ARIN Lookup

About arin lookup.

This test will query the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) database and tell you who an IP address is registered to. Generally speaking, you will input an IP address and find out what ISP or hosting provider uses that block for its customers. Very large end customers may have there own ARIN allocations. Normally, this is used for finding abuse contacts to report bad behavior.

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How are IP addresses actually assigned?

I'm having a hard time understanding how a governing body assigns IP addresses, companies use BGP to advertise those IPs, and how the internet works. Then, where the hell does DNS come in?

Can anyone suggest a good read of how this stuff actually works? I suppose I have several questions. The first is, does ARIN (or any other governing body) actually matter? If they weren't around, would there be chaos? When they assign a block, they don't LITERALLY assign it? You have to use BGP to advertise, correct? I have always been used to a closed hosting environment (dedicated/shared) where you have routed IPs.

Then, how does DNS come in to play? With my registrar I am able to register a DNS server (eNom) - what does that actually mean? I've installed Bind and made all of that work, and I run my own DNS servers, but who are they registering that DNS server with? I just don't get it.

I feel like this is something I should know and I don't, and I'm getting really frustrated. It's like.. simple.. how does the internet work? From assigning IPs, to companies routing them, and DNS.

I guess I have an example - I have this IP space let's say 158.124.0.0/16 (example). The company has 158.124.0.0/17 internet facing. (First of all, why do companies get blocks of IPs assigned and then not use them? Why don't they use use reserved internal space 10.x and 192.x?). So, that's where I'm at. What would I do to actually get these IPs on the Internet and available? Let's say I have a data center in Chicago and one in New York. I'm not able to upload a picture, but I can link one here: http://begolli.com/wp-content/gallery/tech/internetworkings.png

I'm just trying to understand how from when the IP block is assigned, to a company using BGP (attaining a public AS #?), and then how DNS comes in to play?

What would something look like from my picture? I've tried to put together a scenario, not sure if I did a good job.

  • domain-name-system

Vegim's user avatar

  • 6 As a professional system administrator, or someone working in a related field, we are expected to know these things. For any bits that may be a little unclear vast numbers of books and Internet articles have already been published. This is also not the kind of question, or set of questions, that can be properly addressed by a Q&A site like SF. –  John Gardeniers Commented May 31, 2011 at 22:48
  • 2 I don't really have a problem with this question - I look at it the same way as the "Subnetting 101" question & answer: It's something every sysadmin should know, but some may have slipped through without the requisite knowledge. We can't cover it as exhaustively as subnetting, but I think having it as a quick-and-dirty primer is a Good Thing. –  voretaq7 Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 15:50
  • 1 @John - I think there are many different levels. Like I stated, I grew up learning in a static environment as far as networks went. I never really dealt with ISPs, border routers, and configuring blocks of IPs. I have had the pleasure of having many dedicated servers, configuring linux distributions, securing them, running web applications, and being able to manage those boxes. There are different sides to the spectrum, and I don't think we are expected to know these things. We are expected to know specialized tasks. Some people know networking engineering real well.. others do not. –  Vegim Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 16:08

4 Answers 4

Leased ip blocks.

IPs are assigned in blocks by IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIR). See this ( list and map ) of the RIRs. The RIRs then lease out smaller blocks IPs to individual companies (usually ISPs). There are requirements (including fees and proof of use) for getting a distribution and failing to maintain these means a loss of lease.

Once a company has leased one or more blocks from the RIR, they need some way of telling the rest of the world where to find a particular IP (or set thereof: subnets). This is where BGP comes into play. BGP uses a large network concept called an Autonomous System (AS). The AS knows how to route within itself. When routing to another network it only knows about AS Gateways and where the "next hop" toward those external addresses. AS numbers are managed by IANA as well.

Within an AS, even one as large as an ISP, they might use several routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, BGP, EIGRP, and ISIS come to mind) to route traffic internally. It's also possible to use Static Routing Tables, but entirely impractical in most applications. Internal routing protocols are a huge topic, so I'll simplify by saying there are other questions on Server Fault that can do those topics more justice than I can here.

Humans don't remember numbers well, so we invented host names. Skipping the history, we use the Domain Naming System (DNS) to keep track of what hostname points to what IP address. There is a central registry for these, also managed by IANA, and they determine what Top Level Domains (TLD) (eg ".com" or ".net") go in the Root Zone, which is served by the Root Servers. IANA delegates administration of the "root zone", this administrator only accepts updates from qualified Registrars.

You can use a Registrar to "purchase" a domain name, which is a subdomain of a TLD. This registration essentially creates that subdomain and assigns you control over it's Name Server (NS) and Glue (A) records. You point these to a DNS server that hosts your domain . When a client wants to resolve your IP from a domain name, the client contacts their DNS server which does a recursive lookup, starting with the root server, finding your DNS server and eventually getting the relevant information.

Everyone Agrees

As for the "governing bodies": everyone just agrees to use them. There are no (or very few) laws requiring anyone to cooperate at all. The Internet works because people choose to cooperate . The governing bodies provide a means of easy cooperation. All the various RFCs, "Standards", and such - nobody is being forced to use them. But we understand that society is built on cooperation, and it's in our own self interests to do so.

The efficiency bred by cooperation is the same reason BGP is popular, everyone basically agrees to use it. In the days of ArpaNet they started with hand configured route tables; then gradually progressed to a more comprehensive system as the Internet grew in complexity, but everyone just "agreed" to use whatever new standard. Similarly name resolution stated with host files that networks would distribute, and eventually grew into the DNS system we know today. ("Agreed" in quotes because many times a minority set a requirement for a new standard and nobody else had a better alternative, so it was accepted).

This level of cooperation requires trusting IANA, a lot. As you've seen they manage most of the various systems' cores. IANA is currently a US Government sponsored Non-Profit corporation (similar to the US Post Office), it is not part of the government, though only barely removed. In past years there was concern that the US Goernment might exercise some control over IANA as a "weapon" against other world governments or civilians (particularly through laws like SOPA and PIPA, which were not passed, but may be the basis for future laws).

Currently IANA has taken it upon themselves to raise funding (despite being a non-profit company) through the creation of new TLDs. The "xxx" TLD was viewed by some as an extortionist-style fundraising campaign, as a large percentage of registrants were "defending" their name. IANA has also taken applications for privately owned TLDs (at $180,000 each; they have suspended the application process after being inundated with applications, nearly half being from Amazon alone. Many of these applications resulted in new gTLDs .

Community's user avatar

  • No problem! Good answer - this will be good to have to point to for people needing the overview. –  Shane Madden Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:05
  • Do you think you could elaborate on the delegations for reverse DNS? This is a great answer that touches on the related subjects already, so adding that info would close the loop on the whole thing. –  Andrew B Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 20:59

All advertisements to the public internet, the DFZ (Default-Free Zone), is done via BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), how ISP's do internal routing varies a lot. Most would use BGP internally as well both between their own routers (BGP is often used in conjunction with an IGP such as OSPF) and also with clients, if you don't have your own AS number you can use a private AS to peer with your ISP and when they announce your address space to the DFZ they simply remove the private AS from the as-path. For smaller non-redundant links you can use static routing as well on the PE. The actual "assignment" is just in the database of your registrar, the whois database, RIPE/ARIN etc run their own databases for this purpose.

Try running the command whois 158.124.0.0/16 on a Linux box.

Same goes with DNS, the reverse DNS server is specified in whois records.

Dean Taylor's user avatar

This is a very old question, but I had many of the same questions in figuring out how the Internet works . Like the other answers, the networking books give an overview of BGP and DNS but still left me confused. For example, a.root-servers.net through m.root-servers.net are given as the root servers, but how does a DNS service know where to find those servers if they can't use DNS themselves.

The basics of IP, subnetting, DNS, etc. are assumed to be known by this answer. I am addressing "gaps" I, and probably the questioner, have on how the Internet works. By no means am I an expert, but this is my understanding of the gaps.

IP Addresses

The first thing to note is that when the Internet started out as ARPANET, everybody knew everybody and routing tables for IP addresses were handcoded. I assume the assignment process for IP's was done over the phone. As the Internet became too big, BGP was used by multiple networks (AS's) to advertise they had public IP's or could get to a public IP through their AS to another AS. The trust was there that an AS wouldn't advertise an IP they didn't have.

Today, there's not as much trust. Instead, ISP's can download and authenticate the IP allocations to each AS from IANA and the regional authorities. These downloads are now authenticated through public key cryptography. So when IANA "assigns an IP address," they are changing their record (or really the regional authority changes their record). All other AS's can download and authenticate their records.

These records are important because ISP's can't take the word of other ISP's that they have the IP addresses. The ISP's can compare the BGP advertisement with the authenticated IP records. If any BGP advertisement shows the last AS as an AS other than what's in IANA's and RIR's authenticated record, the BGP advertisement does not change their own routing.

More commonly, a rogue ISP or AS can advertise they have a route through their AS they don't have. AS1 has an IP registered and AS5 currently uses AS5 -> AS4 -> AS3 -> AS1 -> IP. AS2 advertises to AS5 a route of AS5 -> AS2 -> AS1 -> IP. Except AS2 doesn't actually have a connection with AS1. It can just lose the packets, maybe to frustrate AS1's hosting customers. Or AS2 could be a small company network with a multihomed arrangement with AS5 and AS1. Their router is misconfigured and advertises a path through a small company network. Nearly all ISP's throw away such advertisements of their BGP customers and only pass on terminating BGP advertisements.

More likely, you have the case of Pakistan trying to shut off Youtube in Pakistan through such IP hijacking, and shutting off Youtube outside of Pakistan too since AS's outside of Pakistan assumed their BGP advertisements were correct.

In the end, there isn't a perfect defense against such IP hijacking. In most countries like the US, such abuse of BGP can be punished as breach of contract and other ISP's will shut off peering connections with that AS if they have to. An ISP could also disregard the whole IANA and RIR apparatus and redirect the IP addresses to their own servers. That won't work for any https sites though, assuming the ISP doesn't have the private keys for any CA's. There is very little to gain from it economically. It only happens with authoritarian governments, such as Egypt recently shutting off all BGP advertisements to their ISP's from outside the country.

DNS Servers

DNS is somewhat simpler once the IP tables are correct. The root servers are all hardcorded IP addresses in the DNS server code. a.root-servers.net is 198.41.0.4 and the IP address is anycast within one AS. In the case of a.root-servers.net, the AS is Verisign and there are five different sites. In the US, the two sites are New York and LA. Anycasting is like if you had an address of 123 Main Street and you said "It doesn't matter what town you are in, go to 123 Main Street and you'll find one of my businesses." Both 123 Main Street in NY and LA will give the same answer for all top-level domains. The AS, in this case Verisign, figures out internally which server has the fewest hops through OSPF, internal BGP, and other routing protocols. So a router in Denver may go to LA while a router in Chicago goes to New York. The same routing process can be used for Anycast hosts because the hosts don't offer to route traffic.

One of the root servers gives which IP address for the com top-level domain. Then that domain gives the domain for yoursite.com. The registrars really have a contract with whoever runs the top-level domain. So if the top-level domain currently doesn't have a record for yoursite.com, it has access to add a record with their who-is server. Then, with the access the registrar gave you to yoursite.com's DNS records, you change the records in their DNS server to go to your IP address.

Because DNS all depends on multiple IP addresses going to the right place, you have the same issue as before with AS's authenticating the IP registry and then the BGP assignments. That is the key piece for an http website. Https has the added protection of certificates. So, an ISP can't reroute requests for their own root servers and top-level domain servers to give their own IP for, say, citibank.com. If they did, the IP address given to the user will be a different IP address, but their server won't have Citibank's private key.

mwwaters's user avatar

and no, I'm not kidding(I got started with this book 15 years ago, but it's still very relevant): http://www.amazon.com/Internet-Dummies-John-R-Levine/dp/0764506749

Then, come back here with the BGP questions =)

Greeblesnort's user avatar

  • 2 It looks like the first part of your answer go chopped off somehow. –  John Gardeniers Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:34

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ip block assignment

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How are IP addresses assigned?

How are IP addresses assigned? What if someone from USA and someone from Australia connected to the internet at the same time - how would they not have the same IP address?

Devoted's user avatar

  • 1 Why is this computer software/hardware related? because, if you mess up with your IP address, you cannot reach Superuser in the first place -- even, to attempt the other questions you might have to post/answer there ;-) –  nik Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 10:58

3 Answers 3

Because public IP addresses are not picked at random, they are allocated by your Internet Service Provider ; who in-turn gets a block assigned to them from the next level, and so on to IANA/ICANN . Think of this as, only ICANN give IP addresses YOU cannot :-) In your home or college network usually you would use private IP addresses, and might have statically assigned IPs or let your home router do a private IP allocation. These are not visible (or routed) on the Internet. You will find many people use the IP address 192.168.1.1 at their homes, for example, and yet there is apparently no conflict. This is because their home router 'translates' (very crude use of that word here) to the ISP allocated address -- which is what others on the Internet will see.

You might think of this private IP address as a local reference (like, take that left on the next block to reach the cake shop?) for your home router to find your machine in the home network.

If you tried to use a 'public' IP address at random, the ISP will not accept it and you will see no network connectivity.

Update: If you want to dig deeper on why an ISP might want to check what source IP you are using, read through the interaction in comments here... Or, head straight to Wikipedia Smurf Attack .

In the late 1990s, many IP networks would participate in Smurf attacks (that is, they would respond to pings to broadcast addresses). Today, thanks largely to the ease with which administrators can make a network immune to this abuse, very few networks remain vulnerable to Smurf attacks.
The fix is two-fold: Configure individual hosts and routers not to respond to ping requests or broadcasts. Configure routers not to forward packets directed to broadcast addresses. Until 1999, standards required routers to forward such packets by default, but in that year, the standard was changed to require the default to be not to forward. 3
Another proposed solution, to fix this as well as other problems, is network ingress filtering which rejects the attacking packets on the basis of the forged source address .

Thanks to Andy for making me recall this. You might also be interested in in this ServerFault question by Jeff: Are IP addresses “trivial to forge” ?

Community's user avatar

  • If you try to use a public IP address at random, regardless of anything else, any return packets will end up on the wrong network at the wrong host, so you won't be able to have two-way comms. –  Andy Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 11:11
  • @Andy, actually the transmitted packets are likely to get dropped themselves. The point is, you cannot convince the ISP network devices to use your choice of IP address. They will not accept it. –  nik Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 11:47
  • @nik Totally! I focus on the return path because for me, whether or not your outgoing packet is dropped is a detail (maybe it will, maybe it won't); the fundamental reason you can't use an arbitrary IP address is that you break the routing system, which shows up on the return journey. –  Andy Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 12:07
  • @Andy, Umm, the packet with this 'spoofed' source IP will be dropped -- So, analysis of return path is really just theoretical musing. Look at the ifconfig (or ipconfig on Windows) output of your Internet connected machine. You will see two more things associated with your IP address: a subnet mask and a default gateway ip address. Think about what you will setup as the default gateway if you were to change your IP address say from ' a.x.y.z ' to ' b.x.y.z '. Changing it won't work. Now, think further on what that gateway machine will do to your changed-source-IP packet... –  nik Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 12:45
  • @Nik Don't see the problem. Sure if you spoof as a.b.c.d/24 and access a.b.c.d+1/24 you'll have problems. But as long as the dest appears to be in a different subnet, the default gateway'll be used, and once we're at routers, only the dest addr is used no? (I don't get your problem with the gateway machine.) We can modify our subnet mask to make (nearly) all addresses appear to be on a different subnet. Or just configure our host to send all packets to the default gateway. That's why I feel it's details - it's absolutely impossible for the return packets to find you. Have I missed something? –  Andy Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 14:19

The assignment of addresses is managed in a hierarchal fashion. At the top of the chain is

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

They are responsible for the global pool from which they allocate blocks to the

Regional Internet Registries

who are responsible for specific regions of the world. They in turn, allocate from their blocks, to the

Local Internet Registries

or if you prefer Internet Service providers.

Because of the way the address blocks are allocated every global Internet address is unique.

Pulse's user avatar

IP addresses are assigned by ICANN, so that won't happen. But there's also a more fundamental reason. IP addresses are used for routing. When a packet comes into a router, it compares the IP address against entries in its routing table, and sends the packet on through the appropriate outgoing line. So IP addresses aren't just arbitrary numbers that are assigned - they are meaningful addresses.

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ip block assignment

IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry

ip block assignment

Registry included below

ip block assignment

Address Block Name RFC Allocation Date Termination Date Source Destination Forwardable Globally Reachable Reserved-by-Protocol
0.0.0.0/8 "This network" [ ], Section 3.2 1981-09 N/A True False False False True
0.0.0.0/32 "This host on this network" [ ], Section 3.2.1.3 1981-09 N/A True False False False True
10.0.0.0/8 Private-Use [ ] 1996-02 N/A True True True False False
100.64.0.0/10 Shared Address Space [ ] 2012-04 N/A True True True False False
127.0.0.0/8 Loopback [ ], Section 3.2.1.3 1981-09 N/A False [ ] False [ ] False [ ] False [ ] True
169.254.0.0/16 Link Local [ ] 2005-05 N/A True True False False True
172.16.0.0/12 Private-Use [ ] 1996-02 N/A True True True False False
192.0.0.0/24 [ ] IETF Protocol Assignments [ ], Section 2.1 2010-01 N/A False False False False False
192.0.0.0/29 IPv4 Service Continuity Prefix [ ] 2011-06 N/A True True True False False
192.0.0.8/32 IPv4 dummy address [ ] 2015-03 N/A True False False False False
192.0.0.9/32 Port Control Protocol Anycast [ ] 2015-10 N/A True True True True False
192.0.0.10/32 Traversal Using Relays around NAT Anycast [ ] 2017-02 N/A True True True True False
192.0.0.170/32, 192.0.0.171/32 NAT64/DNS64 Discovery [ ][ ], Section 2.2 2013-02 N/A False False False False True
192.0.2.0/24 Documentation (TEST-NET-1) [ ] 2010-01 N/A False False False False False
192.31.196.0/24 AS112-v4 [ ] 2014-12 N/A True True True True False
192.52.193.0/24 AMT [ ] 2014-12 N/A True True True True False
192.88.99.0/24 Deprecated (6to4 Relay Anycast) [ ] 2001-06 2015-03
192.168.0.0/16 Private-Use [ ] 1996-02 N/A True True True False False
192.175.48.0/24 Direct Delegation AS112 Service [ ] 1996-01 N/A True True True True False
198.18.0.0/15 Benchmarking [ ] 1999-03 N/A True True True False False
198.51.100.0/24 Documentation (TEST-NET-2) [ ] 2010-01 N/A False False False False False
203.0.113.0/24 Documentation (TEST-NET-3) [ ] 2010-01 N/A False False False False False
240.0.0.0/4 Reserved [ ], Section 4 1989-08 N/A False False False False True
255.255.255.255/32 Limited Broadcast [ ] [ ], Section 7 1984-10 N/A False True False False True
] and [ ].

Your IP Address is: 185.194.105.172

Tip: try using "quotes around your search phrase"

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Understanding IP Addressing and CIDR Charts

Every device connected to the Internet needs to have an identifier. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are the numerical addresses used to identify a particular piece of hardware connected to the Internet.

The two most common versions of IP in use today are Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses come from finite pools of numbers.

For IPv4, this pool is 32-bits (2 32 ) in size and contains 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses. The IPv6 address space is 128-bits (2 128 ) in size, containing 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IPv6 addresses.

A bit is a digit in the binary numeral system, the basic unit for storing information.

Not every IP address in the IPv4 or IPv6 pool can be assigned to the machines and devices used to access the Internet. Some IP addresses have been reserved for other uses, such as for use in private networks. This means that the total number of IP addresses available for allocation is less than the total number in the pool.

Network prefixes

IP addresses can be taken from the IPv4 or the IPv6 pool and are divided into two parts, a network section and a host section. The network section identifies the particular network and the host section identifies the particular node (for example, a certain computer) on the Local Area Network (LAN).

IP addresses are assigned to networks in different sized ‘blocks'. The size of the ‘block' assigned is written after an oblique (/), which shows the number of IP addresses contained in that block. For example, if an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is assigned a “/16”, they receive around 64,000 IPv4 addresses. A “/26” network provides 64 IPv4 addresses. The lower the number after the oblique, the more addresses contained in that “block”.

The size of the prefix, in bits, is written after the oblique. This is called “slash notation”. There is a total of 32 bits in IPv4 address space. For example, if a network has the address “192.0.2.0/24”, the number “24” refers to how many bits are contained in the network. From this, the number of bits left for address space can be calculated. As all IPv4 networks have 32 bits, and each “section” of the address denoted by the decimal points contains eight bits, “192.0.2.0/24” leaves eight bits to contain host addresses. This is enough space for 256 host addresses. These host addresses are the IP addresses that are necessary to connect your machine to the Internet.

A network numbered “10.0.0.0/8” (which is one of those reserved for private use) is a network with eight bits of network prefix, denoted by “/8” after the oblique. The “8” denotes that there are 24 bits left over in the network to contain IPv4 host addresses: 16,777,216 addresses to be exact.

Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) Chart

The Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) is commonly known as the CIDR chart and is used by those running networks and managing IP addresses. It enables them to see the number of IP addresses contained within each “slash notation” and the size of each “slash notation” in bits.

IPv4 CIDR Chart

Download: IPv4 CIDR Chart (PDF)

IPv6 is similar to IPv4, but it is structured so that all LANs have 64 bits of network prefix as opposed to the variable length of network prefix (RFC2526, Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses (Proposed Standard)) that IPv4 networks have. All IPv6 networks have space for 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IPv6 addresses.

IPv6 Chart

Download: IPv6 Chart (PDF)

Currently, most ISPs assign /48 network prefixes to subscribers' sites (the End Users' networks). Because all IPv6 networks have /64 prefixes, a /48 network prefix allows 65,536 LANs in an End User's site.

The current minimum IPv6 allocation made by the RIPE NCC is a /32 network prefix. If the LIR only made /48 assignments from this /32 network prefix, they would be able to make 65,536 /48 assignments. If they decided to only assign /56 network prefixes they would have 24 bits available to them, and so could make 16,777,216 /56 assignments.

For example, if a /24 IPv6 allocation is made to an LIR, it would be able to make 16,777,216 /48 assignments or 4,294,967,296 /56 assignments.

To give some perspective, it is worth noting that there are 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses in total, significantly less than the number of IPv6 addresses.

IPv6 Relative Network Sizes

Understanding IP Address Assignment: A Complete Guide

avatar

Introduction

In today's interconnected world, where almost every aspect of our lives relies on the internet, understanding IP address assignment is crucial for ensuring online security and efficient network management. An IP address serves as a unique identifier for devices connected to a network, allowing them to communicate with each other and access the vast resources available on the internet. Whether you're a technical professional, a network administrator, or simply an internet user, having a solid grasp of how IP addresses are assigned within the same network can greatly enhance your ability to troubleshoot connectivity issues and protect your data.

The Basics of IP Addresses

Before delving into the intricacies of IP address assignment in the same network, it's important to have a basic understanding of what an IP address is. In simple terms, an IP address is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It consists of four sets of numbers separated by periods (e.g., 192.168.0.1) and can be either IPv4 or IPv6 format.

IP Address Allocation Methods

There are several methods used for allocating IP addresses within a network. One commonly used method is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP allows devices to obtain an IP address automatically from a central server, simplifying the process of managing large networks. Another method is static IP address assignment, where an administrator manually assigns specific addresses to devices within the network. This method provides more control but requires careful planning and documentation.

Considerations for Efficient IP Address Allocation

Efficient allocation of IP addresses is essential for optimizing network performance and avoiding conflicts. When assigning IP addresses, administrators need to consider factors such as subnetting, addressing schemes, and future scalability requirements. By carefully planning the allocation process and implementing best practices such as using private IP ranges and avoiding overlapping subnets, administrators can ensure smooth operation of their networks without running out of available addresses.

IP Address Assignment in the Same Network

When two routers are connected within the same network, they need to obtain unique IP addresses to communicate effectively. This can be achieved through various methods, such as using different subnets or configuring one router as a DHCP server and the other as a client. Understanding how IP address assignment works in this scenario is crucial for maintaining proper network functionality and avoiding conflicts.

Basics of IP Addresses

IP addresses are a fundamental aspect of computer networking that allows devices to communicate with each other over the internet. An IP address, short for Internet Protocol address, is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a network. It serves as an identifier for both the source and destination of data packets transmitted across the network.

The structure of an IP address consists of four sets of numbers separated by periods (e.g., 192.168.0.1). Each set can range from 0 to 255, resulting in a total of approximately 4.3 billion possible unique combinations for IPv4 addresses. However, with the increasing number of devices connected to the internet, IPv6 addresses were introduced to provide a significantly larger pool of available addresses.

IPv4 addresses are still predominantly used today and are divided into different classes based on their range and purpose. Class A addresses have the first octet reserved for network identification, allowing for a large number of hosts within each network. Class B addresses reserve the first two octets for network identification and provide a balance between network size and number of hosts per network. Class C addresses allocate the first three octets for network identification and are commonly used in small networks.

With the depletion of available IPv4 addresses, IPv6 was developed to overcome this limitation by utilizing 128-bit addressing scheme, providing an enormous pool of potential IP addresses - approximately 3.4 x 10^38 unique combinations.

IPv6 addresses are represented in hexadecimal format separated by colons (e.g., 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334). The longer length allows for more efficient routing and eliminates the need for Network Address Translation (NAT) due to its vast address space.

Understanding these basics is essential when it comes to assigning IP addresses in a network. Network administrators must consider various factors such as the number of devices, network topology, and security requirements when deciding on the IP address allocation method.

In the next section, we will explore different methods of IP address assignment, including Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and static IP address assignment. These methods play a crucial role in efficiently managing IP addresses within a network and ensuring seamless communication between devices.

Methods of IP Address Assignment

IP address assignment is a crucial aspect of network management and plays a vital role in ensuring seamless connectivity and efficient data transfer. There are primarily two methods of assigning IP addresses in a network: dynamic IP address assignment using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and static IP address assignment.

Dynamic IP Address Assignment using DHCP

Dynamic IP address assignment is the most commonly used method in modern networks. It involves the use of DHCP servers, which dynamically allocate IP addresses to devices on the network. When a device connects to the network, it sends a DHCP request to the DHCP server, which responds by assigning an available IP address from its pool.

One of the key benefits of dynamic IP address assignment is its simplicity and scalability. With dynamic allocation, network administrators don't have to manually configure each device's IP address. Instead, they can rely on the DHCP server to handle this task automatically. This significantly reduces administrative overhead and makes it easier to manage large networks with numerous devices.

Another advantage of dynamic allocation is that it allows for efficient utilization of available IP addresses. Since addresses are assigned on-demand, there is no wastage of unused addresses. This is particularly beneficial in scenarios where devices frequently connect and disconnect from the network, such as in public Wi-Fi hotspots or corporate environments with a high turnover rate.

However, dynamic allocation does have some drawbacks as well. One potential issue is that devices may receive different IP addresses each time they connect to the network. While this might not be an issue for most users, it can cause problems for certain applications or services that rely on consistent addressing.

Additionally, dynamic allocation introduces a dependency on the DHCP server. If the server goes down or becomes unreachable, devices will not be able to obtain an IP address and will be unable to connect to the network. To mitigate this risk, redundant DHCP servers can be deployed for high availability.

Static IP Address Assignment

Static IP address assignment involves manually configuring each device's IP address within the network. Unlike dynamic allocation, where addresses are assigned on-demand, static assignment requires administrators to assign a specific IP address to each device.

One of the main advantages of static IP address assignment is stability. Since devices have fixed addresses, there is no risk of them receiving different addresses each time they connect to the network. This can be beneficial for applications or services that require consistent addressing, such as servers hosting websites or databases.

Static assignment also provides greater control over network resources. Administrators can allocate specific IP addresses to devices based on their requirements or security considerations. For example, critical servers or network infrastructure devices can be assigned static addresses to ensure their availability and ease of management.

However, static IP address assignment has its limitations as well. It can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially in large networks with numerous devices. Any changes to the network topology or addition/removal of devices may require manual reconfiguration of IP addresses, which can be a tedious task.

Furthermore, static allocation can lead to inefficient utilization of available IP addresses. Each device is assigned a fixed address regardless of whether it is actively using the network or not. This can result in wastage of unused addresses and may pose challenges in scenarios where addressing space is limited.

In order to efficiently allocate IP addresses within a network, there are several important considerations that need to be taken into account. By carefully planning and managing the allocation process, network administrators can optimize their IP address usage and ensure smooth operation of their network.

One of the key factors to consider when assigning IP addresses is the size of the network. The number of devices that will be connected to the network determines the range of IP addresses that will be required. It is essential to accurately estimate the number of devices that will need an IP address in order to avoid running out of available addresses or wasting them unnecessarily.

Another consideration is the type of devices that will be connected to the network. Different devices have different requirements in terms of IP address assignment. For example, servers and other critical infrastructure typically require static IP addresses for stability and ease of access. On the other hand, client devices such as laptops and smartphones can often use dynamic IP addresses assigned by a DHCP server.

The physical layout of the network is also an important factor to consider. In larger networks with multiple subnets or VLANs, it may be necessary to segment IP address ranges accordingly. This allows for better organization and management of IP addresses, making it easier to troubleshoot issues and implement security measures.

Security is another crucial consideration when allocating IP addresses. Network administrators should implement measures such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems to protect against unauthorized access or malicious activities. Additionally, assigning unique IP addresses to each device enables better tracking and monitoring, facilitating quick identification and response in case of any security incidents.

Efficient utilization of IP address ranges can also be achieved through proper documentation and record-keeping. Maintaining an up-to-date inventory of all assigned IP addresses helps prevent conflicts or duplicate assignments. It also aids in identifying unused or underutilized portions of the address space, allowing for more efficient allocation in the future.

Furthermore, considering future growth and scalability is essential when allocating IP addresses. Network administrators should plan for potential expansion and allocate IP address ranges accordingly. This foresight ensures that there will be sufficient addresses available to accommodate new devices or additional network segments without disrupting the existing infrastructure.

In any network, the assignment of IP addresses is a crucial aspect that allows devices to communicate with each other effectively. When it comes to IP address assignment in the same network, there are specific considerations and methods to ensure efficient allocation. In this section, we will delve into how two routers in the same network obtain IP addresses and discuss subnetting and IP address range distribution.

To understand how two routers in the same network obtain IP addresses, it's essential to grasp the concept of subnetting. Subnetting involves dividing a larger network into smaller subnetworks or subnets. Each subnet has its own unique range of IP addresses that can be assigned to devices within that particular subnet. This division helps manage and organize large networks efficiently.

When it comes to assigning IP addresses within a subnet, there are various methods available. One common method is manual or static IP address assignment. In this approach, network administrators manually assign a specific IP address to each device within the network. Static IP addresses are typically used for devices that require consistent connectivity and need to be easily identifiable on the network.

Another widely used method for IP address assignment is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP is a networking protocol that enables automatic allocation of IP addresses within a network. With DHCP, a server is responsible for assigning IP addresses dynamically as devices connect to the network. This dynamic allocation ensures efficient utilization of available IP addresses by temporarily assigning them to connected devices when needed.

When considering efficient allocation of IP addresses in the same network, several factors come into play. One important consideration is proper planning and design of subnets based on anticipated device count and future growth projections. By carefully analyzing these factors, administrators can allocate appropriate ranges of IP addresses for each subnet, minimizing wastage and ensuring scalability.

Additionally, implementing proper security measures is crucial when assigning IP addresses in the same network. Network administrators should consider implementing firewalls, access control lists (ACLs), and other security mechanisms to protect against unauthorized access and potential IP address conflicts.

Furthermore, monitoring and managing IP address usage is essential for efficient allocation. Regular audits can help identify any unused or underutilized IP addresses that can be reclaimed and allocated to devices as needed. This proactive approach ensures that IP addresses are utilized optimally within the network.

The proper assignment of IP addresses is crucial for maintaining network security and efficiency. Throughout this guide, we have covered the basics of IP addresses, explored different methods of IP address assignment, and discussed considerations for efficient allocation.

In conclusion, understanding IP address assignment in the same network is essential for network administrators and technical professionals. By following proper allocation methods such as DHCP or static IP assignment, organizations can ensure that each device on their network has a unique identifier. This not only enables effective communication and data transfer but also enhances network security by preventing unauthorized access.

Moreover, considering factors like subnetting, scalability, and future growth can help optimize IP address allocation within a network. Network administrators should carefully plan and allocate IP addresses to avoid conflicts or wastage of resources.

Overall, a well-managed IP address assignment process is vital for the smooth functioning of any network. It allows devices to connect seamlessly while ensuring security measures are in place. By adhering to best practices and staying updated with advancements in networking technology, organizations can effectively manage their IP address assignments.

In conclusion, this guide has provided a comprehensive overview of IP address assignment in the same network. We hope it has equipped you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions regarding your network's IP address allocation. Remember that proper IP address assignment is not only important for connectivity but also plays a significant role in maintaining online security and optimizing network performance.

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What Are IP Netblocks?

