Summary

  • Scott Leibrand and Jason Schiller originated ARIN-2016-3, an alternative way to qualify for specified IPv4 transfers: show 80% use of existing holdings, then seek up to an equivalent amount, capped at a /16.
  • After the broader transfer rules changed, the Advisory Council fitted the proposal into section 8.5.7 and added a six-month limit. ARIN's Board adopted it in June 2017; staff implemented it in August.

The IPv4 cupboard was empty. The forms still remembered the pantry.

ARIN's free IPv4 pool had emptied, yet a transfer recipient could still face need tests inherited from rules built for allocations from that pool. ARIN-2016-3 offered a shorter route for an organization already using most of its addresses. Show 80% utilization, then qualify to receive via transfer up to the size of current ARIN IPv4 holdings. A /16 ceiling kept that shortcut within bounds. Existing documented-need routes remained available for other cases.

The Board's policy exhibit names Jason Schiller and Scott Leibrand as the originators. David Huberman and Owen DeLong were the Advisory Council shepherds. Those roles matter because the elegant first idea still had to survive a moving rulebook. The larger ARIN-2016-5 transfer rewrite placed qualification tests in a new section 8.5. The Leibrand-Schiller route had to find a place in that structure.

It did, as section 8.5.7. But a ceiling can be gamed by walking around it repeatedly. In a January 2017 policy-list note, Huberman explained why the Council added a six-month interval: to stop serial use of the shortcut from bypassing the /16 cap. The final wording allowed a total /16 equivalent in any six-month period. The original bargain survived, with a guardrail attached.

This is the small drama of address policy. A rule that asks for proof of use can spare applicants an elaborate forecast; a rule that lets holdings double also needs a clear stop sign. The Board adopted the proposal on 22 June 2017, and ARIN's archive dates implementation to 8 August. Leibrand's contribution was to put a measurable alternative on the table. The community then made it fit the transfer system it actually had.

Original records