RFC 2008 (rfc2008) - Page 2 of 13
Implications of Various Address Allocation Policies for Internet Routing
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2008 October 1996
fraction of the total destinations in the Internet, and could express
such reachability through a single IP address prefix the document
suggests to use the "address ownership" policy. However, applying the
"address ownership" policy to every individual site or organization
that connects to the Internet results in a non-scalable routing.
Consequently, this document also recomments that the "address
lending" policy should be formally added to the set of address
allocation policies in the Public Internet. The document also
recommends that organizations that do not provide a sufficient degree
of routing information aggregation, but wish to obtain access to the
Internet routing services should be strongly encouraged to use this
policy to gain access to the services.
2 On the intrinsic value of IP addresses
Syntactically, the set of IPv4 unicast addresses is the (finite) set
of integers in the range 0x00000000 - 0xDFFFFFFF. IP addresses are
used for Network Layer (IP) routing. An IP address is the sole piece
of information about the node injected into the routing system.
The notable semantics of an IP unicast address is its ability to
interact with the Public Internet routing service and thereby
exchange data with the remainder of the Internet. In other words, for
the Public Internet, it is the reachability of an IP address that
gives it an intrinsic value. Observe, however, that IP addresses are
used outside of the Public Internet. This document does not cover the
value of addresses in other than the Public Internet context.
The above implies that in the Public Internet it is the service
environment (the Internet) and its continued operation, including its
routing system, which gives an IP address its intrinsic value, rather
than the inverse. Consequently, if the Public Internet routing system
ceases to be operational, the service disappears, and the addresses
cease to have any functional value in the Internet. At this point,
for the Public Internet, all address allocation and management
policies, including existing policies, are rendered meaningless.
3 Hierarchical routing and its implication on address allocation
Hierarchical routing [Kleinrock 77] is a mechanism that improves the
scaling properties of a routing system. It is the only proven
mechanism for scaling routing to the current size of the Internet.
Hierarchical routing requires that addresses be assigned to reflect
the actual network topology. Hierarchical routing works by taking the
set of addresses covered by a portion of the topology, and generating
a single routing advertisement (route) for the entire set. Further,
Rekhter & Li Best Current Practice