ARIN /8s ?

[Stephen Sprunk]

At 06:47 30-06-97 -0700, you wrote:
>Perhaps a better formulation is that an allocation gives one the right to
>exclude others from announcing the number.

Interesting wording...  Does that mean that since net 27 hasn't been
allocated I'm free to advertise it?

>Even a credit card company can't pull back the card on a whim.

Read the fine print; most can cancel your account at any time for any
reason.  The majority of the restrictions are on the reporting they do to
the credit bureaus.

>But I don't think we are talking about a net run on arbitrary, sudden
>revocations or changes in assignments.

I wouldn't expect anything arbitrary; it has yet to be shown anyone will do
ANYTHING to fix the problem.

>If we just lay out some ground rules about what kind of commitments and
>mutual obligations go along with an allocation then I think we will have
>avoided a lot of problems (and hopefully derailed any excessive outside
>regulation.)  There's no technology there, just words.  Although with the
>right words we may be able to get people to do good things like "trade up"
>an old block so that they can get a bigger, contiguous block rather than
>demand a separate additional, but non-aggregatable allocation.

I would certainly like to see a program where someone can trade in small
blocks for a single larger one (plus growth space).  Something like 8 C's
=> 1 x /20; the exact ratio is an exercise for the reader.

I think it'd be reasonable to put in place some restrictions on the number
of small allocations an entity may have; something like "no more than 4
allocations smaller than /16" or some such.  Making the number >1 allows
smaller ISPs to grow without renumbering excessively.


Stephen