Only 5x IPv4 /8 remaining at IANA

Matthew Petach mpetach at netflight.com
Thu Oct 21 22:07:38 UTC 2010


On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 12:53 PM, George Bonser <gbonser at seven.com> wrote:
> The first step will be a registrar saying "after this date, we will no
> longer issue any IPv4 addresses for whatever reason" and at the same
> time, getting very aggressive in reclaiming space from dead entities,
> hijackers, etc.  As time goes by, the amount of v4 space being routed
> declines through natural attrition.  It is a combination of liberal v6
> assignment coupled with aggressive v4 reclamation.

Why on earth would a registrar aggressively reclaim space from
entities if they're no longer issuing it back out?

Are we planning on recommending policies into the ARIN AC
that turn ARIN into an IPv4 space reclamation entity, to hoard
up v4 addresses?

As it now stands, the amount of v4 space being routed will trend
towards the asymptote of maximal organizational utilization, and will
*not* decline.  Any organization that moves resources off v4 and
frees up address space will either hold that space as an ongoing
resource to be used for future expansions, or will sell it off on the
transfer market for short-term cash infusions; the new holders,
having paid good cash for it, will have a strong incentive to get it
routed and carrying traffic as quickly as possible, to pay back
their investment.

There is *nothing* in the system driving towards a natural attrition
of IPv4 usage, even after runout; we simply change the allocation
model from purely needs based, to needs+cash based.

Unless ISPs state that they will charge additional money to
assign v4 addresses to customers, over what they charge
to v6 customers, there is no real pressure in the marketplace
for the amount of v4 routing to decline.  So long as the end user
sees the same cost, and same service for using v4 as v6, there
is no pressure towards a v6-only world.

So...uh...who's going to be first to step up and tell their customers
"look, you get a v6 /56 for free with your account, but if you want
v4 addresses, it's going to cost an extra $50/month." ??

Matt




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