who gets a /32 [Re: IPV6 renumbering painless?]

Sat Nov 20 12:19:22 UTC 2004

On 19-nov-04, at 19:23, Owen DeLong wrote:

>> There is no reason for RIRs to allocate addresses which would never 
>> be used on
>> public networks.

> If the addresses are suppose to be unique, then, what is the reason 
> NOT to
> have the RIRs allocate them?

The reason is that the RIRs don't talk to end-users. (At least, they 
don't talk to 99.99% of all end-users.) Having to go through a LIR 
(ISP) to obtain addresses that may remain in use after a customer 
leaves also seems strange.

> Why set up a separate registry system for these addresses instead of 
> making minor changes to the existing one to accommodate this need?

This is a good point. But rather than reuse the RIRs for this, we 
should reuse the domain registry system for this. Domain sellers 
already know how to deal with millions of customers (collectively) and 
make a business based on very small yearly fees, they already deal with 
the majority of the prospective users of this address space and there 
is healthy competition.