IP netblocks refer to series or ranges of successive IP addresses that are part of the same block, such as 8.8.8.0–8.8.8.255. RIRs assign IP netblocks to netblock owners, typically ISPs and large enterprises that require a sizable number of IP addresses.

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ip block assignment

A Short Guide to IP Addressing

How are ip addresses managed and distributed.

IP addresses are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which has overall responsibility for the Internet Protocol (IP) address pool, and by the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) to which IANA distributes large blocks of addresses.

The RIRs manage, distribute, and publicly register IP addresses and related Internet number resources, such as Autonomous System Numbers (ASN) and reverse Domain Name System (DNS ) delegations within their respective regions. They do this according to policies which are developed within their respective regional communities, through open and bottom-up processes.

There are currently five RIRs:

  • AfriNIC  – African region
  • APNIC  – Asia Pacific region
  • ARIN  – North America and several Caribbean and North Atlantic islands
  • LACNIC  – Latin America and the Caribbean
  • RIPE NCC  – Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia

The five RIRs together also form the Number Resource Organization (NRO), which carries out joint activities of the RIRs, including joint technical projects, liaison activities, and policy co-ordination. For more background on IP address management visit:

  • IANA’s Overview of IP Address Services
  • Development of the Regional Internet Registry System , an article published in Cisco’s  Internet Protocol Journal

How are IPv6 addresses allocated?

Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are allocated to those who show that they need addresses for their networks.

Shouldn’t addresses be allocated on a geographical basis to ensure that distribution is equitable?

For technical reasons the allocation of IP addresses has to follow the topology of the  network  and not geography or national borders.

Therefore, the addresses are allocated for use in specific networks, as they are required. RIRs allocate IP addresses  using community-developed policies that are designed to ensure that distribution is fair and equitable.

In the early days of the Internet, the method for distributing IP addresses was less formal, resulting in some organisations receiving disproportionately large address ranges.

The RIRs were formed to provide a better way of distributing addresses. They have been successful at developing fair and equitable distribution policies. They have also helped to provide stability of the address pool and routing tables throughout a long period of rapid growth.

What happens when IPv4 addresses run out?

The Internet, in its current form, already has. According to the Number Resource Organization,  the world officially ran out of IPv4 addresses in February 2011 .

The only option now is to divide the allocated properties into smaller portions or to start trading what’s already been assigned – both moves could complicate and compromise your privacy.

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A subnet can be thought of as a range or block of IP addresses that have a common network ID. For example, the CIDR 192.168.1.0/28 represents the following block of 14 IP addresses:

Given an IP address in CIDR notation, it’s useful to be able to determine the range of actual IP addresses that the CIDR represents. This matter is straightforward when the octet within which the network ID mask ends happens to be 0 , as in the preceding example. You just determine how many host IDs are allowed based on the size of the network ID and count them off.

However, what if the octet where the network ID mask ends is not 0 ? For example, what are the valid IP addresses for 192.168.1.100 when the subnet mask is 255.255.255.240 ? In that case, the calculation is a little harder. The first step is to determine the actual network ID.

You can do that by converting both the IP address and the subnet mask to binary and then extracting the network ID as in this example:

As a result, the network ID is 192.168.1.96 .

Next, determine the number of allowable hosts in the subnet based on the network prefix. You can calculate this by subtracting the last octet of the subnet mask from 254. In this case, the number of allowable hosts is 14.

To determine the first IP address in the block, add 1 to the network ID. Thus, the first IP address in my example is 192.168.1.97 . To determine the last IP address in the block, add the number of hosts to the network ID. In my example, the last IP address is 192.168.1.110 . As a result, the 192.168.1.100 with subnet mask 255.255.255.240 designates the following block of IP addresses:

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Number Resource Policy Manual

Version 2023.2 - 13 September 2023

This is ARIN’s Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM). It is available at: https://www.arin.net/policy/ . This version supersedes all previous versions.

Number resource policies in the ARIN region are created in accordance with the “Policy Development Process” ( https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html ). The status of current and historical policy proposals can be found on the “Draft Policies and Proposals” page ( https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/ ).

Each policy consists of a number of component parts separated by dots. The first figure to the far left and preceding the first dot (.), refers to the chapter number. The figure following the first dot indicates a policy section. Any subsequent figures are for the purpose of identifying specific parts of a given policy.

1. Principles and Goals of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

1.1. registration.

The principle of registration guarantees the uniqueness of Internet number resources. Provision of this public registry documenting Internet number resource allocation, reallocation, assignment, and reassignment is necessary:

  • to ensure uniqueness,
  • to provide a contact in case of operational/security problems,
  • to provide the transparency required to ensure that Internet number resources are efficiently utilized, and
  • to assist in IP allocation studies.

1.2. Conservation

The principle of conservation guarantees sustainability of the Internet through efficient utilization of unique number resources.

Due to the requirement for uniqueness, Internet number resources of each type are drawn from a common number space. Conservation of these common number spaces requires that Internet number resources be efficiently distributed to those organizations who have a technical need for them in support of operational networks.

1.3. Routability

The principle of routability guarantees that Internet number resources are managed in such a manner that they may be routed on the Internet in a scalable manner.

While routing scalability is necessary to ensure proper operation of Internet routing, allocation or assignment of Internet number resources by ARIN in no way guarantees that those addresses will be routed by any particular network operator.

1.4. Stewardship

The principle of stewardship guarantees the application of these principles when managing Internet number resources.

The fundamental purpose of Internet number stewardship is to distribute unique number resources to entities building and operating networks thereby facilitating the growth and sustainability of the Internet for the benefit of all.

It should be noted that the above goals may sometimes be in conflict with each other and with the interests of individual end-users or network operators. Care must be taken to ensure balance with these conflicting goals given the resource availability, relative size of the resource, and number resource specific technical dynamics, for each type of number resource.

2. Definitions

Responsibility for management of number resources is distributed globally in accordance with the following procedures:

  • Global number resource management is performed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA distributes number resources to RIRs (AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, and the RIPE NCC), but not directly to LIRs (Local Internet Registries) or end users.
  • RIRs, such as ARIN, distribute number resources to LIRs and directly to end-user organizations.
  • LIRs may further delegate number resources to other LIRs, as well as to other end-user organizations.

Chart showing hierarchical structure of Internet number resource distribution.

2.1. Internet Registry (IR)

An Internet Registry (IR) is an organization that is responsible for distributing Internet number resources to its members or customers and for registering those distributions.

2.2. Regional Internet Registry (RIR)

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are established and authorized by respective regional communities, and recognized by the IANA to serve and represent large geographical regions. The primary role of RIRs is to manage and distribute public Internet number resources within their respective regions.

2.3. [Retired]

2.4. local internet registry (lir).

A Local Internet Registry (LIR) is an IR that primarily assigns IP addresses to the users of the network services that it provides. LIRs are generally Internet Service Providers (ISPs) whose customers are primarily end users and possibly other ISPs.

2.5. Allocation, Assignment, Reallocation, Reassignment

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

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

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

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

Note that the authorized incidental or transient use by third parties of IP addresses delegated to an organization shall not be considered a reassignment or a violation of the exclusive use provision.

2.6. End-user

An end-user is an organization receiving assignments of IP addresses exclusively for use in its operational networks.

2.7. Multihomed

An organization is multihomed if it receives full-time connectivity from more than one ISP and has one or more routing prefixes announced by at least two of its upstream ISPs.

2.8. Registration Services Agreement (RSA)

Number resources allocated or assigned by ARIN under these policies are subject to a contractual agreement between ARIN and the resource holder. Throughout this document, any and all forms of this agreement, past or future, are simply referred to as the Registration Services Agreement (RSA).

2.9. Autonomous System Number (ASN)

An Autonomous System Number (ASN) is a unique identifier which represents a collection of network resources operated under a common routing policy administration, known as an autonomous system.

2.10. End Site

The term End Site shall mean a single structure or service delivery address, or, in the case of a multi-tenant structure, a single tenant within said structure (a single customer location).

2.11. Community Network

A community network is one that is deployed, operated, and governed by its users, for the purpose of providing free or low-cost connectivity to the community it services. Users of the network or other volunteers must play a primary role in the governance of the organization, whereas other functions may be handled by either paid staff or volunteers.

2.12. Organizational Information

When required, organization information must include at a minimum: Legal name, street address, city, state, zip code equivalent and at least one valid technical and one valid abuse POC. Each POC shall be designated by the organization and must include at least a verifiable email address and phone number.

