Michael Dillon writes...
I would think the latter. If so, would anyone know why it is that the backbone providers are so resistant to giving out blocks to do this?
If backbone operators do not efficiently allocate IP space to their downstream customers then the next time they need additional IP space they will not be able to get any. Everyone in the food chain has to operate under the same policies of justifying IP space based on need and using the space efficiently. There is more info on this at http://www.arin.net and in particular you should have a look through the recommended reading section especially any documents relating to CIDR.
It seems that efficiency is measured only in terms of numbers of IP addresses and disregards numbers of routes. We are at a point that we can pretty much nearly fill a /19 and will be past that point by the end of the year. Beyond that, I would think that when we need to keep coming back for address space, we would do it in increments of /19. How much of the routing space is filled with networks smaller than /19 that are part of an ASN that has enough other smaller networks to renumber into a single /19. I'm wondering if the policies are not being counter productive due to the apparently opposing nature of IP space vs route space (e.g. the one where people have to take more IP space to be routed, because of route filters, because of too many routes, because IP space is so fragmented, because IP space needs to be conserved, because everyone needs to get more IP space, becayse of route filtering, because of so many routes, because ...). I was given some other mailing lists for dealing with those issues by someone. I'll be subscribing there. In the mean time, especially to help put topics on the correct mailing list (if on-topic posts are to be another goal) can someone post an informatory posting that lists ALL the mailing lists (preferrably with a brief summary of topic/purpose) that would be of interest to ALL the aspects of network provider business and operation? Or is this listed on a web page? If not, I'll offer to host just such a web page if I can get a pretty much complete list (I'll even write HTML to get it going). But I'm sure most everyone here has some access to some web space somewhere. -- Phil Howard KA9WGN +-------------------------------------------------------+ Linux Consultant | Linux installation, configuration, administration, | Milepost Services | monitoring, maintenance, and diagnostic services. | phil at milepost.com +-------------------------------------------------------+