1.0) Introduction

At the time when the original soft landing policy was authored, there were many unknowns and circumstances that could not be foreseen, and as a result of this, the policy in its current form may actually damage the interests of the AFRINIC community rather than assist.

Primary among these, it was not known when the rest of the world would run out of IPv4 space, and the adoption rates of IPv6 were also an unknown quantity.

While it is acknowledged that there is a need to ensure that new entrants into the IP world may require some small amount of IPv4 space, beyond this, further delaying the depletion of IPv4 address space may well be holding the region back while the rest of the world moves on, leaving Africa at a significant disadvantage moving forward.

In the original policy replaced by this, the numbers and allocation levels were also not based on any fundamental justifications, because of the unknowns that existed at the time.

2.0) Summary of How this Proposal Addresses the Problem

This proposal still maintains a block of space reserved for new entrants, but beyond that, it allows for the natural depletion of IPv4 through standard demand, and hence encourages the uptake of IPv6 in a more aggressive manner.

3.0 Proposal

This policy (IPv4 Soft Landing), applies to the management of address space that will be available to AFRINIC after the current IPv4 pool is depleted.

The purpose of this document is to ensure that address space is assigned and/or allocated in a manner that is acceptable to the AFRINIC community especially during this time of IPv4 exhaustion.

3.1 Policy Documents to be Affected

IPv4 Soft Landing Policy

3.2 Definitions

• Local Internet Registry (LIR) - A Local Internet Registry (LIR) is an Internet Registry (IR) that receives allocations from an RIR and assigns address space to customers who use its services. LIRs are generally ISPs and their customers are end-users and possibly other ISPs. LIRs must be members of an RIR like AFRINIC; which serves the Africa Region and part of the Indian Ocean (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles).
• Existing LIR's - An Existing LIR is a LIR that assigns address space to 'end-users' and has already been assigned or allocated IPv4 address space by AFRINIC.
• End User - An End User is an organization that receives assignments of IP addresses exclusively for use in its operational networks
• New Entrant - Ether a member or new member that at the time of application had no previous IPv4 allocations or assignments made to them by AFRINIC, and were not holders of legacy IPv4 space or other IPv4 space sourced either through a potential transfer market or other RIR.
• New Entrant Block - A /13 block of IPv4 space, reserved in entirety, for allocations of space to members of AFRINIC that at the time of application have no previous IPv4 address allocations.  A /13 was chosen based on historical member growth numbers within AFRINIC, including a certain increase in those allocations to provide sufficient space to allocate to new members for a period of 2 years.
• Additional and Reclaimed Space - All IPv4 address blocks recovered from non-paying members, as well as all allocations of address space made to AFRINIC by IANA or a replacement organisation.

3.3 Summary

This proposal replaces AFPUB-2010-v4-005 with the effect of repealing most of the original policy and replacing it with a policy that deals only with the final /13 worth of space and new entrants, as defined in the definition above.

3.4 Current Phase

The "Current Phase" is the status-quo at the time of the adoption of this policy.  During this phase, AFRINIC will continue allocating or assigning IPv4 address space to LIRs and End Users using current IPv4 allocation policies as determined by the community through the policy development working group.

The current phase will continue until the depletion of IPv4 address space occurs, with the exception of IPv4 reservations as defined by this and other currently in force policies.

3.5 New Entrant Specification

At the time where an application is made that cannot be fulfilled out of the AFRINIC pool, with the exclusion of space reserved by this and other policies, the only applications for IPv4 space which will be further considered by AFRINIC will be for New Entrants. The maximum size of a New Entrant allocation will be a /22.

New Entrant applications will be processed on a first in first out (FIFO) basis, that is to say that applications will be processed in the order in which they are received. New Entrant applications with regards to justifications must conform to current IPv4 allocation policies as defined by the community.

3.5.1 Clarifications and Other Points

All space falling under the definition of Additional and reclaimed space, as from the time of ratification of this policy, will become part of the new entrant block and will be reserved for members who meet the New Entrant definition.

For the sake of clarity, the policy will be triggered by the application, however, should an application be declared invalid, further processing may continue until once again another application is made that cannot be fulfilled. 

In the event of the final application before depletion of all space outside of the New Entrant Block being too large to fill from the available space, the applicant shall be offered whatever remaining space is available as an alternative.

4.0 Revision History

5.0 References

None

Staff Assessment and Comments

3.0 Proposal

This policy (IPv4 Soft Landing), applies to the management of address space that will be available to AFRINIC after the current IPv4 pool is depleted.”

The current pool consists of available resources from AFRINIC /8s as well as other minority space received from IANA. It is unclear as to what the author means by this statement.

2. Policy will be triggered by an application from new entrant. Current RS processes have to be modified to cater for this. The new entrant block will initially contain a /13, to which shall be added any additional (from IANA)reclaimed resources (from closure process).

3. AFRINIC shall reserve a /13(+ Additional and Reclaimed Space) for new entrants after policy is ratified and all issuance for new registrations will be made out of this reservation. We shall continue evaluation of additional resource requests as it is currently being done. Additional resources (including allocations/assignments to Legacy v4 holders) shall be issued from “(All available resources) - ((Reserved for new entrants) + (Reserved for other policies))”

4. The maximum size of a New Entrant allocation will be a /22 andwill be processed on a first in first out (FIFO) basis.

5. Where anew Entrant Block being too large to fill from the available space, the applicant shall be offered whatever remaining space is available as an alternative.

6. Not clear what is "depletion" means in the sentence “The current phase will continue until the depletion of IPv4 address space occurs".

7. The following sentence is not clear/ambiguous“For the sake of clarity, the policy will be triggered by the application, however, should an application be declared invalid, further processing may continue until once again another application is made that cannot be fulfilled".

8. There is no reservation of resources for unforeseen developments on the internet as in the current softlanding policy.

9. Once this policy is ratified, it automatically unlocks the currently reserved /8 and locks only a /13 for new entrants. Current IP management practices will continue until there is only the last /13, then the provisions in this policy will come into effect.

10. “New Entrant Block - A /13 block of IPv4 space, reserved in entirety, “Does this mean thatthis policy be ratified, its implementation will start with the reservation of a /13 IPv4 prefix?

11. If proposal is ratified when current soft landing (CPM 5.4) is already active - and which may be the case probably Q1 2017, shall we roll back to needs based issuance (pre soft landing), only with the provision for new entrants?

12. Insert explicit sentence for reservation size for new entrants in 3.5

13. Should the /13 for new entrants be reserved ONLY from the last /8? (since there will not be a soft landing policy, as this proposal overhauls it)

14. Proposal should be clear on how it replaces or repeals CPM 5.4 and provide clear text with sub-numbering on how it will be inserted into the CPM