Summary

  • Leo Vegoda's RIPE 2006-07 proposal let a new local Internet registry move automatically from an IPv4 Assignment Window of zero to /21 six months after its first allocation. The window set the largest assignment it could make without prior RIPE NCC approval; it did not give the LIR a new /21 block.
  • RIPE NCC's sample of 1,100 approval tickets found 80% cleared immediately or after one exchange. The proposal was accepted in April 2007 and reported implemented by RIPE 55 that October, after debate about mistakes that could hurt an LIR's customers.

Every customer address had a second desk

Imagine opening a local Internet registry and discovering that your IPv4 Assignment Window is zero. The phrase sounds like a sales target. It meant something plainer: an LIR could not make even a small assignment on its own without asking RIPE NCC first. The RIPE policy definition calls the window the maximum size of a single assignment an LIR may make without prior approval. It is a permission boundary, not a parcel of addresses dropped at its door.

Leo Vegoda wanted that boundary to move after a new LIR had six months with its first allocation. His 2006-07 proposal set the automatic window at /21, or 2,048 IPv4 addresses per assignment, and kept the related sub-allocation ceiling at /20. To make the case he brought a very unglamorous exhibit: 1,100 RIPE NCC approval tickets for requests up to /21, from July through September 2006. Of those, 673 needed no message exchange and 214 needed one. Together those were about 80%. Another 15% took two or three exchanges; 4% involved substantial discussion. The bulk of the queue looked routine. Staff could spend more time on the stubborn files.

The room did not treat a short queue as a flawless LIR. At RIPE 53, Gert Doering worried that training might never reach the person doing the work, and that poor administration could strand a new LIR's customers. Vegoda acknowledged that a new operator given room to make many bad assignments could create painful cleanup. The chair sent the subject back to the mailing list and asked for data about the second-opinion work. This was a dispute over where to place judgement, with the end customer sitting uncomfortably close to the edge.

The proposal archive records acceptance on 18 April 2007. RIPE 55's October minutes list it as implemented. The change let routine decisions move closer to the LIR once the clock had run. It left the basic policy obligation in place. Vegoda's ticket count measured administrative friction, while the objections supplied the missing human measure: a delayed assignment can look small on a dashboard and enormous to the customer waiting for it.

RIPE originals