2.13. Residential Customer

End-users who are individual persons and not organizations and who receive service at a place of residence for personal use only are considered residential customers.

2.14. Serving Site (IPv6)

When applied to IPv6 policies, the term serving site means a location where an ISP terminates or aggregates customer connections, including, but, not limited to points of presence (POPs), datacenters, central or local switching office or regional or local combinations thereof.

2.15. Provider Assignment Unit (IPv6)

When applied to IPv6 policies, the term “provider assignment unit” shall mean the prefix of the smallest block a given ISP assigns to end sites (recommended /48).

2.16. Utilized (IPv6)

When applied to IPv6 policies the term “utilized” shall be interpreted as follows:

  • A provider assignment unit shall be considered fully utilized when it is assigned to an end-site.
  • Larger blocks shall have their utilization defined by dividing the number of provider assignment units assigned from the containing block (a) by the total number of provider assignment units (t). This ratio will often be expressed as a percentage (e.g., a/t*100, for a /36 3072/4096 * 100 = 75% utilization).

2.17. Internet Number Resources

Internet number resources are unique identifiers within the Internet Numbers Registry System [as described in the IETF RFC 7020] and this includes ranges (or “blocks”) of contiguous Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses and Autonomous System Numbers (“ASNs”).

3. Directory Services

3.1. bulk copies of arin’s whois.

ARIN will provide a bulk copy of Whois output, including point of contact information, on the ARIN site for download by any organization that wishes to obtain the data providing they agree to ARIN’s acceptable use policy. This point of contact information will not include data marked as private.

[The Request Form for ARIN Bulk Whois Data, which contains the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for Bulk Copies of ARIN Whois Data, can be found at:

https://www.arin.net/resources/agreements/bulkwhois.pdf ]

3.2. Distributed Information Service Use Requirements

The minimal requirements for an organization to setup a distributed information service to advertise reassignment and reallocation information are:

  • The distributed information service must be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to both the general public and ARIN staff. The service is allowed reasonable downtime for server maintenance according to generally accepted community standards.
  • The distributed information service must allow public access to reassignment and reallocation information. The service may restrict the number of queries allowed per time interval from a host or subnet to defend against DDOS attacks, remote mirroring attempts, and other nefarious acts.
  • The distributed information service must return reassignment and reallocation information for the IP address queried. The service may allow for privacy protections for customers. For residential users, the service may follow ARIN’s residential privacy policy that includes displaying only the city, state, zip code, and country. For all other reassignments and reallocations, the service shall follow ARIN’s privacy policy for publishing data in a public forum.
  • The distributed information service may return results for non-IP queries.
  • The distributed information service must respond to a query with the minimal set of attributes per object as defined by ARIN staff.
  • The distributed information service may include optional attributes per object that are defined locally. The distributed information service must return results that are up-to-date on reassignment and reallocation information.

3.3. Privatizing POC Information

Organizations may designate certain points of contact as private from ARIN Whois, with the exception that, at the minimum, one point of contact must be viewable.

3.4. Routing Registry

3.4.1. acceptable use policy.

  • The ARIN Routing Registry data is for Internet operational purposes only. Mirroring is only allowed by other routing registries.
  • The user may only distribute this data using a Whois service unless prior, written permission from ARIN has been obtained.
  • To protect those registered in the ARIN routing registry, ARIN may need to specify additional conditions on access permissions for this data in the future. The permission to access the data is based on agreement to the conditions stipulated in this document in addition to any others that may be added in the future.
  • Please see the http://www.irr.net/docs/list.html URL for information about the replicated Routing Registry data.

3.5. [Retired]

3.6. annual validation of arin’s public whois point of contact data, 3.6.1. annual poc verification.

ARIN will perform an annual verification of specific Points of Contact registered in the public Whois using the criteria and procedures outlined in sections 3.6.2, 3.6.3, and 3.6.4.

3.6.2. Specified Public Whois Points of Contact for Verification

Each of the following Points of Contact are to be verified annually, and will be referred to as Point of Contact or POC throughout this policy, and should be understood to be both organization and resource POCs:

3.6.3. Organizations Covered by this Policy

This policy applies to every Organization that has a direct assignment, direct allocation, or AS number from ARIN (or one of its predecessor registries) or a reallocation from an upstream ISP. This includes but is not limited to upstream ISPs and their downstream ISP customers (as defined by NRPM 2.5 and 2.6), but not reassignments made to their downstream end user customers.

3.6.4. Procedure for Verification

An annual email notification will be sent to each of the Points of Contact outlined in section 3.6.2 on an annual basis. Each Point of Contact will have up to sixty (60) days from the date of the notification in which to respond with an affirmative that their Whois contact information is correct and complete or to submit new data to correct and complete it. If after careful analysis, ARIN staff deems a POC to be completely and permanently abandoned or otherwise illegitimate, the POC record shall be marked invalid in Whois.

3.6.5. Non-Responsive Point of Contact Records

An invalid POC is restricted to payment and contact update functionality within ARIN Online. As a result, an organization without any valid POCs will be unable to access further functionalities within ARIN Online until at least one Admin or Tech POC validates that their information is accurate or modifies a POC to contain accurate information.

3.7 POC Notification and Validation Upon Reassignment or Reallocation

When a request for reallocation or detailed reassignment is made to ARIN, the receiving organization must already be in the ARIN database and associated with at least one validated POC object. If there are no validated POC objects associated with the receiving organization, ARIN shall reject the request.

In addition to notifying the requester, ARIN will also notify, via email, all POCs associated with the receiving organization, whether the request was successful or not, and will request validation of any invalid POC objects associated with the receiving organization.

Note: Simple reassignments are made without any linkage to an organization or POC objects in the ARIN database.

3.8. Directory Service Records

3.8.1 organization record creation.

New organization records shall be created upon ARIN receiving a request directly from an authorized contact representing an entity that ARIN is able to validate. Organization records shall not be created upon the request of third-parties.

4.1. General Principles

4.1.1., 4.1.2., 4.1.3., 4.1.4. [retired], 4.1.5. resource request size.

Determining the validity of the amount of requested IP address resources is the responsibility of ARIN.

4.1.6. Aggregation

In order to preserve aggregation, ARIN attempts to issue blocks of addresses on appropriate “CIDR-supported” bit boundaries. ARIN may reserve space to maximize aggregation possibilities until the implementation of section 10.4.2.2 , at which time ARIN will make each allocation and assignment as a single continuous range of addresses.

4.1.7. Reserved Pool Replenishment

4.1.7.1. disposition of resources.

Any resources allocated from a reserved pool created in Sections 4.4 or 4.10, or any other reserved pools created in the future, that become available for re-issuance will be returned to the reserved pool they were originally allocated from, regardless of the current level of each pool. Further, any other resources which become available for re-issuance will be prioritized for the replenishment of any reserved pool that falls below a running three-year supply, which is based on the previous three years of allocations from each pool.

4.1.7.2. Precedence for Replenishment

Staff shall return groups of blocks to the pools in scheduled batches (staff shall set a reasonable schedule). Each available block in a batch shall be returned in order from largest to smallest to the pool which at that point has the lowest percentage of a 3-year supply for that particular pool.

4.1.8. ARIN Waitlist

ARIN will only issue future IPv4 assignments/allocations (excluding 4.4 and 4.10 space) from the ARIN Waitlist. The maximum size aggregate that an organization may qualify for at any one time is a /22. Organizations will be able to elect a smaller block size than they qualify for down to a /24. 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. Address space distributed from the waitlist will not be eligible for transfer, with the exception of Section 8.2 transfers, for a period of 60 months. This policy will be applied to all future distributions from the waitlist to include those currently listed.

Multiple requests are not allowed: an organization currently on the waitlist must wait 90 days after receiving a distribution from the waitlist or IPv4 number resources as a recipient of any transfer before applying for additional space. ARIN, at its sole discretion, may waive this requirement if the requester can document a change in circumstances since their last request that could not have been reasonably foreseen at the time of the original request, and which now justifies additional space. Qualified requesters will also be advised of the availability of the transfer mechanism in section 8.3 as an alternative mechanism to obtain IPv4 addresses.

Restrictions apply for entities who have conducted recent resource transfers. These restrictions are specified in Section 8 for each relevant transfer category.

4.1.8.1. Sequencing

The position of each qualified request on the waiting list will be determined by the date it was approved. Each organization may have one approved request on the waiting list at a time.

4.1.8.2. Fulfillment

ARIN will fulfill requests on a first-approved basis, subject to the size of each available address block as address blocks become available for distribution. A timely review of the original request may be conducted by ARIN staff. Requests will not be partially filled. Any requests met through a transfer will be considered fulfilled and removed from the waiting list.

4.1.9. [Retired]

4.2. allocations to isps (requirements for requesting initial address space), 4.2.1. principles, 4.2.1.1. purpose.

ARIN allocates blocks of IP addresses to ISPs for the purpose of reassigning and reallocating that space to their customers.

4.2.1.2. [Retired]

4.2.1.3. utilization rate.

Utilization rate of address space is a key factor, among others, in determining address allocation.

4.2.1.4. Slow Start

Because the number of available IP addresses on the Internet is limited, many factors must be considered in the determination of address space allocations. Therefore, IP address space is allocated to ISPs using a slow-start model. Allocations are based on justified need, not solely on a predicted customer base.

4.2.1.5. Minimum Allocation

In general, ARIN allocates /24 and larger IP address prefixes to ISPs. If allocations smaller than /24 are needed, ISPs should request address space from their upstream provider.

4.2.1.6. [Retired]

4.2.2. initial allocation to isps.

All ISP organizations without direct assignments or allocations from ARIN qualify for an initial allocation of up to a /22, subject to ARIN’s minimum allocation size.

All ISP organizations without direct allocations, direct assignments, re-allocations or reassignments automatically qualify for a /24. These organizations are exempt from requirements of showing the efficient utilization of previously held IPv4 space. These organizations may qualify for a larger than a /24 by documenting how the requested allocation will be utilized within the request size specified in 4.2.4.3 .

ISPs holding re-allocations and/or reassignments must show the efficient utilization of their resources consistent with the requirements in sections 4.2.3 and 4.2.4 .

4.2.3. Reassigning and Reallocating Address Space to Customers

4.2.3.1. efficient utilization.

ISPs are required to apply a utilization efficiency criterion in providing address space to their customers. To this end, ISPs should have documented justification available for each reassignment and reallocation. ARIN may request this justification at any time. If justification is not provided, future receipt of allocations may be impacted.

4.2.3.2. VLSM

To increase utilization efficiency of IPv4 address space, ISPs reassigning IP address space to their customers should require their customers to use variable length subnet mask (VLSM) and classless technologies (CIDR) within their networks. ISPs should issue blocks smaller than /24 wherever feasible.

4.2.3.3. Contiguous Blocks

IP addresses are allocated to ISPs in contiguous blocks, which should remain intact. Fragmentation of blocks is discouraged. To avoid fragmentation, ISPs are encouraged to require their customers to return address space if they change ISPs. Therefore, if a customer moves to another service provider or otherwise terminates a contract with an ISP, it is recommended that the customer return the network addresses to the ISP and renumber into the new provider’s address space. The original ISP should allow sufficient time for the renumbering process to be completed before requiring the address space to be returned.

4.2.3.4. Downstream Customer Adherence

ISPs must require their downstream customers to adhere to the following criteria:

4.2.3.4.1. Utilization

A downstream customer requesting address space from an upstream ISP must document a plan to the allocating ISP for their utilization to conform to Section 4.3.3. Reassignment and reallocation information for prior allocations must show that each customer meets the 80% utilization criteria and must be available via SWIP / a distributed service which meets the standards set forth in section 3.2 prior to issuing them additional space.

4.2.3.4.2. Downstream ISPs

Customers must follow ARIN policy for ISPs.

4.2.3.5. [Retired]

4.2.3.6. reassignments to multihomed downstream customers.

If a downstream customer has a requirement to multihome, that requirement alone will serve as justification for a /24 allocation. Downstream customers must provide contact information for all of their upstream providers to the ISP from whom they are requesting a /24, and utilize a border routing protocol between the customer and the ISP. Customers may receive a /24 from only one of their upstream providers under this policy without providing additional justification. ISPs may demonstrate they have made an assignment to a downstream customer under this policy by supplying ARIN with the information they collected from the customer, as described above, or by identifying the AS number of the customer.

4.2.3.7. Registration

ISPs are required to demonstrate efficient use of IP address space allocations by providing appropriate documentation, including but not limited to assignment histories, showing their efficient use.

4.2.3.7.1. Reassignment and Reallocation Information

Each IPv4 reassignment or reallocation containing a /29 or more addresses shall be registered via SWIP or a directory services system which meets the standards set forth in section 3.2.

Reassignment registrations must include each customer name, except where specifically exempted by this policy. Reassignment registrations shall only include point of contact (POC) information if either: (1) requested by the customer; or (2) the reassigned block is intended to be routed and announced outside of the provider’s network.

Reallocation registrations must contain the customer’s organization name and appropriate point of contact (POC) information.

4.2.3.7.2. Reassignments and Reallocations Visible Within Seven Days

All reassignments and reallocations shall be made visible as required in section 4.2.3.7.1 within seven calendar days of reassignment or reallocation.

4.2.3.7.3. Residential Subscribers

4.2.3.7.3.1. [retired], 4.2.3.7.3.2. residential customer privacy.

To maintain the privacy of their residential customers, an organization with downstream residential customers holding /29 and larger blocks may substitute that organization’s name for the customer’s name, e.g. ‘Private Customer - XYZ Network’, and the customer’s street address may read ‘Private Residence’. Each private downstream residential reassignment must have accurate upstream Abuse and Technical POCs visible on the WHOIS or Distributed Information Service record for that block.

4.2.3.8. Reassignments for Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) over Cable

IP addresses reassigned by an ISP to an incumbent cable operator for use with Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) will be counted as fully used once they are assigned to equipment by the underlying cable carrier provided they meet the following requirements:

  • initial assignments to each piece of hardware represent the smallest subnet reasonably required to deploy service to the customer base served by the hardware
  • additional assignments to each piece of hardware are made only when all previous assignments to that specific piece of hardware are at least 80% used and represent a 24-month supply
  • IP allocations issued through 4.2.3.8 are non-transferable via section 8.3 and section 8.4 for a period of 36 months. In the case of a section 8.2 transfer the IP assignment must be utilized for the same purpose or needs based justification at a rate consistent with intended use.

4.2.4. ISP Additional Requests

4.2.4.1. utilization percentage (80%).

ISPs must have efficiently utilized all allocations, in aggregate, to at least 80% and at least 50% of every allocation in order to receive additional space. This includes all space reassigned or reallocated to their customers.

4.2.4.2. Return Address Space as Agreed

Return prior address space designated for return as agreed.

4.2.4.3. Request Size

ISPs may request up to a 24-month supply of IPv4 addresses.

4.2.4.4. [Retired]

4.2.5., 4.2.6. [retired], 4.3. end-users - assignments to end-users, 4.3.1. end-users.

ARIN assigns blocks of IP addresses to end-users who request address space for their internal use in running their own networks, but not for sub-delegation of those addresses outside their organization. End-users must meet the requirements described in these guidelines for justifying the assignment of an address block.

4.3.2. Minimum Assignment

ARIN’s minimum assignment for end-user organizations is a /24.

End-user organizations without direct assignments or allocations from ARIN qualify for an initial assignment of ARIN’s minimum assignment size.

4.3.3. Utilization Rate

Organizations may qualify for a larger initial allocation by providing appropriate details to verify their 24-month growth projection.

The basic criterion that must be met is a 50% utilization rate within 24 months.

A greater utilization rate may be required based on individual network requirements.

4.3.4. Additional Considerations

End-users may qualify for address space under other policies such as Micro-allocation [ 4.4 ].

4.3.5. Non-connected Networks

End-users not currently connected to an ISP and/or not planning to be connected to the Internet are encouraged to use private IP address numbers reserved for non-connected networks (see RFC 1918). When private, non-connected networks require interconnectivity and the private IP address numbers are ineffective, globally unique addresses may be requested and used to provide this interconnectivity.

4.3.6. Additional Assignments

4.3.6.1. utilization requirements for additional assignment.

End-users must have efficiently utilized all assignments, in aggregate, to at least 80% and at least 50% of every assignment in order to receive additional space, and must provide ARIN with utilization details.

4.4. Micro-allocation

ARIN will make IPv4 micro-allocations to critical infrastructure providers of the Internet, including public exchange points, core DNS service providers (e.g. ICANN-sanctioned root and ccTLD operators) as well as the RIRs and IANA. These allocations will be no smaller than a /24. Multiple allocations may be granted in certain situations.

