--On Friday, November 12, 2004 10:35 AM -0800 James Laszko <jamesl@pcipros.com> wrote:
The general rule of thumb for ARIN IP space is that if you need IP independence, you can't have it. <g>
This is false. If you can properly justify your need, then, you can easily obtain addresses from ARIN. However, there is a process and documentation is required. You can't simply say "I need 4096 addresses, gimme" and expect to get a good result. I have made numerous applications to ARIN for allocations of varying sizes. I have had to explain and document things for them on each and every one, but, I have never been unable to get the space I needed from them. I will admit that in the past, ARIN has been more than a little difficult to deal with, but, in the last 3 years, that has changes significantly. The current ARIN staff is courteous, professional, and tries very hard to do the right thing. There is a significant public policy process and ARIN is very good about accepting and acting on feedback from the community. In the past, I was one of ARIN's bigest critics. Since then, they've actually listened and implemented many of my suggestions, and, I, for one, think they've done an admirable job with a difficult task.
You've basically got to have around 16 /24's utilized before ARIN will do anything for you. Once you're at this point, they'll give you a /20 to renumber everyone, but will reserve a contiguous /19 for you if you can justify that you'll use it within the next 3-6 months.
This is also completely false. Prior to the enactment of policies 2002-3 and 2003-15 (enacted at the same time), the MAU (minimum allocation unit) from ARIN was a /20(v4) or a /32(v6). Today, the v4 MAU is a /22. The v6 MAU is still a /32. Also, if you are running an exchange point, you can get a /24 from the exchange-point reservation. I think there are a couple of other micro-allocation exceptions, but, for general purposes, a /22 is the MAU. To get a /22, you simply need to demonstrate that you have at least 50% utilization of a /22. To get more space, you have to show 80% utilization of all previously allocated/assigned space.
It's a real fun Catch-22. :)
It's not a catch-22 at all. You submit a form with proper documentation and justification. They ask you some questions, you submit the answers and any additional supporting documentation. If you have fully justified and explained your need, you receive the address space. On average, this has taken me about 2 weeks. In optimum cases, I've gone from application to addresses in as little as 3 days, and, in a worst case, it once took me almost 6 weeks. I've never been unable to get addresses. (BTW, before anyone goes off on the but you're a large provider... tangent, no, I'm not. I haven't done any ISP transactions with ARIN in the last 4 years. All of my transactions since have been direct end-user assignments of /20 and longer prefixes) Owen -- If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.