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

[Owen DeLong]

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 16, 2013, at 9:34 AM, Mark Elkins <mje at posix.co.za> wrote:

> On Wed, 2013-01-16 at 21:22 +0300, Maina Noah wrote:
>> Chad,
> 
>> Since you seem to have free IP Addresses and you are willing to sale.
>> This implies you do not have justification for use of this so many IP
>> number resources you were allocated by the RIR.
> 
> (I've been quietly reading the ongoing discussions) 
> 
> Firstly - with my "I own some Legacy Space" hat on:
> 
> I think there is a growing consensus that if space is provided by
> AfriNIC under the LIR license agreement, it can not be sold and that if
> it is no longer required - it should be returned to AfriNIC. I suspect
> this would be the same for all RIR's?
> 

As much as I think that should be the case for all RIRs, ARIN does have
transfer policy for IPv4 resources and ASNs that is contrary to that statement.

(I opposed said policy, but I was in the minority).

> The exception to this would be Legacy Space - as its not as such bound
> by contract. If Legacy space is sold here and used in another region,
> then it needs to move to that regions RIR.

There's no process currently in place for that to happen other than through an
inter-RIR transfer policy that would have to be a mutually compatible policy at
each applicable RIR.

To the best of my knowledge, so far, only ARIN and APNIC have such policies.
In both cases, the policies are not limited to legacy address space.

> If someone comes to me and offers me a large pot of gold for some of my
> legacy space, I might be hard pressed not to make a sale, then spend
> that money connecting more people to my network. Someone mentioned US$4
> Million for a /16. With that I could (bank)roll out 70Km's of Fibre and
> connect several thousand new subscribers via FTTH just using IPv6. You
> see, it's so easy to justify.... 

Indeed, scenarios like this were one of the reasons cited in favor of creating a transfer policy in the ARIN region.

> My "AfriNIC Board of Directors" hat:
> 
> I would like to see AfriNIC lease out all its IPv4 address space to
> African Network operators (etc) within the next year (or two). This way,
> AfriNIC can collect oodles of money for these resources and thus better
> fund IPv6 deployment training. This would also imply that more people in
> Africa are properly connect to the Internet, Universities (etc) better
> connect students - etc. ie - the African Region wins.
> IPv4 after all has only a short time still to live - maybe 10 years?

I doubt it will be that long if by live, you talk about the time during which IPv4 is the protocol used to reach the majority of the internet. I would estimate closer to 5.

> My "personal hat":
> 
> I kind of like the ongoing discussions on "relaxing" restrictions on
> Universities (and similar) - just perhaps smaller steps first (3:1
> ratio?)
> I also get the (first hand and voiced by others) impression that maybe
> AfriNIC is perhaps too over-cautious in providing space to legitimate
> African Companies who actually need space because the burden of "proof
> of need" is perhaps too high.

I'm beginning to get that impression as well.

Owen