Policy Proposal: Definition of known ISP and changes to IPv6 initial allocation criteria

[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)


## * ##


Policy Proposal Name: Definition of known ISP and changes to IPv6
initial allocation criteria

Author: Kevin Loch

Proposal Version: 1

Submission Date: 2007-07-27

Proposal type: new

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement:

Add the following section 6.2.10:

6.2.10 Existing ISP

     An existing ISP is an organization which meets the following
     criteria:

        1. Has IPv4 or IPv6 address space directly allocated
           by ARIN; or
        2. Has at least a total of an IPv4 /23 or an IPv6 /44 of address
           space reallocated to them via SWIP by one or more upstream
           ISPs.

        Address space directly assigned from ARIN or reassigned from
        upstream ISPs does not count towards these requirements.

Replace 6.5.1.1 (d) with the following text:

     d.  be an existing ISP in the ARIN region or have a plan for
         making assignments to at least 200 separate organizations
         within five years.

Rationale:

        This policy proposal would change two things in the IPv6
        Initial allocation criteria.  It adds a definition for
        "known ISP" and changes "200 /48 assignments" to
        200 assignments of any size, but to separate organizations.

        Existing ISP:

        The term "existing, known ISP" in the IPv6 ISP qualification
        section is too vague and does not give ARIN staff sufficient
        guidance for evaluating qualifications.  This text defines
        "existing, ISP" in a precise manner and removes the unnecessary
        and ambiguous word "known".

        It has come to the author's attention that several organizations
        have been refused IPv6 ISP allocations because they were not
        considered an existing, known ISP.  At least one of these
        organizations has a /18 worth of IPv4 space reallocated to them
        by various upstream ISPs and over 200 IPv4 customers.  An
        organization's choice to use provider addresses does not
        have any affect on whether or not they are in fact an ISP.

        Address space that has been reallocated (not reassigned)
        is a good indicato of an ISP as those SWIP templates
        are only supposed to be used for downstream ISPs.

        The IPv4 /23 value was selected to match the utilization
        requirement for the smallest direct IPv4 allocation from ARIN
        under current policy.

        The IPv6 /44 value was selected to represent a number
        of downstream customers comparable to the IPv4 requirements.


        Updates to IPv6 initial allocation criteria:

        Section 6.5.4.1 recommends /56 assignments in some cases and
        /48 assignments in others.  The Initial allocation criteria
        should reflect the flexibility of these recommendations.
        An ISP should not have to provide an inefficient address
        plan on their application even though they expect to have
        over 200 IPv6 customers.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate