Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4: RIR Principles

[ARIN]

Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4
RIR Principles

On 16 May 2013 the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted "ARIN-prop-187 
RIR Principles" as a Draft Policy.

Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4 is below and can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2013_4.html

You are encouraged to discuss the merits and your concerns of Draft 
Policy 2013-4 on the Public Policy Mailing List. 2013-4 will also be on 
the agenda at the upcoming ARIN Public Policy Consultation at NANOG 58 
in New Orleans.

The AC will evaluate the discussion in order to assess the conformance 
of this draft policy with ARIN's Principles of Internet Number Resource 
Policy as stated in the PDP. Specifically, these principles are:

  * Enabling Fair and Impartial Number Resource Administration
  * Technically Sound
  * Supported by the Community

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

Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/index.html

Regards,

Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4
RIR Principles

Date: 17 May 2013

Problem Statement:

The original text in RFC 2050 both "describes the registry system for 
the distribution of globally unique Internet address space and registry 
operations" and provides "rules and guidelines [principles] governing 
the distribution of this address space."

The currently proposed update (RFC2050bis) "provides information about 
the current Internet Numbers Registry System used in the distribution of 
globally unique Internet Protocol (IP) address space and autonomous 
system (AS) numbers" and "provides information about the processes for 
further evolution of the Internet Numbers Registry System."

This means that the guiding principles of stewardship are not currently 
being carried forward into the new document. The goals of Conservation 
(efficient utilization based on need), Routability (hierarchical 
aggregation), and Registration (uniqueness) are as important, if not 
more so, now that the transition to IPv6 is upon us. This can be 
rectified by documenting these principles in RIR policy.

Policy Statement:

Section 0: Principles and Goals of the Internet Registry System

0.1. Efficient utilization based on need (Conservation)

Policies for managing Internet number resources must support fair 
distribution of globally unique Internet address space according to the 
operational needs of the end-users and Internet Service Providers 
operating networks using this address space. The registry should prevent 
stockpiling in order to maximize the conservation and efficient 
utilization of the Internet address space.

0.1.1. Documented Justified Need (Needs Based)

Assignment of Internet number resources is based on documented 
operational need. Utilization rate of address space will be a key factor 
in number resource assignment. To this end, registrants should have 
documented justified need available for each assignment. Organizations 
will be assigned resources based on immediate utilization plus expected 
utilization.

In order to promote increased usage of Internet number resources, 
resource holders will be required to provide an accounting of resources 
currently held demonstrating efficient utilization. Internet number 
resources are valid as long as the criteria continues to be met. The 
transfer of Internet number resources from one party to another must be 
approved by the regional registries. The party trying to obtain the 
resources must meet the same criteria as if they were requesting 
resources directly from the IR.

All Internet number resource requests are subject to audit and 
verification by any means deemed appropriate by the regional registry.

0.2. Hierarchical aggregation (Routability)

Policies for managing Internet number resources must support 
distribution of globally unique Internet addresses in a hierarchical 
manner, permitting the routing scalability of the addresses. This 
scalability is necessary to ensure proper operation of Internet routing, 
although it must be stressed that routability is in no way guaranteed 
with the allocation or assignment of IPv4 addresses.

0.3. Uniqueness (Registration)

Provision of a public registry documenting Internet number resource 
allocation, reallocation, assignment, and reassignment is necessary to:

a) ensure uniqueness and to to provide operational staff with 
information on who is using the number resource b) to provide a contact 
in case of operational/security problems (e.g. Law Enforcement) c) to 
ensure that a provider has exhausted a majority of its current CIDR 
allocation, thereby justifying an additional allocation d) to assist in 
IP allocation studies.

It is imperative that reassignment information be submitted in a prompt 
and efficient manner to facilitate database maintenance and ensure 
database integrity.

0.4. Stewardship

It should be noted that efficient utilization and hierarchical 
aggregation are often conflicting goals. All the above goals may 
sometimes be in conflict with the interests of individual end-users or 
Internet Service Providers. Care must be taken to ensure balance with 
these conflicting goals given the resource availability, relative size 
of the resource, and number resource specific technical dynamics, for 
each type of number resource. For example, efficient utilization becomes 
a more prominent issue than aggregation as the IPv4 free pool depletes 
and IPv4 resource availability in any transfer market decreases. 
Conversely, because the IPv6 number space is orders of magnitude larger 
than the IPv4 number space, the scale tips away from efficient 
utilization towards hierarchical aggregation for IPv6 number resources.

Comments:

a. Timetable for implementation: immediately

b. I believe that it would be beneficial for IANA to adopt these 
principles as well, and encourage the community to consider a global 
policy proposal.