Hi All
This is not a policy proposal - but rather a discussion to develop some
sort of policy to solve a couple of problems that we may face as AfriNIC
reduces its IPv4 allocation activities and IPv6 becomes main stream. I
am looking for a way to better align the way that IPv6 fees are charged
with the IPv4 structures and in the process not unduly disadvantage
IPv6-only LIRs as they become more prevalent.
The current billing schedule provides for existing IPv4 LIR's to apply
for an IPv6 allocation and not pay any additional fees on this
allocation. I feel that this was an excellent move by the board and
serves to encourage the uptake of IPv6 very well.
During the same period the board announced significant discounts on
membership fees for IPv6 only LIR's. Despite these discounts I cannot
present a business plan to my investors that can show any kind of
financial return coming out of the IPv6 in the near future. The harsh
reality is that I can earn more revenue from a /32 of IPv4 than I can
from a /32 of IPv6 and the IPv6 allocation costs hundreds (if not
thousands) times more.
One of the AfriNIC representatives (may have been Adiel) reported at
AfriNIC-8 that the vast majority of members fell into the 'very-small'
allocation category which is of course determined by the size of the IP
block they request. IPv6 on the other hand has only one category (that
is being used) of 'small'.
What do we do now when more of these very-small members join to become
IPv6 LIR's?
In IPv4 land we allocate them an IP block based on their membership size
- with allocations as small as /22. In IPv6 this would be a bad idea. In
order to avoid the well documented problems with de-aggregation and
fragmentation we give out /32's and I don't for one moment think we
should be giving out anything else.
We however have a predicament: How do we fairly charge so that an LIR
that has assigned 10-20 /48's out of of their allocation is not
disadvantaged against an LIR with 60 000 assignments and the revenue to
match?
We can't base it on the BGP announcements since we don't want them
de-aggregating. The whois does not provide an accurate enough
representation of IP assignment - and LIR's could easily 'forget' to
update it to avoid paying fees. And it would be horribly unfeasible to
have routers logging IP usage and police the reported usage like that.
Through this whole process we have to still make sure that AfriNIC is
being kept financially sound. There is no point in discounting the IPv6
fees over and over again to the point that AfriNIC becomes bankrupt when
they are no longer able to allocate IPv4 address space.
I am now looking for a solution to this problem - and I don't have one...
regards
--
Graham Beneke
Apolix Internet Services
E-Mail/MSN/Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype: grbeneke
VoIP: 087-750-5696 Cell: 082-432-1873
http://www.apolix.co.za/
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