On 20-sep-2007, at 18:33, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
the RIRs will consider deprecating PI.
And that would be the same kind of consideration that has gone
towards "deprecating" the holding of nearly 0.5% of the total
IPv4 address space by a single organization? Despite the fact that
we're quickly running out of available IPv4 space and the number
of organizations involved is less than 50, visible efforts have yet
to materialize.
ARIN's counsel has told ARIN that it is unclear if they have legal
standing to revoke legacy assignments.
First of all, litigation isn't the only way to get something done,
and second, do don't know that until you try. We did see 46/8 come
back earlier this year, but unless I'm mistaken, that was the first
legacy /8 to be returned this century.
And, for the record, there are over 50,000 of them, not less than 50.
50000 organizations holding nearly 0.5% of the IPv4 space each? I'm
impressed! With that kind of address compression technology we don't
need IPv6 after all.
Also, projections show that even if we reclaimed _every_ legacy
assignment (many of which are still in use and even justified under
current policy), it would only delay exhaustion six months to a
year; it is felt that doing so is not generally worth the effort
and would certainly cost an absurd amount in legal fees, and the
litigation is likely to last beyond the exhaustion date anyways
(with no solid guess as to who would win in the end).
I mostly agree with that, but a few years ago it looked like
reclaiming, say, half of the legacy /8s would buy us 2 - 5 extra
years of IPv4 lifetime and there was enough time to do it at that
point. Same thing for repurposing 240/4, by the way.
So I doubt anything is going to happen once a few tens of
thousands of organizations have cast their IPv6 PI addresses in
stone. Those prefixes will be around for a _long_ time.
The situation is different with v6 because all PI assignments are
subject to a contract that allows ARIN to revoke them at any time
with a policy change. If a viable alternative emerged, ARIN could
stop making new PI assignments, deprecate the existing ones, and
drop them after a few years' transition period.
I don't believe that for one second. Maybe the RIRs have contracts
with all new PI holders, but that doesn't automatically give ARIN the
authority to reclaim address space after a policy change. I don't
know of a precedent of any RIR EVER reclaiming ANY address space
without the cooperation of the holder, despite the holder not
complying with policies.
As a non-lawyer, I would judge the chances in court for reclaiming
IPv4 /8s higher than those for reclaiming IPv6 PI space: in the first
case, it's the benefit the continued operation of the IPv4 internet,
in the latter case, it's going to look highly arbitrary.
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