[AfriNIC-rpd] Updated Version of the "IPv4 Soft Landing Policy" now Available Online

[Douglas Onyango]

--- On Mon, 2/21/11, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:

> From: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>
> Subject: Re: [AfriNIC-rpd] Updated Version of the "IPv4 Soft Landing Policy" now Available Online
> To: paulos at sdnp.org.mw
> Cc: rpd at afrinic.net
> Date: Monday, February 21, 2011, 10:36 PM
> 
> On Feb 21, 2011, at 5:10 AM, Dr Paulos Nyirenda wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Two areas of concern in [3] and [3.9.2] and proposals
> for changes as follows:
> > 
> > In [3] the second sentence in [3] needs revision.
> > 
> >> [3] The Proposal
> >> 
> >> This policy (IPv4 Soft Landing), applies to the
> management of address 
> >> space that will be available to AfriNIC after the
> current IPv4 pool is 
> >> depleted. The purpose of this document is to
> ensure that address space 
> >> used in a manner that is acceptable to the AfriNIC
> community especially 
> >> during this time of scarcity.
> > 
> > so that it reads:
> > 
> > "The purpose of this document is to ensure that
> address space -- is assigned and/or 
> > allocated -- in a manner that is acceptable to the
> AfriNIC community especially during -- 
> > the time of IPv4 exhaustion --- ."
> > 
> I think the use of the word scarcity is cleaner, but, have
> no strong opposition to exhaustion.

Same here. I will incorporate both changes though.

> 
> > In [3.9.2], I am concerned that the proposal is
> leaving matters of policy to the 
> > "prerogative" of the Board as follows which I think
> should be revised to follow the 
> > spirit in [3.6]
> > 
> >> 3.9.2
> >> 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 their prerogative to
> replenish the exhaustion pool 
> >> with whatever address space that will be available
> to AfriNIC at the 
> >> time in a manner that is in the best interest of
> the community.
> > 
> > This proposal in [3.9.2] should be revised to avoid
> prerogatives as follows: 
> > 
> > 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, -- AfriNIC shall 
> > follow policies in effect at the time to replenish
> resources -- 
> > 
> I think this is very risky. The reality of the situation
> described her is that the policy
> community will be unable to react fast enough to adapt
> policy to a rapidly changing
> situation. The board is elected to be able to, among other
> things, handle decisions
> which must be made more rapidly than policy can address
> them. This is just such
> a situation and I believe that we must give the board
> discretion, or, simply recognize
> that the pool cannot and will not be replenished (which is
> not an unlikely outcome
> of board discretion, by the way).
> 
> Everyone should be prepared to face the fact that when the
> pool is empty, it may
> be impossible to refill it. While IPv4 addresses remain
> particularly useful, their
> value will be such that I suspect AfriNIC and its members
> would have trouble
> competing in a bidding war against corporations in the
> other regions.I doubt
> there will be other sources of significant resources by the
> time AfriNIC exhausts
> the final /8, and I'm not even sure that source will have a
> supply.
> 
> Owen
> 

Thanks Owen. Another way to look at it is at the time of exhaustion of the the exhaustion pool :-), Our reserve space will still be untouched. Paulos' recommendation would require for new policy to be formulated to replenish the exhaustion pool with the reserve space.

I think it will be easier if we just replenished the pool and continued business.

Regards,