[ This email is *not* about 2007-08 but something else that crossed my mind, expect a revised 2007-08 soon ]

 

Dear all,

 

I want to hear your feedback on an idea that I’ve been playing with for a while – it has to do with the way the RIR allocates blocks of space to an approved IPv4 PA allocation request.

 

Currently that’s very simple. Once the request is approved for, say, a /15, you get a single routable block of space, a /15. But what do we do when the RIR does not have that size block anymore? Allocate multiple blocks to that request (so, for example, 2 /17s, 1 /18, 5 /19s and 2 /20s)?

 

What I would suggest is that we set into policy that the RIR, in cases like this, allocates a single best-fit routable block of IPv4 space. So, if the request is for a /12 and the biggest block the RIR has left is a /14, you get a /14. The rationale behind this is quite simple: the requester is not going to be happy to get a bunch of /24s from all over the swamp space to fill his request, and at the same time we remove the risk that a single request is able to wipe out the entire RIR reserves. Smaller requests can still be fulfilled and the LIRs that need more space simply need to come back more often – the 80% usage rule still applies.

 

As long as the RIR has a supply from IANA, this rule will have no operational impact as far as I can see.

 

I’m hesitant whether we should apply this to PI requests as well – I’d say yes but that does have an impact on the way we’re currently handling that…

 

Let me know what you think.

 

Best,

 

Remco