum assignment and allocation units for IPv4 to 
/24 across the board.

Policy statement:
Remove all references to minimum allocations /20 and /22 replacing them 
with the term allocation or with /24 when referencing minimum size blocks.

Change the title of 4.2.2.1 to "ISP Requirements" with revised text stating:
All ISP organizations must satisfy the following requirements...thus 
eliminating the entire Multi-homed section and subsections along with 
other superfluous example text.