[ppml] [sig-policy] Policy Proposal: IPv4TransferPolicy Proposal

[Owen DeLong]

>> For instance, imagine that a European ISP built a network in the USA,
>> using RIPE addresses,
>
> They're not supposed to do that; while it's not written into the  
> policies
> anywhere I can find, it seems to be accepted that addresses are only  
> to be
> used in the region of the RIR that issued them, minus incidental use  
> like a
> large network on one continent dropping a handful of routers at IXes  
> on
> another continent.  If you've got actual customers in a given  
> region, you
> should be getting addresses for them from the respective RIR, not  
> the one
> where your headquarters is arbitrarily located this year.
>
This isn't entirely true.  For example, an international organization  
with
a backbone connecting their various sites could get a single delegation
from a single RIR for their global network.  It is possible (although  
not
common) to obtain and advertise a single aggregate worldwide.

> How well the above is enforced in practice, I can't tell; my guess  
> is that
> we don't see much "registry shopping" today because most members of  
> the
> community voluntarily do the right thing, the RIRs' policies are  
> largely
> equivalent, and the RIRs' staffs are doing a bit of enforcement via  
> internal
> policies _not_ voted on by their members.  This probably needs  
> fixing, but
> it doesn't seem urgent at this point.
>
Actually, the registries do a pretty good job of enforcing what should  
be
enforced.  That is, if the addresses aren't going to be advertised at  
least
from the source region, then, they should be obtained from an RIR that
covers at least one of the locations where they will be advertised.

There isn't much RIR shopping today, primarily because there aren't
that many organizations with the international backbone resources
necessary to make it feasible, and, the few that do don't really have
a need to RIR-shop.  Secondarily, the RIR policies and practices
are similar enough that there isn't really any major advantage to
be obtained by RIR shopping.

>> Assume that the ownership transfer of IP addresses within RIPE has
>> already been done. Can this ISP transfer these addresses to ARIN
>> under current rules?
>>
>> If not, why not? What are the specific barriers? If this was
>> a US incorporated owner would it make a difference?
>
> AFAIK, there is no process in place to transfer non-legacy blocks  
> from one
> RIR to another.  If you have addresses in a /8 delegated by IANA to  
> a given
> RIR, status quo is that they'll be registered with that RIR forever.
> Perhaps that needs to be changed, but we'd need a global policy to  
> do it and
> AFAIK there is no such proposal on the table at present -- and we're  
> past
> the deadline for any new proposals in the current ARIN cycle.
>
That reflects my understanding as well.  I'm not convinced that there
is significant benefit to providing for inter-regional transfers of
non-legacy space compared to the overhead of creating the policies
and, more importantly the processes to do such a thing.

Owen