Xavier Le Bris

Status of Legacy IPv4 Address Space

Xavier Le Bris

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Last year, we described how we were actively encouraging holders of unused or unannounced IPv4 address space to return it. In this article we report on the responses we have received.


In Returning Unannounced Legacy IPv4 Address Space we described how the RIPE NCC is reaching out to holders of unannounced legacy address space. The RIPE NCC actively worked to improve records of legacy address space by contacting the resource holders of /16s or more that were not announced in the global routing table.

A bulk email was sent to the 400 organisation email contacts. We asked these resource holders to consider returning this address space if it was not used .

Of the 400 emails we sent, 186 addresses bounced. For many of them we found other contact information. However, 95 of them remained unreachable.Below you can find a chart showing the type of responses we received.

Below you can find a number of reactions and responses we received so far:

  • 160 address holders updated the information in the RIPE Database.
  • 126 address holders confirmed that the addresses were used internally (prior to the existence of RFC1918 private address space).
  • 95 ERX holders were unreachable and/or did not exist anymore.
  • 84 address holders moved the resources into registry systems (either by becoming an LIR or by being a customer of an LIR).
  • 16 address holders returned the address space to the RIPE NCC
  • 3 address holders started announcing the prefix after we contacted them

 

Unannounced Legacy IPv4 Address Space

 

It was often very difficult and time consuming to get in contact with legacy address space holders.  A lot of information were out of date.  However, we can conclude that this activity showed some positive results: A big chunk of IPv4 address space was returned into the free pool of addresses. For another big portion, the registration information in the RIPE Database is now up to date.

 

 

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About the author

Xavier Le Bris Based in Amsterdam

I studied History in France. Computing science has always been a hobby. I joined the RIPE NCC in 2002 as a hostmaster and never left the boat. I am now a Senior Internet Resource Analyst, Part-time trainer, and part of the RIPE meeting team.

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