APNIC Home APNIC Home

APNIC Member Meeting Seoul, Korea, 3 March 2000

APNIC Open Address policy Meeting

Discussion Paper:

IP allocation issues for large scale permanent connection consumer networks, such as CATV , ADSL and Wireless Internet access

Rapid expansion of the Internet combined with deregulation of telecommunication services is accelerating implementation of broadband permanent Internet access in many countries. Such services require tremendous amount of IP addresses due to its nature that servers and terminals are always connected to the Internet. Additionally, users of such services expect that the network they are using be always connected to the Internet, which is a new service concept in the consumer market of Internet access. The huge change in scale and service concept will require a new concept in IP address allocation policy since the current policy does not accommodate them.

In some countries, it is already causing confusion among service providers due to rumors based on assumptions that the current IP allocation policy will be strictly applied to new services or to lack of knowledge in IP address allocation. Some CATV networks designed their IP backbones assuming that Internet access over cable will be treated in a similar manner as dial up Internet access, which caused them to always use network address translation facilities at the gateway between the CATV network and its upstream IP network. This kind of design is adopted mainly when "access to the Internet" is defined at a TCP session level and the number of IP addresses allocated will be limited to the number of servers or PCs accessing Internet at the same time. Some other networks are providing permanent access service with a fixed number of maximum IP address allocation per customer. If this kind of service is provided, most of the users might subscribe for the maximum allowed number.

Such confusion will lead to unfair allocation of IP addresses, limitation in variety of IP services and in expansion of IP network, inefficient use of IP address space and so on.

The only way to solve these problems is to build global consensus . Case studies, building long term strategy, long term planning leaded by APNIC might establish such thing. Furthermore, it might result as guidance by APNIC on IP address allocation policies for new types of networks.

The following is proposed as a base to start such discussions.

  • IP address allocation policies shall not restrict deployment of any kind of business
  • A mechanism must be developed to prevent inefficient allocation of IP addresses

Top  |  SIGs


Home | MyAPNIC | Info & FAQ | Services | Training | Meetings | Membership | Policy | Internet community | Search
Last modified | © 1999 - APNIC Pty. Ltd.
Comments to: )">webmaster@apnic.net | Privacy statement | RSS Really Simple Syndication