[ppml] Policy Proposal: IPv6 Assignment Guidelines

[Member Services]

ARIN received the following policy proposal. In accordance with the ARIN
Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process, the proposal is being
posted to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) and being placed on
ARIN's website.

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) will review this proposal at their next
regularly scheduled meeting. The AC may decide to:

   1. Accept the proposal as a formal policy proposal as written. If the
AC accepts the proposal, it will be posted as a formal policy proposal
to PPML and it will be presented at a Public Policy Meeting.

   2. Postpone their decision regarding the proposal until the next
regularly scheduled AC meeting in order to work with the author. The AC
will work with the author to clarify, combine or divide the proposal. At
their following meeting the AC will accept or not accept the proposal.

   3. Not accept the proposal. If the AC does not accept the proposal,
the AC will explain their decision. If a proposal is not accepted, then
the author may elect to use the petition process to advance their
proposal. If the author elects not to petition or the  petition fails,
then the proposal will be closed.

The AC will assign shepherds in the near future. ARIN will provide the
names of the shepherds to the community via the PPML.

In the meantime, the AC invites everyone to comment on this proposal on
the PPML, particularly their support or non-support and the reasoning
behind their opinion. Such participation contributes to a thorough
vetting and provides important guidance to the AC in their deliberations.

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

Mailing list subscription information can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal Name: IPv6 Assignment Guidelines

Author: Leo Bicknell

Proposal Version: 1.0

Submission Date: 8/17/2007

Proposal type: new

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement:

Replace the text in section 6.5.4.1 with the following text:

LIR's may assign blocks in the range of /48 to /64 to end sites.
All assignments made by LIR's should meet a minimum HD-Ratio of .25.

* /64 - Site needing only a single subnet.
* /60 - Site with 2-3 subnets initially.
* /56 - Site with 4-7 subnets initially.
* /52 - Site with 8-15 subnets initially.
* /48 - Site with 16+ subnets initially.

For end sites to whom reverse DNS will be delegated, the LIR/ISP should
consider making an assignment on a nibble (4-bit) boundary to simplify
reverse lookup delegation.

LIR's do not need to issue all 5 sizes of prefixes as long as the
HD-Ratio requirement is met.

Rationale:

The existing section 6.5.4.1 does not provide clear guidance on how
large of a prefix to allocate to a site.  This makes it difficult for
LIR's to know they are in compliance with the rules, and makes it harder
for ARIN staff to evaluate requests per the communities wishes.

This policy is based on an HD Ratio of .25 for end sites.  The following
table may be useful:

Prefix Size    Number of Subnets     Required in Use to Meet .25
-----------    -----------------     ---------------------------
/64            1                     1
/60            16                    2
/56            256                   4
/52            4096                  8
/48            65536                 16

It is believed this policy provides clear guidance while allowing LIR's
to make generous allocations to their end-sites.

Timetable for implementation: immediate for new requests, 2 year grace
period for all existing assignments.