[arin-ppml] Request for Feedback: ARIN-2024-7 Addition of definitions for General and Special Purpose IP Addresses

[Pellak, Kaitlyn]

Hello PPML,

As lead shepherded on this policy I am seeking additional feedback from the community. We received some feedback when this was first published to the PPML but are seeking input for a clearer direction on how to move forward.

Previous discussion indicated that defining Special and General purposes addresses was “mostly harmless” if not strictly necessary. There was also encouragement to rethink the wording of the policy language to better reflect the intention of the proposal.

Questions for the community:
-Do you support the policy as written?
-If you do not support the policy as written, what changes (if any) would you propose?
-Are there unintended consequences that could arise from specifically defining general and special purpose IP addresses?

The current text is below, and a link to the PPML achieved discussion on this draft can be found here<https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/2024-June/037405.html>.

Thanks in advance,
Kaitlyn Pellak

Problem Statement:

The Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM) often treats general purpose and special purpose IP addresses differently. Unfortunately, we don’t have a convenient to use term to describe these categories, so policy often becomes either excessively wordy or does not correctly capture the intent. Examples of this can be found in section 4.1.8 of the NRPM, and in (currently pending) Draft Policies ARIN-2023-8 (where the fact that 4.4 and 4.10 space isn’t counted against an organization is repeated numerous times) and ARIN-2022-12 (where the text does not exclude 4.4 and 4.10 allocations from being counted against an organization, but it is the intent that those allocations should be ignored). Additionally, temporary allocations under section 11 are rarely carved out, even when 4.4 and 4.10 are, even though it is likely the policy’s intent that these too should be ignored.

Policy Statement:

Add the following definitions to Section 2
Special Purpose IPv4 Address - An IPv4 address that the NRPM makes available for specific purposes including maintaining critical Internet infrastructure (Section 4.4), facilitating IPv6 deployment (Section 4.10), or temporarily for experimental purposes as approved by ARIN (Section 11).
General Purpose IPv4 Address - Any IPv4 address issued by ARIN that is not issued solely for the purposes stated under Special Purpose IPv4 Addresses.
Special Purpose IPv6 Address - An IPv6 address that the NRPM makes available for specific purposes such as maintaining critical Internet infrastructure (Section 6.10) or temporarily for experimental purposes as approved by ARIN (Section 11).
General Purpose IPv6 Address - Any IPv6 address issued by ARIN that is not issued solely for the purposes stated under Special Purpose IPv6 Addresses.

Timetable for Implementation: Immediate.


Kaitlyn Pellak
Amazon – Technical Business Developer II
kaitjean at amazon.com<mailto:kaitjean at amazon.com>
301.921.5566

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