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APNIC · RIR Watchdog

Application of the HD ratio to IPv4

Start here for the proposal-by-proposal record: what changed, why it mattered, who argued for what, how positions evolved, what was decided, and where the evidence still has gaps.

Source facts

Policy ID
prop-020
RIR
APNIC
Official status
Abandoned after four week discussion on mailing list.
Normalized status
Abandoned
Introduced
Aug 4, 2004
Last source update
Oct 14, 2026
Coverage
Partial

Who actually shaped the debate?

9Total participants
8Discussion contributors
1Formal actors
13Discussion messages
4.8Effective participants
76.9%Top-five discussion share
2People covering 50%
6People covering 80%

Policy evolution

Debate timeline

  1. Introduced

    Introduced

    Source facts ↗

  2. Official version

    v001

    Source facts ↗

  3. Public discussion

    [sig-policy] Policy SIG Proposal - HD ratio for IPv4 allocations

    8 Discussion messages · 5 Entities

    Source facts ↗

  4. Public discussion

    RE: [sig-policy] Policy SIG Proposal - HD ratio for IPv4 allocations

    2 Discussion messages · 2 Entities

    Source facts ↗

  5. Official decision

    abandoned

    abandoned

    Source facts ↗

Entities

Freshness: Stale
  1. Izumi Okutani · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages5
    First activityAug 5, 2004
    Last activityAug 26, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies1
  2. Anne Lord · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages2
    First activityAug 11, 2004
    Last activityAug 23, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies4
  3. Toshiyuki Hosaka · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages1
    First activitySep 9, 2004
    Last activitySep 9, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies3
  4. APNIC Secretariat · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages1
    First activityAug 4, 2004
    Last activityAug 4, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies11
  5. Jeff Williams · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages1
    First activityAug 10, 2004
    Last activityAug 10, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies3
  6. Geoff Huston
    Discussion messages1
    First activityFeb 23, 2006
    Last activityFeb 23, 2006
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyInsufficient evidence to assess consistency
    Other policies7
    Freshness: Stale

    Identity verified: Sep 29, 2026

    Telstra · Historical
    He was the Chief Internet Scientist for Telstra from 2001 until 2004.
    conference.apnic.net
    APNIC · Historical
    Geoff joined APNIC as the Research Scientist in 2004.
    conference.apnic.net
    APNIC · Historical
    Geoff Huston [APNIC]
    ripe.net
    Internet Architecture Board · Historical
    He has been a member of the Internet Architecture Board from 1999 until 2005 and served as the Executive Director of the IAB from 2001 until 2005.
    conference.apnic.net
    Internet Architecture Board · Historical
    He has been a member of the Internet Architecture Board from 1999 until 2005 and served as the Executive Director of the IAB from 2001 until 2005.
    conference.apnic.net
    IETF · Historical
    He currently chairs IETF working groups on Routing operations and IPv6 Multi-homing.
    conference.apnic.net
    IETF · Historical
    He currently chairs IETF working groups on Routing operations and IPv6 Multi-homing.
    conference.apnic.net
    APNIC · Historical
    Geoff has been a supporter of APNIC since its inception, and he has served on the Executive Council from 1996 until 2004.
    conference.apnic.net
    Discussion messages
    1
    First activity
    Feb 23, 2006
    Last activity
    Feb 23, 2006
    First explicit stance
    Unknown
    Latest explicit stance
    Unknown
    Stance changes
    0
    Viewpoint consistency
    Insufficient evidence to assess consistency
    Other policies
    7

    First explicit stance: Unknown → Latest explicit stance: Unknown · Stance changes: 0

    Viewpoint consistency: Insufficient evidence to assess consistency

    The retained message presents a technical report about HD-ratio implications and notes that the proposal is also under consideration in APNIC. It does not state Geoff Huston’s support or opposition to the APNIC proposal, so it cannot establish consistency or a change over time.

