Dear colleagues,
During RIPE 72, the RIPE NCC was asked to suggest a way forward
with regards to the unclear situation arising from address blocks
in the RIPE Database with the status ALLOCATED PI or ALLOCATED
UNSPECIFIED. We want to give you an update on this work and ask
for your input.
BACKGROUND
Although PI assignments made by LIRs have the same status in the
RIPE Database, it is not clear if resource holders with
assignments from LIRs have the same rights as resource holders
with those issued by the RIPE NCC. The community, mainly End
Users, has asked the RIPE NCC to clarify the situation.
In the early days of the RIPE NCC, a small number of LIRs received
allocations with the status ALLOCATED PI or ALLOCATED UNSPECIFIED.
From these address blocks, LIRs could assign ranges with the
status ASSIGNED PI.
The RIPE community later decided that the RIPE NCC should be the
only party assigning ranges with ASSIGNED PI to End Users. It was
not clear what the status of the assignments that had already been
made should be.
ACTION TAKEN
At RIPE 71, the Address Policy Working Group asked the RIPE NCC to
check the actual assignment status with the holders of these
allocations. We contacted all of the LIRs involved and around 50%
said they had no contact with holders of assignments with the
status ASSIGNED PI within their allocations. Several allocations
containing only PA assignments were converted from ALLOCATED
UNSPECIFIED to ALLOCATED PA following communication with LIRs.
The RIPE NCC presented these results to the Address Policy Working
Group at RIPE 72. The WG stressed that data accuracy must have the
highest priority. It was further suggested that the RIPE NCC
should follow up with the LIRs on a case-by-case basis, following
the principles outlined below.
The WG agreed that, where the LIR can document a mutual agreement
that they administer the address space, a conversion from PI to PA
should take place. In all other cases, assignments with the status
ASSIGNED PI should be treated as being assigned by the RIPE NCC.
It was also stated that LIRs should not register any new
assignments with the status ASSIGNED PI, as policy no longer
allows for new IPv4 PI assignments (with the exception of IXP PI
assignments from our reserved address pool).
APPROACH
The RIPE NCC will contact the 38 LIRs holding allocations that
contain address blocks with the status ASSIGNED PI (3,600 inetnum
objects in total).
In the following months, these LIRs will check if their RIPE
Database entries are still correct. Each LIR will check their
records and with their customers to see under what conditions the
assignments were originally provided.
After the LIRs have finished their research, the RIPE NCC will:
- Convert assignments to ASSIGNED PA if it can be documented
that the administrative responsibility lies with the LIR
- Follow up directly with resource holders of ASSIGNED PI to
apply the RIPE policy, “Contractual Requirements for Provider
Independent Resource Holders in the RIPE NCC Service Region”. The
PI assignments will become part of the address space managed by
the RIPE NCC just like all other PI space. Once the resource
holders have fulfilled the contractual requirements, they will
have the same rights and obligations as any other End User of PI
space.
- Split the allocations to separate the PI assignments and
convert the blocks that remain with an LIR to ALLOCATED PA.
We suggest giving these LIRs until the end of January 2017 to
clarify the status of the assignments within their ALLOCATED
PI/UNSPECIFIED allocations.
In situations where a dispute arises between the LIR and the
assignment holder about the administrative responsibility, the
RIPE NCC will do its best to support a fair solution.
We welcome your feedback on this suggested approach. Please
provide your input before 12 September 2016.
Kind regards,
Ingrid Wijte
Assistant Manager Registration Services
RIPE NCC