[ppml] Policy Proposal 2005-6: Micro-allocations for Anycast Services

On August 18, 2005, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) concluded its review
of proposed policy 'Micro-allocations for Anycast Services' and agreed
to forward it as a formal proposal for discussion by the community. This
proposal is designated 2005-6: Micro-allocations for Anycast Services.
The policy proposal text is below and can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2005_6.html

All persons in the community are encouraged to discuss Policy Proposal
2005-6 in the weeks leading to the ARIN Public Policy Meeting in Los
Angeles, CA, scheduled for October 26-27. Both the discussion on the
PPML and at the public policy meeting will be used to determine the
community consensus regarding this policy proposal.

The ARIN Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/irpep.html

ARIN's Policy Proposal Archive can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposal_archive.html

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

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Policy Proposal 2005-6: Micro-allocations for Anycast Services

Author: David Williamson

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement: In the NRPM IPv4 section, renumber 4.4 to 4.4.1, and add:

4.4.2 Micro-allocations for anycast services - ARIN will make
micro-allocations to organizations wishing to deploy anycast based
services, provided they meet the following criteria:

     * All of the criteria normally required to receive IPv4 space, AND
     * The organization must have multiple (at least two) discrete
multi-homed networks.
     * The organization must identify which networks, ASNs, or sites
will host the new service.
     * The organization must provide a description of the anycast service.

Micro-allocations for anycast services will be no longer than a /24.
These allocations will be made out of blocks reserved for
micro-allocation purposes. ISPs and other organizations receiving these
micro-allocations will be charged under the ISP fee schedule, while
end-users will be charged under the fee schedule for end-users.

Rationale:

There are an increasing number of anycast-based applications being
offered by service providers and other organizations. Indeed, many basic
infrastructure services (like the DNS root servers) are already anycast
based. (See RFC 1546 for an authoritative discussion of anycast services.)

Deployment of new services is hampered, however, by current IPv4
allocation policies. For organizations that do not have legacy IP space,
justifying a /22 to serve a handful of addresses is effectively
impossible. As many ISPs also filter routes longer than /22, it is
impractical to use a longer mask for any netblock that is utilized for
an anycast service. This situation is also generally unfavorable to
younger organizations, while giving older organizations that do have a
surplus of legacy space a competitive advantage.

In light of this, some organizations may simply lie about their
addressing needs in order to convince an RIR that a /22 is required,
when a much smaller network would suffice. This is not a behavior that
should be encouraged by policy.

The obvious answer is that a micro-allocation scheme needs to be created
to allow organizations deploying anycast services to acquire a network
of more appropriate size.

It is also clear that a micro-allocation policy that makes it easier for
organizations to acquire small netblocks may lead to additional improper
allocations to organizations that simply wish to acquire additional
small blocks of space. This policy proposal attempts to address that by
requiring more stringent requirements for such allocations.

Timetable for implementation: immediate