North American Network Operators Group
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Re: standards for giving out blocks of IP addresses

  • From: David R Huberman
  • Date: Sat Jun 16 14:58:05 2001 
>   Sorry, but nope, I don't understand it that way. Perhaps we need to
> properly define utilization.

For the purposes of the RIRs and for any ISP assigning or allocating
address space downstream, 'utilization' refers to an appropriate
assignment made. If I have properly assigned 80% of an address block
to my customers, I am 80% 'utilized' for the purposes of the RIRs. 

It is entirely irrelevant how much address space is actually being used,
on an IP x IP basis by downstreams. If the assignments were justified
per RFC2050, and the upstream has assigned 80% or more of its available
address space, then it requires another block.

> To an end user, it means active hosts. ARIN suggests following RFC2050
> and the 25%/50% standard prior to receiving an additional address
> assignment from their ISP.

Please stop saying that.

ARIN requires ISPs to follow RFC2050's guidelines for *initial*
assignments to end-users. End-users must demonstrate a need for 25% of the
requested assignment immediately, and a need for 50% of the requested
assignment within one year.

For *additional* address assignments from an ISP, an end-user should
demonstrate that they have utilized (in this case, meaning active
utilization in a 'live' sense) 80% of the initial assignment.

The difference is an important one. 25-50 is for *initial*, 80 is for
*additional*.

> This is even more confusing when the customer is both an end user and
> a downstream ISP themselves. If they aren't in turn assigning address
> space, then they are simply an end user and should be following
> RFC2050.

The RIRs use the words "ISP" and "end-user" slightly differently than
other folks. 

Any organization which does not assign their address space further
downstream is considered an "end-user". It doesn't matter what their
business activities are (indeed, they may be a service provider). For the
purposes of this discussion, for the purposes of the RIRs, they are an
end-user.

/david