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prop-144-v001: Reserve pool under Experimental Policy Allocation

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Proposer: Anupam Agrawal (anupamagrawal.in@gmail.com)
          Simon Sohel Baroi (sbaroi@gmail.com)
          Amrita Choudhury (amritachoudhury@ccaoi.in)


1. Problem statement
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The existing experimental allocations policy predates the PDP, with the policy being first 
published on 29 December 2003 as a document apnic-109-v001. The goals enumerated in 
apnic-109-v001 have  been carried forward as Section 5.7.1.1 in apnic-127 which is to 
provide fair access to Internet resources for genuine researchers, to encourage
development of new technologies and refinement of standards. 

There appears to be no condition in apnic-127, Section 5.7.2 - Experimental Allocations 
Policy dealing with eligibility criteria restricting experimental allocations or 
mentioning from which /8 the IPv4 resource needs to be given. Hence, it can be construed 
that if the request for experimental allocation satisfies requirement as mentioned in 
Section 5.7.2, then the requestor is eligible to receive it.

In terms of request, in the last 10 years, APNIC has made only two experimental allocations:

- IPv6 only in 2010 and
- IPv4 and IPv6 (same organization) in 2018 and  there are indications of receiving a request for IPv4 only. 

Herein, the policy being silent on the quantity of allocations which can be made under Experimental 
Policy is resulting in operational concern for APNIC secretariat as to whether or not allocations 
can be done under this policy from the last /8 IPv4 addresses available with APNIC.


2. Objective of policy change
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The objective of the policy change is to provide reasonable assurance to the community on continuous 
availability of IPv4 resources to engage in experiments and use the resources as per the guidelines 
of the experimental policy.


3. Situation in other regions
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All the other regions (except RIPE) do have an experimental allocation policy but none have a 
reserved pool for the purpose.


4. Proposed policy solution
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We propose adding the following line towards the end of Section 5.7.1.1 - “A dedicated /21 IPv4 
address space has been reserved under this policy for five years from the date of publication of 
the policy after which the address space will be available for routine allocation. This reservation 
will decay 5 years after the policy implementation.” 

This will be in line with the spirit of Experimental RFCs being developed in IETF and also the 
intended goal of the policy.

The updated Section 5.7.1.1 will be: “This section describes policies for the responsible management 
of global Internet resources in the Asia Pacific region, specifically relating to the temporary 
allocation and assignment of Internet resources for experimental purposes. The goal of this policy 
is to provide fair access to Internet resources for genuine researchers, to encourage development 
of new technologies and refinement of standards. A dedicated /21 IPv4 address space has been reserved 
under this policy for five years from the date of publication of the policy after which the address 
space will be available for routine allocation. This reservation will decay 5 years after the policy 
implementation.”


5. Advantages / Disadvantages
-----------------------------
Advantages:
This will make the  experimental allocation policy more clear and forward looking. It will ensure 
continuous availability of IPv4 address space for the researchers including the academic community 
from the 54 economies of Asia Pacific region wherein research and education networks are increasingly 
getting engaged with experimentation requiring Internet resources.

Disadvantages:
There are no perceived disadvantages of this proposal.


6. Impact on resource holders
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There is no impact on resource holders as this is a reservation request for experimental allocation 
from the existing resources.


7. References
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