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

[Member Services]

ARIN received the following policy proposal. In accordance with the ARIN
Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process, the proposal is being
posted to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) and being placed on
ARIN's website.

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) will review this proposal at their next
regularly scheduled meeting. The AC may decide to:

   1. Accept the proposal as a formal policy proposal as written. If the
AC accepts the proposal, it will be posted as a formal policy proposal
to PPML and it will be presented at a Public Policy Meeting.

   2. Postpone their decision regarding the proposal until the next
regularly scheduled AC meeting in order to work with the author. The AC
will work with the author to clarify, combine or divide the proposal. At
their following meeting the AC will accept or not accept the proposal.

   3. Not accept the proposal. If the AC does not accept the proposal,
the AC will explain their decision. If a proposal is not accepted, then
the author may elect to use the petition process to advance their
proposal. If the author elects not to petition or the  petition fails,
then the proposal will be closed.

The AC will assign shepherds in the near future. ARIN will provide the
names of the shepherds to the community via the PPML.

In the meantime, the AC invites everyone to comment on this proposal on
the PPML, particularly their support or non-support and the reasoning
behind their opinion. Such participation contributes to a thorough
vetting and provides important guidance to the AC in their deliberations.

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

Mailing list subscription information can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal Name:  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 Version: v1

Submission Date: 07/17/2007

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.