Independent space from ARIN

Also Sprach bdragon@gweep.net

Yes...following policy over common sense. Exactly as I feared.

Or some would say that the policy _is_ common sense.

Uhm...only someone on the moon, maybe. Their (unpublished) policies are
seriously lacking in common sense...I think that's been shown in my
postings...and acknowledged by any of the number of people here that are
much more expert at dealing with ARIN than I am.

Sometimes it makes things harder, you deal with it, or in your case,
you whine about it on mailing lists.

Or, you try to reform the situation by shedding light on the
inadequacies of the institution.

You claimyou were efficiently utilizing the space, but of course ARIN
can't defend themselves, so we are left to believe you. Even if you
_are_ telling the truth, the number of folks on this list who have
stated that they've advocated lying, or have helped people lie seems to
tell me that ARIN shouldn't believe you.

I haven't seen anyone in this thread advocate lying...though I don't
follow all nanog posts, so I don't know if it may have happened in other
threads...if so, I find that reprehensible. More than that I can't say.

Again, we had greater than 80% utilization on *all* of our
blocks...not just the most recently allocated one, and closer to 90% on most
of them. The documentation that we gave to ARIN in support of our
request showed this as well.

So you say.

So...at this point, your defense of ARIN is to assume that *I'm* lying.
Great.

My "error" was that I expected ARIN would give me enough space to
renumber out of my current space as their documentation on their
website seems to indicate is necessary. Silly me.

So, you did absolutely nothing. This is a common problem with many on
nanog. If I can't do something 100% my ay, I'ld rather do nothing.

I did nothing because I was told by ARIN that I wasn't expected to
re-number...that it wasn't a consideration in the allocation. I offered
to renumber in the initial allocation because I was under the impression
that it was required, not because we wanted to do it at that time. When
they said it wasn't expected, or a consideration, no, we didn't
renumber. Then we find out, much later, that it *is* a consideration,
and that we're partially screwed because we didn't read their mind that
it was a consideration when they were verbally telling us that it
wasn't.

Yeah, it would be silly of ARIN to actually abide by the documentation
that they post on their website...so silly.

I've read their documentation. It sounds like they abided with their
policies to me.

Depends on when you ask, apparently. (Actually, neither explanation I
got from ARIN, either after the initial allocation, nor the one I got in
the process of the most recent allocation, line up with what's on their
website).

Oof, so even _you_ translate circuit size into eligibility for address
space?

Actually...if you really want to get pedantic, we translate how much
money a customer pays us into partial eligibility for address space. We
still require justification, but if a customer doesn't have a certain
size account, they won't get the address space even if they *are*
justified for it.

Again, we're going above and beyond what ARIN requires as far as address
space requirements...despite your attempt to spin this into being my
problem (why you're so emotionally invested in ARIN, I haven't a clue).

How stupid indeed, since circuit size has no bearing on need for
addresses (either in support or against).

There is a correlation there...not strict, I'll acknowledge, but
generally, larger circuits will end up using larger numbers of IP's. To
deny that is as absurd as saying the correlation is strict, or to have a
policy of certain size circuits automatically get certain sized
allocations.

Again, we try to do the Right Thing. I've turned down allocations from
upstreams that weren't needed in an effort to prevent address space
fragmentation and routing table polution, etc.

If I were ARIN I'ld definately look at your documentation with a close
eye.

Again, your defense of ARIN seems to be accusing me of under-handed
actions.

Well, good for you. However, if you think you can do this once and be
done, you are sorely misinformed.

We haven't had to go back and redesign and renumber our network, because
we learned from the first experience and have followed good allocation
practices since then. I've gone back and audit'ed our network usage
(informally) and it still falls within good allocation guidelines. So,
no, I *don't* have to go back and do this more than once...as long as
the allocations made, going forward, follow best practices, which we
have.

In any event, it all comes down to: you had the opportunity to begin
readdressing. You failed to do so on anything but your own terms. Now
you (presumably) still have not readdressed and are still whining about
it.

You just don't get it. As I mentioned earlier, we offered to re-number
at the initial allocation because we thought it was necessary, but ARIN
themselves told us it wasn't, that *IT WASN'T A CONSIDERATION*...you
seem to keep skipping over this very important point...ARIN told us we
didn't need to renumber. They lied to us, full stop. Had they been
up-front and said that re-numbering would be a consideration at our next
allocation, we would have (grudgingly) worked towards
renumbering...again...since they didn't give us sufficient space to
renumber, we would not have been able to do so completely, but we would
have started the process.

Let's be clear on this. Our decision not to start the renumbering
process was informed by ARIN telling us it wasn't a consideration. I
know I'm repeating myself here, but this is a critically important point
that you have repeatedly ignored.

This thread has sapped too much of my time, and the brain cells of the
community. Hopefully you'll just go and renumber and quit your
bitching.

No, as long as ARIN's policies and actions are ill-founded, they (and
likely other relevant...at least tangentially) fora such as nanog will
continue to hear about it...from me, and no doubt from others who have
to tolerate this charade of trying to protect the public interest.

ARIN has failed.

Exactly which unpublished policies do you mean? Here is a list of the
published policies.

http://www.arin.net/policy/index.html

-ron

The solution to the problems posted in this thread about ARIN is fairly
simple. It's time to deregulate the IP address market and convert to a
free market approach to allocating IP addresses. If address space could
be bought and sold on a free market you would no longer have to justify
your address space to anyone, saving untold amount of resources and costs
pulling these reports together. Of course, address space wouldn't be
wasted the way it is today by organizations that hoard it, or by companies
that go out of business because it would make sound financial sense to
sell what you don't need.

ARIN (and the other registries as well) could still exist and function as
a central repository (think of a title registry) of information about the
current ownership of address blocks.

Also Sprach Ron da Silva

Exactly which unpublished policies do you mean? Here is a list of the
published policies.

https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/

Mostly its an issue of the policy not matching what they do (sorry for
getting a little loose with my language). Specifically, off the top of
my head, and hit close to home here.

    * Agree that the new /20 will be used to renumber out of the current
          addresses which will be returned to their upstream
          provider(s).

and

    * To receive additional address space following the initial
          allocation, multi-homed organizations must have returned the
          original space (/21) to its provider in its entirety and must
          provide justification for a new allocation

Again...this is specific for multi-homing...and perhaps the policies to
non-multi-homing override these (we also qualified for non-multi-homed),
but in that case...that should be spelled out.

Reading ARIN's policies is an exercise in frustration thanks to, at
least seemingly, conflicting information and requirements in different
sections. What applies? What overrides? All learned only from
repeated dealings with them at this point.

With the above policies...I've had two different explanations from
ARIN (as I mentioned, one after the initial allocation, one after the
second allocation)...neither of which matched what I pasted from their
website above.

Brandon Ross wrote:

The solution to the problems posted in this thread about ARIN is fairly
simple. It's time to deregulate the IP address market and convert to a
free market approach to allocating IP addresses. If address space could
be bought and sold on a free market you would no longer have to justify
your address space to anyone, saving untold amount of resources and costs
pulling these reports together. Of course, address space wouldn't be
wasted the way it is today by organizations that hoard it, or by companies
that go out of business because it would make sound financial sense to
sell what you don't need.

ARIN (and the other registries as well) could still exist and function as
a central repository (think of a title registry) of information about the
current ownership of address blocks.

--
Brandon Ross AIM: BrandonNR
VP Operations ICQ: 2269442
Sockeye Networks

You're kidding, right ?

The solution to the problems posted in this thread about ARIN
is fairly simple. It's time to deregulate the IP address market and
convert to a free market approach to allocating IP addresses.

Seriously? I don't agree with monopolies in any way, but there are
reasons for centralized control on some things, it's called sanity.
Talk about stepping up wide IPv6 deployment to almost immediately....

To tie this thread in with another long running nanog thread, this approach also solves the stale bogon filters problem.

Don't like being in 69/8? Sell your space and use the proceeds to buy more established space. Want to make some money in address space development? Buy up 69/8 space and do the legwork of getting the bogon filters updated to improve the value of your investment.

This idea is far from new. Well respected folk even wrote internet drafts on it. Check out the piara archives from '96.

Bradley

Brandon Ross wrote:

Also Sprach bdragon@gweep.net
> Even if you_are_ telling the truth, the number of folks on this list
> who have stated that they've advocated lying, or have helped
> people lie seems to tell me that ARIN shouldn't believe you.

Thus spake "Jeff McAdams" <jeffm@iglou.com>

I haven't seen anyone in this thread advocate lying...though I don't
follow all nanog posts, so I don't know if it may have happened in
other threads...if so, I find that reprehensible.

In the past, many folks have noted that telling ARIN the truth -- even when
in compliance with their posted policies and RFC2050 -- often does not get
requests approved. If the only way to get approved is to lie, that is what
people will do. If ARIN finds significant numbers of its applicants are
lying, perhaps they ought to reexamine why they're denying so many
legitimate requests.

S

Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

Thus spake "Robert Blayzor" <noc@inoc.net>

Seriously? I don't agree with monopolies in any way, but there are
reasons for centralized control on some things, it's called sanity.

No allocation system can operate when there is higher demand than supply;
the only difference between free and central markets is that a free market
will self-correct as long as demand is elastic -- central markets simply
fail and lead to revolution (see also: USSR).

Talk about stepping up wide IPv6 deployment to almost immediately....

...except the requirements for IPv6 PI space are even more draconian than
for IPv4. Consensus in the IPng WG saying it's reasonable to expect
customers to renumber several times per year because it's so "easy" with
IPv6, therefore "nobody" will want private or PI space anymore.

These folks make ARIN look like knights in shining armor.

S

Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

Brandon Ross wrote:

> The solution to the problems posted in this thread about ARIN is fairly
> simple. It's time to deregulate the IP address market and convert to a
> free market approach to allocating IP addresses. If address space could
> be bought and sold on a free market you would no longer have to justify
> your address space to anyone, saving untold amount of resources and costs
> pulling these reports together. Of course, address space wouldn't be
> wasted the way it is today by organizations that hoard it, or by companies
> that go out of business because it would make sound financial sense to
> sell what you don't need.

I am sure Microsoft would love to have this implemented. For them to drop, say, $5b and buy up all remaining available IP address space is no big deal. Then, anytime you boot up Win/XP2 you would be assigned an IP address from their pool (MS/DHCPv4) so that you could work on their new IP/XP2 network which used to be called the Internet. Of course every time you boot, your credit card would be debitted $1.

After implementing IP/XP2 and amassing a war-chest of about $80b, I had heard they were interested in buying up initially all phone numbers in the United States since phone numbers should be converted to a free market approach.

-Hank