[AFRINIC-rpd] Academic IPv4 Allocation Policy Second Draft (AFPUB-2013-GEN-001-DRAFT-02)

[Nii Narku Quaynor]

Hi Owen 

On Feb 5, 2013, at 22:49, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:

> Nii,
> 
> [..]
> 
> In my opinion, the question is not whether or how people design networks or document them.
> 
> The question is how much effort should AfriNIC staff be required to put into reviewing a request from a university? How much scrutiny do we need to apply to such requests? Are there rules of thumb that can be used to provide guidance to the staff which will facilitate a simplified application process with greater fairness and better outcomes for all with less labor required on both sides?
> 
Same uniform effort for university as to serve every other member. Perhaps requests should be smarter and the scrutiny more efficient but this seems an operational matter and not in realm of policy

If you believe application process has been unfair send information to CEO attention 

> I believe that the amount of effort being expended on both sides of this equation (which translates into costs as well) is excessive compared to the task at hand based on documentation provided by both AfriNIC staff and others throughout this thread and in other discussions I've had with people.
> 
I'll prefer to leave afrinic management to do this job more efficiently and universities to submit same information for service as any other member

> Further, I believe that Universities and other institutions of learning in the region represent the best hope for advancing various goals of development in the region. ICT investment and internet capabilities are huge levers for education, if applied properly. As such, I believe it is strongly in the best interests of the region to maximize the ease of implementing ICT in educational institutions and facilitating student use of ICT and internet capabilities.
> 
Agree but this is not the issue; evidence shows afrinic supports ICT in educational institutions
> I believe that the discussion thus far has well established that a fully developed ICT infrastructure with students that are not financially or otherwise disadvantaged in their ability to possess devices can readily justify a rule of thumb around 5:1 IPv4 addresses per student or more. This includes not only the student devices, but also addresses for faculty, staff, university owned equipment, network infrastructure, etc. As such, I believe providing a policy which allows a University to apply to AfriNIC and use their student count with an agreed upon ratio provides a good rule of thumb which can allow a simplified justification process while still preventing abuse. AfriNIC expends less resources reviewing the request. The university spends less time going back and forth with AfriNIC staff over the justification. It's better for everyone.
> 
Afrinic would not be an impediment to a university request for a 10:1 network. University could be developing tools to make everyone's situation better instead of avoiding the work altogether 
> Are there universities that don't need such a large ratio just yet? Sure there are. Especially in the region. However, I would argue that it is far better if such universities are allowed to get the address space even if they can't use it today because it will support and potentially encourage them to develop better student ICT facilities which will improve the quality of their educational experience.
> 

Are we encouraging hoarding ? 

Universities in Africa are not starved of address space. One recalls afrinic and AAU had a program with funding for universities to access address space for free and we also know the uptake of that arrangement 

...there is ipv6 that universities may use so they can chose what ratio they wish
> I do not understand the argument in favor of preserving address poverty simply because other forms of poverty prevent taking full advantage of address wealth at the moment. Let us, instead, first resolve address poverty because it is easy to do so. Then we can continue to work on the other forms.
> 
I have not made that argument. 

Afrinic would not turn away member requests. I don't see address rich or poor as appropriate description 

One only wants to administer resources going into real networks in Africa

A posture is that the universities should set example and do the requests clearly and cheaper rather than create special cases by policy

Requests from government, university and private sector members should be processed uniformly 

Perhaps different fees or priority processing might be fair for universities but I am not convinced of the need for this policy
> Owen
>