[arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2024-7: Addition of Definitions for General and Special Purpose IP Addresses

[Tyler O'Meara]

Hi Owen,

The purpose isn't to remove the restrictions on use from the Special Purpose
sections (e.g. 4.4 / 4.10), but to make other sections that reference those
sections cleaner and easier to read. For example, 4.1.8 currently reads:

"Organizations which hold more than a /20 equivalent of IPv4 space in aggregate
(exclusive of special use space received under section 4.4 or 4.10) are not
eligible to apply."

but, with this proposal, could be rewritten as

"Organizations which hold more than a /20 equivalent of General Purpose IPv4
space in aggregate are not eligible to apply."

In addition to making the text cleaner, this also ensures that what's written in
the policy matches the intent. Currently, per the NRPM, any Section 11 IPv4
space *should* count against the /20 cap on the waitlist. I suspect this is
unintentional (and I wouldn't be surprised if ARIN was already ignoring Section
11 space when considering waitlist applications), but even if it _is_
intentional, the probability that it might just be an accidental omission means
we can't be clear from reading the text.

The problem statement includes 2 other Draft Policies that I think could benefit
from the inclusion of these definitions as well.

Tyler

On Tue, 2024-06-25 at 16:31 -0700, Owen DeLong via ARIN-PPML wrote:
> I don’t think there’s any gain from this proposal.
> 
> The policies still need to spell out the restrictions on the use of such
> address space explicitly in the relevant section of the policy and I don’t see
> anywhere where referring to it generally would gain much.
> 
> I think it’s mostly harmless, though the potential for unintended consequences
> seems to exceed the value IMHO.
> 
> Owen
> 
> 
> > On Jun 25, 2024, at 11:31, ARIN <info at arin.net> wrote:
> > 
> > On 20 June 2024, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted “ARIN-prop-331:
> > Addition of Definitions for General and Special Purpose IP Addresses” as a
> > Draft Policy.
> > 
> > Draft Policy ARIN-2024-7 is below and can be found at:
> > 
> > https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/2024_7/
> > 
> > You are encouraged to discuss all Draft Policies on PPML. The AC will
> > evaluate the discussion to assess the conformance of this draft policy with
> > ARIN's Principles of Internet number resource policy as stated in the Policy
> > Development Process (PDP). Specifically, these principles are:
> > 
> > * Enabling Fair and Impartial Number Resource Administration
> > * Technically Sound
> > * Supported by the Community
> > 
> > The PDP can be found at:
> > 
> > https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/pdp/
> > 
> > Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
> > https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/
> > 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Eddie Diego
> > Policy Analyst
> > American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
> > 
> > 
> > Draft Policy ARIN-2024-7: Addition of Definitions for General and Special
> > Purpose IP Addresses
> > 
> > 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.
> > 
> > Comments: I originally intended to give a better definition for the general
> > purpose addresses (something along the lines of “An IPvX address
> > indefinitely issued by ARIN without special limitations on its use”), but
> > opted for the current proposal to make it clear that all addresses in scope
> > for the NRPM are either Special Purpose or General Purpose, and that the 2
> > definitions are mutually exclusive.
> > 
> > Note that this proposal only adds definitions and does not change any of the
> > existing text; I figured it’d be better to leave any use of the definitions
> > to a future policy proposal.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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