[AfriNIC-rpd] IPv4 Softlanding Policy

[SM]

Hi Douglas,
At 00:55 28-09-2009, Douglas Onyango wrote:
>As promised, i have made all the modifications we talked about last week.
>i was supposed to change the paragraph that speaks about the reserve 
>block, below is the new text
>
>When AfriNIC can no longer meet any more requests for address space 
>from the  last /8 pool because the pool is either empty or has no 
>more contiguous blocks, the board will based on the demand and other 
>factors at the time exercise the prerogative to replenish the 
>exhaustion pool from the reserve pool in a manner that is in the 
>best interest of the community.

It's good to have a reserve pool (/12 IPv4 address block according to 
your latest proposal).  Although the Board is supposed to act in a 
manner that is in the best interest of the AfriNIC community, we 
might not all share the view that a decision is in the best interest 
of the community.  The possible alternatives are:

  (i) leave it to the Board to decide when the block should be returned to
      the pool and allocate according to the proposed policy.

  (ii) propose that the block be returned to the pool once AfriNIC can no
      longer meet any more requests for address space from the  last /8 pool.

  (iii) keep that block around for some unforeseen future use.

The third alternative is problematic as it will probably be difficult 
to agree as to what unforeseen use is in the best interest of the 
AfriNIC community.

There has been ample warning about what is being done to delay the 
inevitable.  I would encourage networks to do their homework and 
determine the impact of the proposed policy.  In my opinion, it's not 
up to AfriNIC to take responsibility for "critical infrastructure" 
and solve legacy IPv4 addressing problems that will occur.

Regards,
-sm