| Details | 
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1) Rational
The current IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy (afpol-v6200407-000) suggests that most IPv6 subscribers should be assigned a /48 "in the general case". The policy also requests AfriNIC to evaluate requests for additional allocations based on "units of /48 assignments" and that LIRs be allocated in general a /32.
Contrary to IPv4 where only utilization determines the level of consumption hence the threshold for subsequent allocations (80% host based utilization), in the IPv6 Policy efficient address space utilization threshold is used to determine eligibility to subsequent allocations. The HD-Ratio is a way of measuring the efficiency of address assignment [RFC 3194]:
Log (number of allocated objects) HD = ------------------------------------------ Log (maximum number of allocatable objects)
The efficiency utilization threshold (T) is expressed as a number of individual /48 prefixes allocated from an IPv6 prefix (P). It can be calculated as:
((48-P)*HD) T = 2
The HD-Ratio presently defined for IPv6 is at 0.8.
This has the effect of making subsequent allocations to LIRs after only 10.9% utilization of their available space. If the allocation prefix is brought down to /20 the efficient utilization threshold will only be 2.1% using the HD ratio of 0.80. Based on this, the LIRs will have much more unused IP addresses than they really need for their efficient growth planning. (See ANNEX 1).
This policy proposal suggests to raise the HD ratio from 0.80 to 0.94. Doing this could allow to reduce by 3 bit the consumption of whole IPv6 address space over the next 50 years. An LIR will then qualify for a subsequent allocation only when its uses (for a /32) 51.41% of its allocation.
See http://smakd.potaroo.net/ietf/all-ids/draft-narten-iana-rir-ipv6-considerations-00.txt for more analysis on Issues Related to the Management of IPv6 Address Space.
** Similar adjustment of the HD-Ration has been adopted in the other RIR regions **
ANNEX 1
A) With an HD=0.8
The following table provides equivalent absolute and percentage address utilization figures for IPv6 prefixes, corresponding to an HD-Ratio of 0.8
        P       48-P            Total /48s     Threshold    Util%
        48       0                   1                1     100.0%
        47       1                   2                2      87.1%
        46       2                   4                3      75.8%
        45       3                   8                5      66.0%
        44       4                  16                9      57.4%
        43       5                  32               16      50.0%
        42       6                  64               28      43.5%
        41       7                 128               49      37.9%
        40       8                 256               84      33.0%
        39       9                 512              147      28.7%
        38      10                1024              256      25.0%
        37      11                2048              446      21.8%
        36      12                4096              776      18.9%
        35      13                8192             1351      16.5%
        34      14               16384             2353      14.4%
        33      15               32768             4096      12.5%
        32      16               65536             7132      10.9%
        31      17              131072            12417       9.5%
        30      18              262144            21619       8.2%
        29      19              524288            37641       7.2%
        28      20             1048576            65536       6.3%
        27      21             2097152           114105       5.4%
        26      22             4194304           198668       4.7%
        25      23             8388608           345901       4.1%
        24      24            16777216           602249       3.6%
        23      25            33554432          1048576       3.1%
        22      26            67108864          1825677       2.7%
        21      27           134217728          3178688       2.4%
        20      28           268435456          5534417       2.1%
        19      29           536870912          9635980       1.8%
        18      30          1073741824         16777216       1.6%
        17      31          2147483648         29210830       1.4%
        16      32          4294967296         50859008       1.2%
        15      33          8589934592         88550677       1.0%
        14      34         17179869184        154175683       0.9%
        13      35         34359738368        268435456       0.8%
        12      36         68719476736        467373275       0.7%
        11      37        137438953472        813744135       0.6%
        10      38        274877906944       1416810831       0.5%
        9       39        549755813888       2466810934       0.4%
        8       40       1099511627776       4294967296       0.4%
        7       41       2199023255552       7477972398       0.3%
        6       42       4398046511104      13019906166       0.3%
        5       43       8796093022208      22668973294       0.3%
        4       44      17592186044416      39468974941       0.2%
B) with an HD=0.94
The following table provides equivalent absolute and percentage address utilization figures for IPv6 prefixes, corresponding to an HD-Ratio of 0.94.
P 48-P Total /48s Threshold Util%
        P       48-P            Total /48s     Threshold    Util%
        48       0                   1                1      100.0%
        47       1                   2                2      95.93%
        46       2                   4                4      92.02%
        45       3                   8                7      88.27%
        44       4                  16               14      84.67%
        43       5                  32               26      81.23%
        42       6                  64               50      77.92%
        41       7                 128               96      74.74%
        40       8                 256              184      71.70%
        39       9                 512              352      68.78%
        38      10                1024              676      65.98%
        37      11                2048             1296      63.29%
        36      12                4096             2487      60.71%
        35      13                8192             4771      58.24%
        34      14               16384             9153      55.86%
        33      15               32768            17560      53.59%
        32      16               65536            33689      51.41%
        31      17              131072            64634      49.31%
        30      18              262144           124002      47.30%
        29      19              524288           237901      45.38%
        28      20             1048576           456419      43.53%
        27      21             2097152           875653      41.75%
        26      22             4194304          1679965      40.05%
        25      23             8388608          3223061      38.42%
        24      24            16777216          6183533      36.86%
        23      25            33554432         11863283      35.36%
        22      26            67108864         22760044      33.92%
        21      27           134217728         43665787      32.53%
        20      28           268435456         83774045      31.21%
        19      29           536870912        160722871      29.94%
        18      30          1073741824        308351367      28.72%
        17      31          2147483648        591580804      27.55%
        16      32          4294967296       1134964479      26.43%
        15      33          8589934592       2177461403      25.35%
        14      34         17179869184       4177521189      24.32%
        13      35         34359738368       8014692369      23.33%
        12      36         68719476736      15376413635      22.38%
        11      37        137438953472      29500083768      21.46%
        10      38        274877906944      56596743751      20.59%
        9       39        549755813888     108582451102      19.75%
        8       40       1099511627776     208318498661      18.95%
        7       41       2199023255552     399664922315      18.17%
        6       42       4398046511104     766768439460      17.43%
        5       43       8796093022208    1471066903609      16.72%
        4       44      17592186044416    2822283395519      16.04%
| History | |
| 31.03.2007 | Posted to rpd mailing list by author | 
| 02.03.2007 | Reached consensus during AfriNIC-6 in Abuja, Nigeria. | 
| 08.05.2007 | 15 Days Last Call period starts. | 
| 23.05.2007 | 15 Days Last Call period ends. | 
| 13.06.2007 | Implemented |