[arin-ppml] Are we an ISP or an End-User? Can our designation change at a later time?

[John Curran]

> On Jan 5, 2023, at 4:29 AM, Glen A. Pearce <arin-ppml at ve4.ca> wrote:
> 
> On 04/01/2023 1:52 p.m., Fernando Frediani wrote:
>> 
>> Interesting this topic. Generally speaking I always found a bit strange (not only in ARIN) to have this distinction between ISP and End-user. In practice things should not differ much. Only thing that would possible remain slightly different are the details of justifications that must be provided and the size of the block to be allocated.
>> 
>> Another thing that I wanted to understand better is the reasoning to allocate a significant smaller IPv6 block to a said end-user organization given it is not so scarce resource. At least a /40 should be minimal default for a end-user (not a /48) and a /32 for any size of ISP. For now my personal impression is to create some artificial scarcity in order to have different levels of Service Category.
>> 
> 
> I think it's just a policy residual that is a byproduct of the old separate fee schedules for end
> users and ISPs.  ...

Glen - 

Issuance of /48 IPv6 prefixes for end-sites are the result of ARIN registry policy that was developed by this community and heavily informed (as pointed out by Bill Herrin) by the 2001 guidance from the IETF contained in RFC 3177.

I will note that since then there has been more nuanced guidance from the IETF in the form of RFC 6177 (2011) that specifically notes that larger issuance should be provided when it makes operational sense – along the lines noted by David Farmer in his reply. 

> We probably should do away with the distinction between end users and ISPs in policy since
> we've done away with the distinction in fee schedules and even before then end users could
> exercise a one time option to be "treated as an ISP".  Like the consolidation of fee schedules
> did it would reduce confusion for new members by simplification.

ARIN registry operations follows the policy developed by this community - to the extent that there are different policies for different operational usages, ARIN implements accordingly. 

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers