[AFRINIC-rpd] New Policy Proposal: Inter RIR IPv4 Address Transfers (AFPUB-2013-V4-001-DRAFT-01)

[Andrew Alston]

Hi David,

>> oh ... we can even estimate 3 addresses per students population, since
they will have laptops, pads and fones, all requiring Wifi at the minimum.

> I think it would be a mistake to propose a particular ratio in policy
since that number will likely vary over time and circumstances (e.g., these
days, a software/web developer will likely have a number of virtual machines

> in addition to their laptop, tablet, and phone(s)). One size doesn't fit
all. I'd hope it would be sufficient for requesters to provide the ratio and
the justification for that ratio with their request.

Just one comment on this, I to believe that specifying a ratio in an ideal
world should not be necessary, however, history in applications from
Universities has proven this is far from an ideal situation.  I refer to an
application within the last 6 months, where the argument about ratios to of
students to addresses took center stage for more than 2 weeks, with
arguments coming back for example that "When a student is in a lab, working
on a lab pc, they won't be using their phone, therefore it doesn't need an
IP, therefore the ratio is reduced."

The 3 IP per student ratio however is something we've found to hold as a
pretty good average, we found this by analyzing the wireless leases and
other leases at two Universities in South Africa during this aforementioned
discussion (ratio was actually 2.something, I forget exactly what), but 3
allows for some growth.  While I agree that some people may have more
devices/virtual machines than the three in the ratio, if you average out
over an entire student population within an institution, I think it's a
pretty good number.  

One of the other points of the proposed policy which I'll be submitting as
soon as I get Sunday's comments back on the exact wording, is to reduce the
complexity around Academic institutions getting space.  As stated in
previous emails, one of the major drivers of NAT in these universities and
the resistance to getting more space is the bizarrely complex and time
consuming process to get AfriNIC to actually allocate anything.  By using a
student head count and a fixed ratio, we drastically reduce this complexity
and the amount of paperwork needed.  

Policy proposal to follow shortly.

Thanks

Andrew