    Application of the HD ratio to IPv4

    Assessment: Insufficient evidence to assess consistency · The message shares technical analysis of HD-ratio implications and identifies the proposal as relevant to APNIC, but it does not state a personal position on the proposal. A single technical report cannot establish viewpoint consistency or inconsistency.

    Conditions: The report is evidence of analysis or information sharing, not an adoption or implementation verdict.

    This report was posted to the RIPE address policy mailing list

    1. Feb 23, 2006 · Procedural or neutral

      [sig-policy] Some comments relevant to prop-020-v001.txt

      Conditions:

      Circulates his sensitivity analysis of replacing the uniform 80% IPv4 utilisation threshold with an HD ratio of 0.96; supplies analytical evidence without an explicit support or opposition vote.

      Under the report’s constant-demand simulation, RIPE NCC address consumption increases by 46%. The hypothetical immediate adoption by all five RIRs includes a 47% increase for APNIC; these are modelled scenarios, not observed policy effects.

      Highlights the disproportionate contribution of very large allocations: /9 and /10 allocations account for half the simulated increase, although they represent about 1% of allocations in the cited data.

      The projected IANA exhaustion dates are historical conditional outputs in this February 2006 message, not current forecasts, actual exhaustion dates or proof that either proposal was adopted.

      The report is attributed to Geoff Huston in the retained message. Its embedded heading says 22 February 2005 while the email and allocation tables reference 2006; the original wording is preserved and that date discrepancy is not silently resolved.

      I trust that this report is helpful in terms of assessing some of the impacts of the proposal. … 0.96 for IPv4 address allocations made by the RIPE NCC is predicted to increase total address consumption by 46% over the existing flat 80% utilization allocation policy framework. … A related consideration is that of the adoption of such a policy proposal by all 5 RIRs. If this were the case, and the adoption of this policy was to be effective immediately, then the relative increase in overall address consumption for each RIR would be: Afrinic 39%, APNIC 47%, ARIN 46%, LACNIC 47%. … 50% of this increased address consumption is in allocations of /9 and /10 prefixes, which only account for 1% of all actual allocations, but 20% of the allocated addresses.

      Source facts ↗
    Per-policy stance timelines:prop-020 · Unknown · Insufficient evidence to assess consistencyprop-031 · Unknown · No explicit position statedprop-032 · Unknown · No explicit position statedprop-033 · Unknown · No explicit position statedprop-050 · Unknown · No explicit position statedprop-109 · Unknown · No explicit position statedprop-110 · Unknown · No explicit position statedExperimental Internet Resource Allocations · Unknown · No explicit position stated

    Total policy messages: 22

  7. Toshiyuki Hosaka
    Discussion messages1
    First activitySep 9, 2004
    Last activitySep 9, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyInsufficient evidence to assess consistency
    Other policies6
  8. Paul Wilson · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages1
    First activityAug 9, 2004
    Last activityAug 9, 2004
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies0
  9. APNIC Secretariat · Identity unresolved
    Discussion messages0
    First activityUnknown
    Last activityUnknown
    First explicit stanceUnknown
    Latest explicit stanceUnknown
    Stance changes0
    Viewpoint consistencyNo explicit position stated
    Other policies0

Sources and coverage

Official policy sources

Public discussion archives

  • apnic-sig-policy
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  • apnic-sig-policy
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  • www.apnic.net
  • conference.apnic.net
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Coverage

Partial
Earliest captured: Jun 1, 2001
Latest captured: Oct 15, 2026

Freshness

Freshness: Stale · Last refresh:

Known gaps

  • www.apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-sig-policy: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-sig-policy: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • www.apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • conference.apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-academy-talk-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-afg-community-apnic.foundation: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-apac-ict-women-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-apix-chair-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-apix-secretary-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
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  • apnic-mvnog-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-orbit-discuss-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
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  • apnic-sig-nir-lists.apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
  • apnic-sig-routingsecurity-apnic.net: Source coverage is incomplete. · The source boundary has not yet been reached.
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