This proposal aims to prohibit the transfer of IPv4 addresses within the 103/8 block (the final /8 block allocated by APNIC) for two years after allocation or assignment. This is to ensure the addresses in the 103/8 block are used for their original purpose of accommodating new entrants to the industry, rather than being consumed through transfers. The proposal outlines that mergers and acquisitions can transfer up to a /22 within the 103/8 block, or more if technical reasons require keeping separate networks announced from multiple autonomous systems. The objective is to make the 103/8 block available for new entrants as originally intended, rather than allowing it to be depleted through transfers, and potentially extend the exhaustion date of the

1. 2017#apricot2017
prop-116:
Prohibit to transfer IPv4
addresses in the final /8
block
Tomohiro Fujisaki
APNIC 43 Open Policy Meeting
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Wednesday, 1 March 2017

2. 2017#apricot2017
Objective of this proposal
• Keeping distribution from 103/8 block to be
consistent with its original purpose
– 103/8 pool is for distribution for new entrants to
the industry.
• Avoiding 103/8 blocks to be consumed for
transfer purpose.

3. 2017#apricot2017
Problem statement
• There are a lot of transfers of IPv4 address blocks from
103/8 happening, both within the APNIC region and
among RIRs.
– Then number of transfer from 103/8 block are about 200, which is
about 12% of the total number of transfers. This looks so high,
since APNIC manages about 40/8.
– Based on the information provided by APNIC secretariat, number
of transfers from the 103/8 block are increasing year by year.

4. 2017#apricot2017
Top 20 number of transfers in /8
blocks
4
# of transfers
Produced from ftp://ftp.apnic.net/public/transfers/apnic/transfer-apnic-latest on 27 Feb 2017
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
103 202 203 27 183 43 59 192 111 182 180 160 157 124 150 153 119 110 49 170
Number of Transfer
Number of Transfer
103/8 is 14% of the total (12% at APNIC42)

5. 2017#apricot2017
Transfer statistics
5
Year Total Transfers Number of /24s
2011 3 12
2012 10 46
2013 18 66
2014 126 498
2015 147 573
2016 63 239
Year Total Transfers Number of /24s
2011 2 2
2012 21 68
2013 16 61
2014 25 95
2015 67 266
2016 103 394
1) M&A transfers containing 103/8 space
2) Market transfers containing 103/8 space
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Marcket Transfers
Total # of /24s
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
M&A Transfers
Total # of /24a
Provided by APNIC Secretariat on 30 Jan 2017

6. 2017#apricot2017
Problem statement (cont.)
• Transfers from the 103/8 block include:
– Take place within 1 year of distribution, or
– Multiple blocks to a single organization in case of beyond 1 year.
• There is a case where a single organization have received 12 blocks
transfers from 103 range.
– see: https://www.apnic.net/transfer-resources/transfer-logs
• It is quite likely that substantial number of 103/8 blocks are
being used for transfer purpose. This conflicts with the
concept of distribution of 103/8 block (prop-062), which is
intended to accommodate minimum IPv4 address blocks for
new comers.
– prop-062: Use of final /8
https://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-062

7. 2017#apricot2017
Objective of policy change
When stated problem is solved, distribution from
103/8 block will be consistent with its original
purpose, for distribution for new entrants to the
industry. Without the policy change, substantial
portion of 103/8 blocks will be consumed for transfer
purpose.

8. 2017#apricot2017
Proposed policy solution
• Prohibit transfer IPv4 addresses under /8 address block
(103/8) which have not passed two years after its
allocation/assignment. If the address block allocated to a
LIR in two years is not needed any more, it must return to
APNIC to allocate to another organization using final /8
policy.
• In the case of transfers due to M&A, merged organization
can have up to /22 IPv4 address in the 103/8 block in
principle. If there are technical reasons such as all address
is used in separate networks and announced from multiple
ASes, merged organization can keep them. Otherwise, the
103/8 IPv4 address more than /22 must return to APNIC to
allocate to another organization using final /8 policy.
Changed from previous version

9. 2017#apricot2017
Advantages / Disadvantages
• Advantages
– It makes 103/8 blocks available according to the original
purpose, as distribution for new entrants (rather than
being consumed for transfer purpose)
– 103/8 pool exhaustion date might be postponed
• Disadvantages
– None.

10. 2017#apricot2017
Impact on APNIC/LIR
• LIRs cannot transfer address blocks under 103/8 within two
years. No big impact while they use it.
• Organizations which needs to receive transferred IPv4 can
continue to do so, outside 103/8 blocks (which should be
made available for new entrants)

11. 2017#apricot2017
Summary
• Propose to prohibit transfer IPv4 address under /8 address
block (103/8) which have not passed two years after its
allocation/assignment.
• In the case of transfers due to M&A, merged organization
can have up to /22 IPv4 address in the 103/8 block.
– Allow to keep addresses if they have technical reasons
• Distribution from 103/8 block will be consistent with its
original purpose:
– Distribution for new entrants to the industry.

12. 2017#apricot2017
Questions?