Draft Policy 2008-3: Community Networks IPv6 Assignment – Last Call

[Member Services]

Draft Policy 2008-3
Community Networks IPv6 Assignment

On 20 August 2009 the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) decided to send an
updated version of Draft Policy 2008-3 to a 21-day last call.

“The ARIN Advisory Council, based on comments from stakeholders
expressed at the last three ARIN Public Policy Meetings (ARIN XXI, ARIN
XXII and ARIN XXIII) and on the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List, having
reviewed the comments collected, as well as the latest ARIN staff and
legal reviews; and, updated the policy accordingly, and noting that the
Policy Development Process has been followed, finds Advisory Council and
Community support for Draft Policy 2008-3: Community Networks IPv6
Assignment, and moves to it to a 21-day extended Last Call.”

Feedback is encouraged during this last call period. All comments must
be provided to the Public Policy Mailing List. This last call will
expire at 2:00 PM EDT, 17 September 2009.

The policy proposal text is provided below and is also available at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2008_3.html

The ARIN Policy Development Process can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Draft Policy 2008-3
Community Networks IPv6 Assignment

Date: 19 August 2009

Policy statement:

[Add Section 2.8 to the NRPM.]

2.8 Community Network

A community network is any network organized and operated by a volunteer
group operating as or under the fiscal support of a non-profit
organization or university for the purpose of providing free or low-cost
connectivity to the residents of their local service area. To be treated
as a community network under ARIN policy, the applicant must certify to
ARIN that the community network staff is 100% volunteers.

[Modify 6.5.8.1b as follows.]

b. qualify for an IPv4 assignment or allocation from ARIN under the IPv4
policy currently in effect, or demonstrate efficient utilization of all
direct IPv4 assignments and allocations, each of which must be covered
by any current ARIN RSA, or be a qualifying Community Network as defined
in Section 2.8, with assignment criteria defined in section 6.5.9.

[Add Section 6.5.9 to the NRPM.]

6.5.9 Community Network Assignments

6.5.9.1 Qualification Criteria

To qualify for a direct assignment, a community network must demonstrate
it will immediately provide sustained service to at least 100
simultaneous users and must demonstrate a plan to provide sustained
service to at least 200 simultaneous users within one year. For
community networks located in rural regions (population less than 2,500)
or in the Caribbean and North Atlantic Islands Sector, the numbers in
these qualification criteria may be relaxed at ARIN's discretion.

6.5.9.2. Initial assignment size

The minimum size of the assignment is /48. Organizations requesting a
larger assignment must provide documentation of the characteristics of
the Community Network's size and architecture that require the use of
additional subnets. An HD-Ratio of .94 with respect to subnet
utilization within the network must be met for all assignments larger
than a /48. These assignments shall be made from a distinctly identified
prefix and shall be made with a reservation for growth of at least a
/44. This reservation may be assigned to other organizations later, at
ARIN's discretion.

6.5.9.3. Subsequent assignment size

Additional assignments may be made when the need for additional subnets
is justified. Justification will be determined based on a detailed plan
of the network's architecture and the .94 HD-Ratio metric. When
possible, assignments will be made from an aggregatable adjacent address
block.

Rationale:

This policy was originally proposed by community network operators to
provide them with the ability to receive a direct assignment of IPv6
address resources from ARIN. The operators of such networks have
expressed their need to have a stable and globally unique address
assignment with which to number their network infrastructure. Many such
networks are not able to meet the current criteria for a PI IPv6
assignment from ARIN. in an environment where connections to outside
networks may come and go, a stable internal address structure would be
very valuable. Additionally, the ability to exchange routes with others,
whether locally or tunneled, and thereby have native IPv6 connectivity,
would be quite beneficial. These operators were also hopeful that, once
this new class of address assignments was created, they could pursue
lower annual fees for community networks through the ARIN Consultation
and Suggestion Process (ACSP).

There could also be a number of potential benefits to allowing community
network participants to begin using IPv6 addressing. Some of these
networks have many technically capable and adventurous members who would
be motivated to begin developing and/or experimenting with the software
extensions which will be needed to support IPv6 prefix selection among
multiple IPv6 prefixes when establishing remote connections. Also,
participants in networks receiving such assignments will have the
necessary global-ID to experiment with the various proposals currently
being developed for separating network locater from network ID.

Also, during the more than one year timeframe that this policy has been
under consideration, other people have suggested other scenarios where
community networks would provide a valuable resource. One such proposal
was discussed at one of the Caribbean Sector meetings where some
participants pointed out the efforts were being made in remote or
sparsely populated areas to establish community networks which would
serve as connections back to educational resources for distant learning
capabilities. There are also many still wild areas of North America
where such community networks could provide improved connectivity over
telephone modems.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate.