[policy-wg] Guidelines for Temporary Assignments/Allocations'sproposal

[Alan Barrett]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Gregory Massel wrote:
> >In some circumstances, organisations may require IP resources for a
> >certain period of time, usually one month and less. This could be for
> >exhibitions, conferences, conventions, etc.
>
> This really concerns me. Assignments/Allocations generally take quite
> some time to evaluate. They are also based on a co-ordinated long-term
> usage history and future usage plan.

Yes, sure, but there's much less need to be careful with temporary
assignments.  If you know that the space will be returned in a month or
three, then it doesn't matter much if the temporary assignment
is larger than it really needed to be.

> Once addresses are used, they can often be subject to blacklisting 
> (particularly if hosts are vulnerable to hacking, spam, etc). This means 
> that it is often extremely unsatisfactory for an organisation to receive 
> addresses already used by another. This is exaccerbated further by the fact 
> that short-term assignments don't allow extended periods to do the 
> necessary audits and clean-ups.

This problem can be mitigated by using a special pool for temporary
assignments.

> >3.2 Commercial Use Prohibited
> >
> >If there is any evidence that the temporary resource is being used
> >for commercial purposes, or is being used for any activities not
> >documented in the original description provided above, AfriNIC
> >reserves the right to immediately withdraw the resource and reassign
> >it to the free pool.
>
> This conflicts with the statement of intent. A conference, exhibition,
> etc is generally a commercial activity. This needs to be clarified.

I agree.  The user of the address space should used it for what they
said it should be used for, and should be used only for a short time,
but there does not need to be any restriction on commercial use.

> >Incentive:
> >In Africa Internet is still a growing technology and time by time
> >there are high level trainings and event related to Internet
> >awareness. In most of the case the local hosting organisation
> >do not have enough IP address to provide to the workshop
> >Infrastructure, resulting to intensives NAT usage. To avoid this,
> >AfriNIC should be able to provide temporary address space under
> >some specific conditions. This policy will allow AfriNIC to do that.
> 
> There is a big problem with this motivation. It works on the basis that the 
> upstream is mismanaging their existing IP space and therefore cannot supply 
> it.

Even if the upstream is not mismanaging anything, a temporary event can
easily require more address resources than the connectivity provider
has available.  I see an clear need for temporary assignments for
this sort of thing.  (For example, how many LIRs do you know that could
temporarily assign say 10 AS numbers to a training workshop?)

> I would rather see the inherent problem addressed. ie. Why does the 
> upstream not have sufficient addresses? Is there a problem with AfriNIC 
> that is making it impossible for them to obtain sufficient address space? 
> Are they in need of training on how to manage their IP's and apply for 
> more? If so is AfriNIC doing enough in that regard.

There are certainly problems in this regard too.  Many providers seem to
be under the impression that it's difficult to get sufficient address
space, and as a result of that impression, they do not even apply for
sufficient address space.

> Ultimately, if LIRs are managing their space correctly and the RIR 
> (AfriNIC) is processing the LIR's requests reasonably and fairly, then the 
> LIR should always have sufficient free space for temporary assignments.

No, the conclusion does not follow from the premises.  Temporary events
can be very large relative to the LIRs usual customer pool.

--apb (Alan Barrett)