Policy Proposal 2007-18: Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space

[Member Services]

On 23 August 2007, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) concluded their
initial review of "Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining
IPv4 Address Space" and accepted it as a formal policy proposal for
discussion by the community.

The proposal is designated Policy Proposal 2007-18: Global Policy for
the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space. The proposal text
is below and can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2007_18.html

All persons in the community are encouraged to discuss Policy Proposal
2007-18 prior to it being presented at the ARIN Public Policy Meeting in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 17-18 October 2007. Both the discussion on the
Public Policy Mailing List and at the Public Policy Meeting will be used
to determine the community consensus regarding this policy proposal.

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

ARIN's Policy Proposal Archive can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/proposal_archive.html

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal 2007-18
Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space

Author: Roque Gagliano
Co-authors: Francisco Obispo, Hytham EL Nakhal, Didier Allain Kla

Proposal type: new

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement:

This policy describes the process for the allocation of the remaining
IPv4 space from IANA to the RIRs. When a minimum amount of available
space is reached, an identical number of IPv4 allocation units (/8s)
will be allocated from IANA to each RIR, replacing the current IPv4
allocation policy.

In order to fulfill the requirements of this policy, at the time it is
adopted, an identical number of IPv4 allocation units (N units) will be
reserved by IANA for each RIR. The number N is defined as: 5. The
reserved allocation units will no longer be part of the available space
at the IANA pool. The process for the allocation of the remaining IPv4
space is divided in two consecutive phases:

1. Existing Policy Phase:

During this phase IANA will continue allocating IPv4 addresses to the
RIRs using the existing allocation policy. This phase will continue
until a request for IPv4 address space from any RIR to IANA cannot be
fulfilled with the remaining IPv4 space available at the IANA pool.

This will be the last IPv4 address space request that IANA will accept
from any RIR. At this point the next phase of the process will be initiated.

2. Exhaustion Phase:

IANA will automatically allocate the reserved IPv4 allocation units to
each RIR (N units to each one) and respond to the last request with the
remaining available allocation units at the IANA pool (M units).

2.1. Size of the final IPv4 allocations:

During this phase IANA will automatically allocate N allocation units to
each RIR from the reserved space defined in this policy. IANA will also
allocate M allocation units to the RIR that submitted the last request
for IPv4 addresses.

2.2. Allocation of the remaining IPv4 Address space:

After the completion of the evaluation of the final request for IPv4
addresses, IANA MUST:

A) Immediately notify the NRO about the activation of the second phase
of this policy.

B) Proceed to allocate M allocation units to the RIR that submitted the
last request for IPv4 address space.

C) Proceed to allocate N allocation units to each RIR from the reserved
space.

Rationale:

The IANA pool of allocation units of IPv4 addresses (/8s) is decreasing
rapidly. A new policy is proposed to replace the current "on demand"
policy in order to bring certainty on how the remaining space will be
allocated. This policy eliminates the pressure on the remaining central
pool of addresses by allocating equal amount of allocation units (N) to
each RIR.

RIR may be studying slow-landing policies or the possibility to reserve
specific address spaces for "critical infrastructure" or new companies
in order to comply with anti-trust regulations in its region. This
policy allows each RIR to adopt those policies through its PDP, which is
simpler than a global policy discussion process.

Each RIR will have the exact information on the amount of address spaces
that they will be receiving as a last allocation from the IANA.

The policy is written in such a way that the discussion could be split
in two sections: first do we agree on the concept of the policy and
second what is the appropriate value for the last allocation units N.

Timetable for implementation: This is a Global policy that needs to be
approved by all RIRs and then ratified by ASO/ICANN. It has already
reached consensus at LACNIC meeting.