[Apologies for duplicate mails] Dear all, At RIPE 40 in Prague (October 2001) the RIPE community changed the Assignment Window (AW) Policy. (see http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-40/presentations/lir-wg-40/ index.html) The previous AW policy: "The assignment window is the maximum number of addresses that can be assigned by the local IR to an end user without prior approval by the RIPE NCC. This is expressed in /nn notation. Therefore, a local IR with an assignment window of /23 is allowed to assign up to and including 512 addresses to an end user without prior approval of the RIPE NCC. As the Local IR staff gain experience, the window size is increased... ...The assignment window is not only applied to individual assignments, but to multiple assignments to the same end user in a 12 month period If a Local IR makes more than one assignment to an organisation in any 12 month period, the total amount of address space assigned may not exceed the Local IR's assignment window. This also applies to address space used by the Registry for their internal network. Additional address space can only be assigned to that organisation after approval by the RIPE NCC." (see http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ir-policies-procedures.html#toc39) The problem: This AW policy also applied to address space used by the Local Internet Registry (LIR) for their internal network. A registry that mainly assigns addresses to their own network would not be able to make the majority of the assignments to themself using their AW as the AW only applies once every 12 months. The new AW policy: Consensus was reached in the LIR Working Group to change this policy so that the LIR can make multiple assignments to their own infrastructure without contacting the RIPE NCC as long as the individual assignment is within their Assignment Window. The Implementation: Assignments made to the LIR's infrastructure using this new AW policy must have a remarks attribute in the inetnum object with the value INFRA-AW. It is important that a seperate remarks attribute is used for this. No other comment may be included in this line. It is possible to have other remarks attributes in the same object, though. The Audit: The existing audit policy allows the RIPE NCC to review your assignments at any time in order to assure a fair distribution of address space. It was agreed that the RIPE NCC may request proper documentation and an overview of the address space used for the LIR's own infrastructure. "If the LIR fails to show decent documentation the RIPE NCC may lower the LIR's Assignment Window. As this may delay the new allocation of addresses somewhat, the LIRs should be prepared to produce proper documentation upon request." (see http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-40/presentations/lir-wg-40/sl... 3.html) This new AW policy will be implemented as of Monday, 17th December 2001. If you do not want to use this new facility you are welcome to continue submitting requests to the RIPE NCC. For any questions regarding your AW please contact the RIPE NCC via <lir-help@ripe.net> including your Reg ID. Kind regards, Sabrina Waschke -- o------------------------------------------o | Sabrina Waschke sabrina@ripe.net | | Registration Services Operations Manager | | | | RIPE NCC tel +31 20 535 4444 | | www.ripe.net fax +31 20 535 4445 | o------------------------------------------o