At 06:53 AM 11/6/98 -0600, Karl Denninger wrote:
That argument equally applies to hardware which is available, but is a LOT cheaper without the feature set that is required to "comply" with ARIN's demands.
Why should ARIN be able to put someone's business model into the trash can because of technical complience issues?
Hrmmmm, you have a major point. Suppose only routers costing 6 figures or more could do CIDR, while routers costing, say, four figures could do RIPv1? Should we give someone a large block to get "up and running" until they could afford the much more expensive routers? Of course, this is not the case, so it's an exercise in philosophy. Perhaps we should consider it because of the possibility of a new technology coming out in such a fashion. As a member of the board, Karl, this is especially pertinent to you, but I do believe it is an operation issue we should all consider and discuss. I'm inclined to say that we should give someone a larger allocation to start - assuming reasonably priced CIDR capable routers are coming in the near future and they agree to renumber into CIDR once the routers/software/whatever is available to make more reasonable allocations. Of course, this is open to lots of interpretations, such as "reasonably priced" and "near future" - but no one said address allocation policy would be easy. See, I just don't think "Address Space" should be a barrier to entry. It's not like ARIN *owns* the space, they're just the caretaker for the IPv4 space in America for the "community". As a member of the community, I want them to be fugal to avoid waste. But unusually large (and temporary) allocations to allow a company to enter the market - a company that would otherwise have to perform Herculean tasks, tasks none of the rest of us have ever had to perform, or maybe even tasks impossible with the State of the Art - is not, IMHO, waste. How's that for a "grey area"? :)
Karl Denninger (karl@denninger.net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl
TTFN, patrick I Am Not An Isp www.ianai.net "Think of it as evolution in action." - Niven & Pournelle