[rpd] IPv4 Soft Landing BIS

[Mark Tinka]

On 29/Jul/17 18:29, Jackson Muthili wrote:

> I admire your subtlety and rationale behind your reasoning.
>
> A scarce resource needs to be distributed fairly.
>
> The situation we are in now can result in a few big companies
> depleting the entire continent's scarce resource at the expense of
> those smaller but growing companies that will need but will not
> afford. Arguments about imaginary operators are flawed. There is
> current many small operators that constitute majority of AfriNIC
> membership who will be maligned at the expense of those that can
> potentially consume most of the scarce resource.

I am concerned that the proposal is forecasting future demand in lieu of
focusing on the (near-) present.

But I do believe that it is not completely unreasonable to find a fair
mechanism to distribute the remaining bits of IPv4 (for various use
cases, perhaps not being overly aggressive at not only singling out some
being more important than others, but also being more conservative about
their fare share of the remaining space) while at the same time pushing
for quick and early implementation of IPv6.

In fact, if there is a way to write the proposal such that it encourages
the implementation of IPv6, that is an avenue worth exploring. I know
there is language in the current proposal to suggest that an LIR or End
User must demonstrate ownership of an IPv6 allocation (and if one is
absent, obtain one as part of the IPv4 allocation application), but I
think this is a bit is weak if we want to leverage the proposal to
promote IPv6.


> We must apply the principle of distributive justice toward a
> resource that has become scarce. It is only fair.

Well, one way is to let the remaining space float and be allocated based
on current active policies. While I can see the case for this, I believe
that despite Africa not being necessarily a unique case in the grand
scheme of Internet things, it does present an opportunity for us to
do/try something different that best utilizes the remaining IPv4 space,
but not at the expense of IPv6; rather, in favor of it.

Mark.
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