On 22 Aug 2013, at 07:11, David Conrad <[email protected]> wrote: > On Aug 21, 2013, at 1:06 AM, Gert Doering <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> The IETF formally left the address space distribution regime when they >>>>> delegated responsibility to IANA >>> >>> Wait. What? >> >> IETF gave responsibility for address distribution to IANA. It's called >> "delegation", which goes along with "not meddling with it anymore". >> >> IANA, in turn, gave it to the RIRs, and policy is now made by the RIR >> constituencies, not by IETF or IANA. >> >> But you know all that already, so what about the sentence above (except >> my blunder) is upsetting you? > > Not upset. Confused by your (since fixed) reference to ARIN. > > However, for the record, the IETF never had responsibility for address > distribution. They maintain the same role they always had, namely "the > non-policy aspects of Internet addressing such as the architectural > definition of IP address and AS number spaces and specification of associated > technical goals and constraints in their application, assignment of > specialized address blocks, and experimental technical assignments" (wording > from 2050bis).
> While it is true that most allocation policy is now defined in a bottom-up > fashion, this doesn't mean the IANA can't "meddle". In theory, at least, the > IANA is still at the root of the address allocation/policy hierarchy (hence > some of the more fun 'discussions' about the root of the RPKI). > > Pedantically yours, > -drc Technically, I think the IETF, through the IPng WG, managed 3ffe::/16 in the old 6bone days, allocating a few hundred prefixes to test sites. But 3ffe::/16 was chosen by IANA for the "experiment", iirc. Tim
