[Community-Discuss] IPv6 Chapter 254

[Alan Barrett]

> On 13 Oct 2016, at 08:45, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com> wrote:
> we have to consider the fact that the space that was given to AfriNIC by IANA was meant to the serve the people, and I’m pretty sure that if AfriNIC decided to just stop allocating and hold onto all of it they would run foul of the agreements under which they were given that space.  (I could be wrong here, perhaps someone with more insight can comment).

Some might think that the IANA tells the RIRs what to do, and others might think that the IANA numbering services are provided under a contract in which the RIRs decide what to do.  I would not like to find out what happens if AFRINIC decides to stop allocating IPv4 space and an aggrieved party takes a dispute to court.  I’d much prefer to see AFRINIC continue to allocate IPv4 space under policies developed by the community.

At present, the soft landing policy (section 5.4 of the conslidated policy manual <http://afrinic.net/community/policy-development/1829-afrinic-consolidated-policy-manual#SoftLanding> reserves a /12 of IPv4 space that will never be allocated unless either the policy changes, or the Board takes action:

[[[
5.4.7 IPv4 Address Space Reserve
 
5.4.7.1 A /12 IPv4 address block will be in reserve out of the final /8. This /12 IPv4 address block shall be preserved by AFRINIC for some future uses, as yet unforeseen. The Internet is innovative and we cannot predict with certainty what might happen. Therefore, it is prudent to keep this block in reserve, just in case some future requirement creates a demand for IPv4 addresses.
 
5.4.7.2 When AFRINIC, can no longer meet any more requests for address space (from the Final /8 or from any other available address space), the Board may at its discretion and considering the demand and other factors at the time replenish the exhaustion pool with whatever address space (or part thereof) that may be available to AFRINIC at the time, in a manner that is in the best interest of the community.
]]]

Alan Barrett