Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2018-4: Clarification on Temporary Sub-Assignments

[ARIN]

On 20 September 2018, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) advanced the 
following Draft Policy to Recommended Draft Policy status:

ARIN-2018-4: Clarification on Temporary Sub-Assignments

The text of the Recommended Draft Policy is below, and may also be found at:

https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2018_4.html

You are encouraged to discuss all Recommended Draft Policies on PPML
prior to their presentation at the next ARIN Public Policy Consultation
(PPC). PPML and PPC discussions are invaluable to the AC when
determining community consensus.

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)



Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2018-4: Clarification on Temporary 
Sub-Assignments

AC Assessment of Conformance with the Principles of Internet Number 
Resource Policy:

This recommended draft policy is technically sound, and contributes to 
fair and impartial number resources administration by clarifying use 
cases that are acceptable for the utilization of a direct assignment. 
There is significant community support for the recommended draft policy 
as written.

Problem Statement:

When the policy was drafted, the concept of assignments/sub-assignments 
did not consider the use of IP addresses in hotspots, or the use of IP 
addresses by guests or employees in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and 
many other similar cases.

Additionally, the IETF has recently approved the use of a unique IPv6 
/64 prefix per interface/host (RFC8273) instead of a unique address. 
This, for example, allows users to connect to a hotspot, receive a /64 
such that they are "isolated" from other users (for reasons of security, 
regulatory requirements, etc.) and they can also use multiple virtual 
machines on their devices with a unique address for each one (within the 
same /64). Section 2.5 (Definitions/Allocate and Assign), explicitly 
prohibits such assignments, stating that assignments and reassignments 
are intended “for the exclusive use of the recipient organization”.

This proposal clarifies this situation in this regard by means of 
additional clarifying language in the Definitions section.

Policy Statement

Actual Text:

2.5. Allocation, Assignment, Reallocation, Reassignment

Allocation - Address space delegated to an organization directly by ARIN 
for the purpose of subsequent distribution by the recipient organization 
to other parties.

Assignment - Address space delegated to an organization directly by ARIN 
for the exclusive use of the recipient organization.

Reallocation - Address space sub-delegated to an organization by an 
upstream provider for the purpose of subsequent distribution by the 
recipient organization to other parties.

Reassignment - Address space sub-delegated to an organization by an 
upstream provider for the exclusive use of the recipient organization.

New Text (Additional language in bold):

2.5. Allocation, Assignment, Reallocation, Reassignment

Allocation - Address space delegated to an organization directly by ARIN 
for the purpose of subsequent distribution by the recipient organization 
to other parties.

Assignment - Address space delegated to an organization directly by ARIN 
for the exclusive use of the recipient organization.

Reallocation - Address space sub-delegated to an organization by an 
upstream provider for the purpose of subsequent distribution by the 
recipient organization to other parties.

Reassignment - Address space sub-delegated to an organization by an 
upstream provider for the exclusive use of the recipient organization.

Note that the incidental or temporary use of address space by third 
parties shall not be considered a reassignment or a violation of the 
exclusive use criterion.

Comments

Timetable for implementation: Immediate

Anything else:

Situation in other regions:

This situation, has already been corrected in RIPE, and the policy was 
updated in a similar way, even if right now there is a small discrepancy 
between the policy text that reached consensus and the RIPE NCC Impact 
Analysis. A new policy proposal has been submitted to amend that, and 
the text is the same as presented by this proposal at ARIN. Same text 
has also been submitted to AfriNIC, LACNIC and APNIC.