[rpd] Questions about IP Allocation rate

[Noah]

Andrew

 At the back of your response to Ben... I know of a government operator
that hosts an on-net CF instance but luckly, they have their own INR and
dont necessary use CF IPs since CF supports BYOIP..

BYOIP means a govnet needs to have its own cocktail of v4/v6/ASN

And the statistics should be able to show us how many of our own Govt who
are working on DPI can actually BYOIP?

Cheers,
*.**/noah*


On Tue, 14 Oct 2025, 1:02 pm Andrew Alston, <aa at alstonnetworks.net> wrote:

> Not Necessarily Ben.
>
> Reality is they could back end Government Networks with V6 and front the
> services with V4 which map to the V6 backend.
>
> This would substantially reduce the amount of IPv4 space actually needed
> by the governments, and provide dual-stack from the start.  I have serious
> doubts that you will find governments in Africa requiring external access
> to more than 200+ unique services (which would represent a single /24 on
> the front end).
>
> We also need to keep in mind that many government services are now hosted
> behind the likes of CloudFlare - specifically for DDoS prevention
> mechanisms - and I'm not sure that IPv4 allocations by government entities
> are necessarily a good indicator of digital migration, since these services
> are not hosted on IPv4 space allocated to those entities.  The same applies
> to services hosted in any of the major cloud providers.
>
> Considering the front ending of these services by the DDoS filter
> providers and the like - the requirement for front end IPv4 per government
> in terms of services to the citizenship is actually relatively small (And
> certainly does not warrant reservations at the level they are at - which -
> as I pointed out in an earlier message seem to be far higher than what is
> actually called for in the CPM)
>
> Thanks
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM <ben.roberts at afrinic.net> wrote:
>
>> Owen,
>>
>> Will that not exclude many of their their citizens from accessing digital
>> services?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>
>> *Sent:* 14 October 2025 11:44
>> *To:* Noah <noah at neo.co.tz>
>> *Cc:* Ben Roberts AfriNIC <ben.roberts at afrinic.net>; Andrew Alston <
>> aa at alstonnetworks.net>; RPD <rpd at afrinic.net>
>> *Subject:* Re: [rpd] Questions about IP Allocation rate
>>
>>
>>
>> Or better yet, not reserving IPv4 could spur those governments to deploy
>> their govnets on IPv6 from the beginning with a clean greenfield design
>> leapfrogging past the legacy baggage inherent in any IPv4 based solution.
>>
>>
>>
>> Owen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Oct 13, 2025, at 12:26, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>> There is critical structural challenge in the continents digital
>> landscape and you more than anyone knows this very well that we also suffer
>> from uneven maturity of Digital Public Infrastructure and Government
>> Networks (GovNet), which directly impacts the equitable deployment of
>> essential digital services across majority of countries across our
>> continent.
>>
>>
>>
>> Look we are talking about numbering infrastructure that would support
>> services like e-government, digital IDs, and public/private data exchanges,
>> while aligning with AFRINIC's exhaustion-phase policies.
>>
>>
>>
>> We can not shy away from these reality or pretend that there is lack of
>> foresight from actors at Afrinic and the community at large.
>>
>>
>>
>> Its a known fact that many of our African governments lack operational
>> GovNets and strategic reservations of IPv4 address space from AFRINIC could
>> serve as a targeted incentive to bridge these gaps.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> *./noah*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 13 Oct 2025, 8:34 pm Ben Roberts - AfriNIC, <
>> ben.roberts at afrinic.net> wrote:
>>
>> I think The DPI systems are normally run by state owned digital agency
>> entities which are already mostly LIRs having some space. It is not quite
>> as you describe being state owned LIRs that have sovereign owned IPs that
>> are independent of LIRs..
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>
>>
>> On 13 Oct 2025, at 20:01, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> 54 African States are taking public services online.
>>
>>
>>
>> Digital Public infrastructure (DPI) is nolonger an idea. Its a real
>> thing. DPI is critical. The private sector will tap into that
>> infrastructure. Its here now.
>>
>>
>>
>> Each of the 54 African states need address space indepedent of LIR space
>> in each sovereign state.
>>
>>
>>
>> These are not ideas that actors in the private sector care about or think
>> about.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> *./noah*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 13 Oct 2025, 5:52 pm Andrew Alston, <aa at alstonnetworks.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>>
>>
>> I was wondering if there were updated statistics for the amount of space
>> allocated in the last 3 years.  In addition to this information regarding
>> exactly how much free space is still available in the IPv4 unallocated pool
>> (excluding reservations)
>>
>>
>>
>> I ask this because depending on the allocation rate - we may wish to
>> consider revising the soft-landing policy that currently reserves a /12
>> worth of ipv4 space for "future uses, as yet unforeseen".
>>
>>
>>
>> I point out that the soft landing policy was ratified in 2011, and if we
>> still, after 14 years, have not been able to articulate a clear reason for
>> such a large reservation, I think it's time we look at most, if not all, of
>> that /12 back into the main unallocated pool that can be allocated for
>> African resource holders that actually need it.
>>
>>
>>
>> Amongst other reasons, sitting with unallocated, unannounced, reserved
>> space like this leaves the space vulnerable to hijacking and malicious use
>> or even potential theft.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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