APNIC begins allocating from “1/8” as normal

[Brisbane, Australia – Tuesday, 18 May 2010]

ISPs can be confident allocations from the 1.0.0.0/8 IPv4 address block
will be functional after a report from APNIC (the Asia Pacific Network
Information Centre) confirmed that 95% of the address space is
relatively free of unwanted traffic.

APNIC received the 1.0.0.0/8 from IANA for allocation and assignment as
public unicast space in January 2010. There were concerns that
unauthorized usage of the address space would cause problems for the
legitimate resource holders.

However, prior to distribution of this space, APNIC’s Resource Quality
Assurance procedures have determined that most addresses in this range
are viable for standard usage.

A report, titled “Traffic in Network 1.0.0.0/8” by Geoff Huston and
George Michaelson of APNIC Research & Development, details how certain
blocks within this range do act as an “attractor” for unwanted traffic
from private-use domains, mis-configured equipment, and scanning
activity.

“The findings of this report are not a cause for particular concern,
because every block that is allocated to APNIC from IANA is subject to
the same testing, and the majority of addresses in this block are clear”
said Mr Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist with APNIC.

APNIC’s Resource Quality Assurance activities attempt to minimize
routability problems through several processes including communication
with network operators through NOG mailing lists, training, and a series
of testing procedures such as “debogon” testing in conjunction with RIPE
NCC. Test routes are announced for a minimum of one month before blocks
are cleared by APNIC for allocation to ISPs in its region.

“In this case we identified a small portion of polluted addresses that
will not be distributed to ISPs, but the other 95% of the address are
fine to allocate,” explained Mr Huston.

Collaborating with a number of research partners, APNIC advertised the
address blocks and monitored the amount of traffic received. Analysis
revealed that network 1.0.0.0/8 currently attracts an average of 140Mbps
– 160Mbps of incoming traffic as a continuous sustained traffic level,
with peak bursts of over 800Mbps.

“The unwanted traffic is not evenly distributed,” said Mr Huston. “The
majority of traffic is directed at the individual addresses 1.1.1.1 and
1.2.3.4 and the covering /24s.”

However, the report recommends withholding a larger set of addresses for
further analysis in the long-term nature of unsolicited background
traffic. A further 14 /16s were identified as potentially problematic
and will be temporarily withheld for further analysis. A future
follow-up report will make recommendations about the use of these
address blocks.

“If further investigation reveals that the traffic to these addresses
has returned to a normal background level, or if we find another way to
make any of these network prefixes usable on the public Internet, then
the addresses will be returned to the APNIC unallocated address pool,”
recommended Mr Huston.

APNIC Research & Development thanks RIPE NCC, Merit, and YouTube for
their generous support and collaboration on this study project and
invites other collaborators interested in undertaking further research.

Traffic in Network 1.0.0.0/8 is available at:
http://www.apnic.net/press/Traffic-in-Network-1.pdf