Campus starts IP reclamation project
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
DoIT is working with campus departments on a project to reclaim unused campus IP (Internet Protocol) space. The goal is to manage campus IP space more efficiently.
WHY DOES CAMPUS NEED TO DO THIS?
The American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN) manages IPv4 addresses. DoIT is the campus steward of the IP address blocks allocated to UW Madison. The demand for additional IPv4 addresses on campus continues to grow due to new buildings, building expansions, clusters, virtualization, as well as the increase in use of handheld WiFi devices. Other higher education institutions are also faced with the same challenge. This is presenting us with a dilemma, but one that you can help us solve.
We cannot simply ask ARIN for more IP space. ARIN requires 80% utilization of existing addresses before any additional requests are granted. But even 80% utilization is no guarantee of more space for the UW. As the global pool of IPv4 addresses decreases, it is more likely that we will not be able to obtain additional IPv4 allocations from ARIN. Given this, we hope to utilize conservation, appropriately sized subnet allocations, DHCP, and private addressing use where sensible instead of resorting to NAT (Network Address Translation). At this point, we are not likely to look at NAT as a campus solution.
DoIT Network Services has already discussed this with the campus network administrators who are part of the Madison Network Advisory Group (NAG). They are supportive of this effort.
WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?
Many campus departments are using almost 50% of their IP address blocks, while other departments have IP blocks that have been unused for over a year. Starting July 15, those departments who have underutilized IP space will be contacted to discuss how to reclaim or reconfigure available IP blocks. Departments are not expected to re-IP by mid-July. That is just when the initial contact will be made.
The campus IPv4 allocation policy is being designed by the Network Advisory Group (NAG) to assist DoIT and campus departments to begin allocating IPs more efficiently. Upon completion, the policy will be reviewed by the ITC (Information Technology Committee).
WHAT ABOUT IPv6?
DoIT’s network engineering team is also actively researching IPv6 and its impact on our campus network. While there are no immediate plans to deploy IPv6 in the near future, DoIT is working to determine the implications of deploying IPv6 addresses within the campus network. Stay tuned for a campus invite to discuss IPv6 with DoIT.
For more about the looming global IPv4 shortage, please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion
More information on this project can be found at http://www.cio.wisc.edu/projects/ip/. Any questions about this project may be directed to Hideko Mills.