RIPE NCC has announced they have now entered phase one of approaching to reach the last /8.
RIPE explains that this means that:
- as of Tuesday, 4 September, they have approximately one month (or a /10) worth of IPv4 address space (4,134,976 addresses) to distribute before they reach the last /8.
- their IPRAs are now working in pairs to ensure that all requests are dealt with efficiently and to further ensure fairness, consistency and transparency. Therefore their response times may be longer than previously experienced. Response times for requests for IPv4 address space can be found at:
www.ripe.net/lir-services/resource-management/tools-for-lirs/reponse-time-ipv4 - their “call back procedure” has also changed – they will now call requestors about their ticket only when their ticket is at the front of the request queue. This will ensure that no ticket is handled outside of the order it was received in
- depending on the availability in the RIPE NCC’s free pool of IPv4 address space, multiple smaller prefixes that add up to the size of a request may be received
- the quarantine period in place for returned v4 address space before it can be re-used will be gradually decreased. In the last days before the last /8 is reached, the quarantine period may be reduced to one week or less. This will ensure that there is no IPv4 address space left in the quarantine pool when allocation from the last /8 commences. More information about quarantine periods can be found at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/resource-management/quarantine-for-returned-internet-number-resources
The Available IPv4 Pool Graph will be updated daily as of Wednesday, 5 September. This graph is online at:
www.ripe.net/internet-coordination/ipv4-exhaustion/ipv4-available-pool-graph
More information about reaching the last /8 can be found at:
www.ripe.net/internet-coordination/ipv4-exhaustion/last-8-phases
