I think the more pertinent question is whether ARIN might give out parts of former class B space in blocks smaller than /16. If so, then the routing policies are unreasonable. I tend to think that rigidly following the classful structure is unwise, since one can expect over time that CIDR will result in many Class C & B networks becoming superneted, while A's and B's will most likely be subnetted. The supernetting C's and B's benefits the size of the route table, while subnetting A's and B's allows better space utilization. To assume or make policy that there won't be subneting of A's and B's seems to be counterproductive. Thats where much of the better address space utilization was supposed to come from. It would be nonsensical for ARIN to make allocations based on arbitrary ISP's routing policies. Rather, ISP's should make routing policies based on allocation policies. ISP's can join ARIN to have some input on its policies. Seems we just got our invoice last week... --Dean Around 02:17 AM 12/4/1999 -0500, rumor has it that jlewis@lewis.org said:

On Fri, 3 Dec 1999 bmanning@vacation.karoshi.com wrote:

...

...

As for BSDI, is it possible for them to trade their /17 in to ARIN for a more likely routable one?

NO. Arin can't presume to know what is or is not routable.

Assuming route filter policies are based on what the IP registries are giving out, the registries should be able to make at least good guesses as to which allocations will be routable and which will not. Since the registries have no control over backbone BGP filters, they can't guarantee routability. If there's not a good chance of their allocations being routable, then what's the point in allocating space?

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jon Lewis *jlewis@lewis.org*| Spammers will be winnuked or System Administrator | nestea'd...whatever it takes Atlantic Net | to get the job done. _________http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key__________

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