Policy Proposal 2002-2

[Member Services]

ARIN welcomes feedback and discussion about the following policy
proposal in the weeks leading to the ARIN Public Policy Meeting
in Eugene, Oregon, scheduled for October 30-31, 2002. All feedback
received on the mailing list about this policy proposal will be
included in the discussions that will take place at the upcoming
Public Policy Meeting.

This policy proposal discussion will take place on the ARIN Public
Policy Mailing List (ppml at arin.net).  Subscription information is
available at http://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/index.html

Richard Jimmerson
Director of Operations
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

### * ###

Policy Proposal 2002-2: Experimental Internet Resource Allocations

There have been a number of experimental address allocations undertaken
in the Internet over the past decade.  These experimental address
allocations have been made by the IANA in coordination with standards
bodies, such as the IETF, on an ad hoc basis.  There is currently no
systematic means of receiving other Numbering Resources on a temporary
basis as part of a recognised experiment in Internet technology
deployment.  The following policy is proposed:

  The RIRs will allocate Numbering Resources to entities requiring
  temporary Numbering Resources for a fixed period of time under
  the terms of recognised experimental activity.

The following criteria for this policy are proposed:

1. Public Disclosure of Experimental Requests
The organisation requesting the resources will have to detail what
experimental work they are going to carry out. Such detail can usually
be made either:
  * by submitting a proposal that references a current IETF
    Experimental RFC (Detail Two), or
  * by submitting an 'experiment proposal' detailing what
    resources are required, and what activities will be
    carried out (Detail Three).

Such experimental proposals will, in the normal course of events be made
public upon acceptance of the proposal by an RIR. Consideration will be
given to non-disclosure constraints, but this is anticipated to be a
prohibitive constraint upon the use of public Numbering Resources, even
in an experimental context. The RIR will not allocate resources if the
entire research experiment cannot be publicly disclosed as per Details
Two and Three following.

2. Resource Coordination with Standards Development Bodies
The IETF from time to time describes experimental activities and
associated requirements for resources that will be required by
participants in the experiment. It is considered as being acceptable for
the organisation to reference a current Experimental RFC and indicate
the organisation's participation in the experiment.

Organisations such as the IETF, who describe experimental activities as
part of their standards development process, need to consider the
associated Numbering Resource requirements with any proposed experiment,
and under this proposal will need to liaise with the RIRs as part of the
process of publishing a draft as an experimental RFC.

3. Resource Coordination with Independent Experiments
For experimental proposals not covered by Detail Two, the RIR will
require the experiment's aims and objectives to be published in a
publicly accessible document.

The RIRs have a strong preference for the use of an Experimental RFC
published through the IETF, but will accept other publication mechanisms
where the experiment's objectives and practices are publicly and openly
available free of charges and free of any constraints of disclosure.

The RIRs would also normally require that the experiment's outcomes be
published in an openly and freely available document, again free of
charges and free of any constraints of disclosure.

4. Resource Allocation Term and Renewal
The Numbering Resources are allocated on a lease/license basis for a
period of one year. The allocation can be renewed on application to the
issuing RIR providing information as per in Detail One. The identity and
details of the applicant and the allocated Numbering Resources will be
published under the conditions of the RIR's normal publication policy
(for example, listed as a temporary allocation in the RIR's database).

5. Single Resource Allocation per Experiment
The RIR will make one-off allocations only, on an annual basis.
Additional allocations outside the annual cycle will not be made unless
justified by a subsequent complete application. It's important for the
requesting organisation to ensure they have sufficient resources
requested as part of their initial application for the proposed
experimental use.

6. Resource Allocation Fees
Each RIR may charge an administration fee to cover each allocation made
of these experimental resources. This fee simply covers registration and
maintenance, rather than the full allocation process for standard RIR
members. This administration fee should be as low as possible as these
requests do not have to undergo the same evaluation process as those
requested in the normal policy environment.

7. Resource Allocation Size
The Numbering Resources requested come from the global Internet Resource
space, and are not from private or other non-routable Internet Resource
space. The allocation size should be consistent with the existing RIR
minimum allocation sizes, unless small allocations are intended to be
explicitly part of the experiment. If an organisation requires more
resource than stipulated by the minimum allocation sizes in force at the
time of their request, they should include in their research proposal
why this is required.

8. Commercial Use Prohibited
If there is any evidence that the temporary resource is being used for
commercial purposes, or is being used for any activities not documented
in the original experiment description provided to the RIR, the issuing
RIR reserves the right to immediately withdraw the resource and reassign
it to the free pool.

9. Resource Request Appeal or Arbitration
The RIRs should be in a position to assess and comment on the objectives
of the experiment with regard to the requested amount of Numbering
Resources. The issuing RIR should be able to modify the requested
allocation as appropriate, and in agreement with the proposer. In the
event that the proposed modifications are not acceptable, the requesting
organization may request an appeal or arbitration using the normal
procedures of the RIR.  In this case, the original standards body that
endorsed the experimental action may be requested to provide additional
information regarding the experiment and its objectives to assist in the
resolution of the appeal.

### end ###