On 18 March 2021, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted "ARIN-prop-297: 
Special Use IPv4 Space Out of Scope for Purposes of Determining Waitlist 
Eligibility" as a Draft Policy.

 

Draft Policy ARIN-2021-2 is below and can be found at:

 

https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/2021_2/ 

 

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/participate/policy/pdp/ 

 

Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:

https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/ 

 

Regards,

 

Sean Hopkins

Senior Policy Analyst

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

 

Draft Policy ARIN-2021-2: Special Use IPv4 Space Out of Scope for Purposes of 
Determining Waitlist Eligibility

 

Problem Statement: 

 

Eligibility for number resources is based on demonstrated need. In NRPM Section 
4, IPv4 demonstrated need is furcated into three categories: ordinary use 
addresses for ISPs and end users (sections 4.2 and 4.3), special use addresses 
for critical infrastructure (section 4.4). and special use addresses for 
facilitation of IPv6 deployment (section 4.10).

 

Documentation of need for each category of addresses has always been evaluated 
without respect for address holdings and utilization of other address 
categories. For instance a TLD operator could get more section 4.4 space for 
new TLD customers by showing an MOU with ICANN without having to speak to 
efficient use of its back office section 4.3 space. Likewise, an organization 
that operated multiple internet exchanges each with a comparatively small 
number of participants could show efficient use of its section 4.3 back office 
space and get more under the standard demonstrated need policy despite the fact 
that its internet exchanges were nowhere near full, thus driving their host 
density ratio sufficiently low across all their holdings that if they were 
taken in aggregate they could not possibly meet the requirements to justify 
more space. Furthermore, an organization that needed address space for IPv6 
transition under section 4.10 had those requirements evaluated irrespective of 
its current holdings and/or efficient utilization.

 

The current wording of section 4.1.8 (ARIN Waitlist) begins “ARIN will only 
issue future IPv4 assignments/allocations (excluding 4.4 and 4.10 space) from 
the ARIN Waitlist.”, a nod to the fact that there is space held in reserve for 
this type of special use. However a couple of sentences later, “Organizations 
which hold more than a /20 equivalent of IPv4 space in aggregate are not 
eligible to apply.” suggests that special use space might count against an 
organization wishing to apply for waitlist space despite the fact that based on 
the terms of its issuance 4.4 and 4.10 space is not to be used for general 
purposes. Either of the types of organizations described above could easily 
fall into the corner case of having enough special use space to preclude 
getting ordinary use space via the waitlist.

 

In the Staff and Legal Assessment (1 May 2019) for ARIN-2019-20, Staff noted:

 

“… ARIN staff would immediately perform an audit of the current waitlist and 
remove and inform any organization that holds more than a /20 in IPv4 space 
excluding 4.4 and 4.10…” indicating a clear intent to treat these blocks 
specially. Failure to either incorporate this policy nuance into the NRPM or 
explicitly contradict it has resulted in confusion; a recent Policy Experience 
Report cited three occurrences in as many weeks.

 

Policy Statement: 

 

Replace the sentence “Organizations which hold more than a /20 equivalent of 
IPv4 space in aggregate are not eligible to apply.” in section 4.1.8 with 
“Organizations which hold more than a /20 equivalent of IPv4 space in aggregate 
(exclusive of special use space received under section 4.4 or 4.10) are not 
eligible to apply.”

 

Timetable for implementation: Immediate.

 

_______________________________________________
ARIN-PPML
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