Revised: Draft Policy ARIN-2017-5: Equalization of Assignment Registration requirements between IPv4 and IPv6

[ARIN]

The following has been revised:

* Draft Policy ARIN-2017-5: Equalization of Assignment Registration 
requirements between IPv4 and IPv6

Revised text is below and can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2017_5.html

You are encouraged to discuss all Draft Policies on PPML. 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 Policy Development Process (PDP). Specifically, these 
principles are:

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

The 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,

Sean Hopkins
Policy Analyst
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)




Problem Statement:

Current ARIN policy has different WHOIS directory registration 
requirements for IPv4 vs IPv6 address assignments. IPv4 registration is 
triggered for an assignment of any address block equal to or greater 
than a /29 (i.e., eight IPv4 addresses). In the case of IPv6, 
registration occurs for an assignment of any block equal to or greater 
than a /64, which constitutes one entire IPv6 subnet and is the minimum 
block size for an allocation.  Accordingly, there is a significant 
disparity between IPv4 and IPv6 WHOIS registration thresholds in the 
case of assignments, resulting in more work in the case of IPv6 than is 
the case for IPv4. There is no technical or policy rationale for the 
disparity, which could serve as a deterrent to more rapid IPv6 adoption. 
The purpose of this proposal is to eliminate the disparity and 
corresponding adverse consequences.

Policy statement:

1) Alter section 6.5.5.1 "Reassignment information" of the NRPM to 
strike "/64 or more addresses" and change to "/47 or more addresses, or 
subdelegation of any size that will be individually announced,"

and

2) Alter section 6.5.5.3.1. "Residential Customer Privacy" of the NRPM 
by deleting the phrase "holding /64 and larger blocks"

and

3) Add new section 6.5.5.4 "Downstream Registration Requests" to the 
NRPM that reads "If the downstream recipient of a netblock ( a /64 or 
more addresses) requests publishing in ARIN's registration database, the 
ISP must register the netblock, regardless of size."

Comments:

a.    Timetable for implementation: Policy should be adopted as soon as 
possible.

b.    Anything else:

  Author Comments:

IPv6 should not be more burdensome than the equivalent IPv4 network 
size. Currently, assignments of /29 or more of IPv4 space (8 addresses) 
require registration. The greatest majority of ISP customers who have 
assignments of IPv4 space are of a single IPv4 address which do not 
trigger any ARIN registration requirement when using IPv4. This is NOT 
true when these same exact customers use IPv6, as assignments of /64 or 
more of IPv6 space require registration. Beginning with RFC 3177, it has 
been standard practice to assign a minimum assignment of /64 to every 
customer end user site, and less is never used.  This means that ALL 
IPv6 assignments, including those customers that only use a single IPv4 
address must be registered with ARIN if they are given the minimum 
assignment of /64 of IPv6 space. This additional effort may prevent 
ISP's from giving IPv6 addresses because of the additional expense of 
registering those addresses with ARIN, which is not required for IPv4. 
The administrative burden of 100% customer registration of IPv6 
customers is unreasonable, when such is not required for those customers 
receiving only IPv4 connections.