Exchange point allocations MUST be allocated from specific blocks reserved only for this purpose. All other micro-allocations WILL be allocated out of other blocks reserved for micro-allocation purposes. ARIN will make a list of these blocks publicly available.

Exchange point operators must provide justification for the allocation, including: connection policy, location, other participants (minimum of three total), ASN, and contact information. Organizations receiving these micro-allocations will be charged under the fee schedule. This policy does not preclude exchange point operators from requesting address space under other policies.

ARIN will place an equivalent of a /15 of IPv4 address space in a reserve for Critical Infrastructure, as defined in section 4.4.

ICANN-sanctioned gTLD operators may justify up to the equivalent of an IPv4 /23 block for each authorized gTLD, allocated from the free pool or received via transfer, but not from the above reservation. This limit of a /23 equivalent per gTLD does not apply to gTLD allocations made under previous policy.

4.5. Multiple Discrete Networks

Organizations with multiple discrete networks desiring to request new or additional address space under a single Organization ID must meet the following criteria:

  • The organization shall be a single entity and not a consortium of smaller independent entities.
  • The organization must have compelling criteria for creating discrete networks. Examples of a discrete network might include:
  • Regulatory restrictions for data transmission,
  • Geographic distance and diversity between networks,
  • Autonomous multihomed discrete networks.
  • The organization must keep detailed records on how it has allocated space to each location, including the date of each allocation.
  • When applying for additional internet address registrations from ARIN, the organization must demonstrate utilization greater than 50% of both the last block allocated and the aggregate sum of all blocks allocated from ARIN to that organization. If an organization is unable to satisfy this 50% minimum utilization criteria, the organization may alternatively qualify for additional internet address registrations by having all unallocated blocks of addresses smaller than ARIN’s current minimum allocation size.
  • The organization may not allocate additional address space to a location until each of that location’s address blocks are 80% utilized.
  • The organization should notify ARIN at the time of the request their desire to apply this policy to their account.
  • Upon verification that the organization has shown evidence of deployment of the new discrete network site, the new network(s) shall be allocated the minimum allocation size under section 4.2.1.5.

4.6., 4.7., 4.8., 4.9. [Retired]

4.10. dedicated ipv4 block to facilitate ipv6 deployment.

ARIN shall allocate a contiguous /10 from its last /8 IPv4 allocation from IANA. This IPv4 block will be set aside and dedicated to facilitate IPv6 deployment. Allocations and assignments from this block must be justified by immediate IPv6 deployment requirements. Examples of such needs include: IPv4 addresses for key dual stack DNS servers, and NAT-PT or NAT464 translators. ARIN staff will use their discretion when evaluating justifications.

This block will be subject to a minimum and maximum size allocation of /24. ARIN should use sparse allocation when possible within that /10 block.

In order to receive an allocation or assignment under this policy:

  • the applicant may not have received resources under this policy in the preceding six months, except to the extent that the applicant is requesting resources for a discrete network in respect of which it has not received any resources under this policy in the preceding six months;
  • previous allocations/assignments under this policy must continue to meet the justification requirements of this policy;
  • previous allocations/assignments under this policy must be utilized to at least 80% to obtain an additional allocation or assignment;
  • the applicant must demonstrate that no other allocations or assignments will meet this need.
  • An applicant requesting multiple allocations under this policy to support Multiple Discrete Networks, as defined under Section 4.5, may not receive more than the equivalent of a /21 of IPv4 address space in any one six-month period hereunder.

5. AS Numbers

Any organization may be issued a single Autonomous System Number (ASN) upon request. Organizations that have space issued under Multiple Discrete Networks policy may be issued one ASN per discrete network upon request.

Additional ASN requests should include proof of the requestor’s need for a unique routing policy, or other technical justification for the need for more than one ASN.

5.1. [Retired]

6.1. introduction, 6.1.1. overview.

This document describes policies for the allocation and assignment of globally-unique Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) address space. It updates and obsoletes the existing Provisional IPv6 Policies in effect since 1999. Policies described in this document are intended to be adopted by each registry. However, adoption of this document does not preclude local variations in each region or area.

RFC 2373, RFC 2373bis designate 2000::/3 to be global unicast address space that IANA may allocate to the RIRs. In accordance with RFC 2928, RFC 2373bis, IAB-Request, IANA has allocated initial ranges of global unicast IPv6 address space from the 2001::/16 address block to the existing RIRs. This document concerns the initial and subsequent allocations of the 2000::/3 unicast address space, for which RIRs formulate allocation and assignment policies.

6.2. [Retired]

6.3. goals of ipv6 address space management, 6.3.1. goals.

IPv6 address space is a public resource that must be managed in a prudent manner with regards to the long-term interests of the internet. Responsible address space management involves balancing a set of sometimes competing goals. The following are the goals relevant to IPv6 address policy.

6.3.2. Uniqueness

Every assignment and/or allocation of address space must guarantee uniqueness worldwide. This is an absolute requirement for ensuring that every public host on the Internet can be uniquely identified.

6.3.3. Registration

Internet address space must be registered in a registry database accessible to appropriate members of the Internet community. This is necessary to ensure the uniqueness of each Internet address and to provide reference information for Internet troubleshooting at all levels, ranging from all RIRs and IRs to end users.

The goal of registration should be applied within the context of reasonable privacy considerations and applicable laws.

6.3.4. Aggregation

Wherever possible, address space should be distributed in a hierarchical manner, according to the topology of network infrastructure. This is necessary to permit the aggregation of routing information by ISPs, and to limit the expansion of Internet routing tables.

This goal is particularly important in IPv6 addressing, where the size of the total address pool creates significant implications for both internal and external routing.

IPv6 address policies should seek to avoid fragmentation of address ranges.

Further, RIRs should apply practices that maximize the potential for subsequent allocations to be made contiguous with past allocations currently held. However, there can be no guarantee of contiguous allocation.

6.3.5. Conservation

Although IPv6 provides an extremely large pool of address space, address policies should avoid unnecessarily wasteful practices. Requests for address space should be supported by appropriate documentation and stockpiling of unused addresses should be avoided.

6.3.6. Fairness

All policies and practices relating to the use of public address space should apply fairly and equitably to all existing and potential members of the Internet community, regardless of their location, nationality, size or any other factor.

6.3.7. Minimized Overhead

It is desirable to minimize the overhead associated with obtaining address space. Overhead includes the need to go back to RIRs for additional space too frequently, the overhead associated with managing address space that grows through a number of small successive incremental expansions rather than through fewer, but larger, expansions.

6.3.8. Conflict of Goals

The goals described above will often conflict with each other, or with the needs of individual IRs or end users. All IRs evaluating requests for allocations and assignments must make judgments, seeking to balance the needs of the applicant with the needs of the Internet community as a whole.

In IPv6 address policy, the goal of aggregation is considered to be the most important.

6.4. IPv6 Policy Principles

To address the goals described in the previous section, the policies in this document discuss and follow the basic principles described below.

6.4.1. Address Space Not to be Considered Property

It is contrary to the goals of this document and is not in the interests of the Internet community as a whole for address space to be considered freehold property.

The policies in this document are based upon the understanding that globally-unique IPv6 unicast address space is allocated/assigned for use rather than owned.

6.4.2. Routability Not Guaranteed

There is no guarantee that any address allocation or assignment will be globally routable.

However, RIRs must apply procedures that reduce the possibility of fragmented address space which may lead to a loss of routability.

6.4.3. [Retired]

6.4.4. consideration of ipv4 infrastructure.

Where an existing IPv4 service provider requests IPv6 space for eventual transition of existing services to IPv6, the number of present IPv4 customers may be used to justify a larger request than would be justified if based solely on the IPv6 infrastructure.

6.5. Policies for Allocations and Assignments

6.5.1. terminology.

  • The terms ISP and LIR are used interchangeably in this document and any use of either term shall be construed to include both meanings.
  • The term nibble boundary shall mean a network mask which aligns on a 4-bit boundary (in slash notation, /n, where n is evenly divisible by 4, allowing unit quantities of X such that 2^n=X where n is evenly divisible by 4, such as 16, 256, 4096, etc.)

6.5.2. Initial Allocation to LIRs

6.5.2.1. size.

  • All allocations shall be made on nibble boundaries.
  • In no case shall an LIR receive smaller than a /32 unless they specifically request a /36 or /40. In order to be eligible for a /40, an ISP must meet the following requirements:

Hold IPv4 direct allocations totaling a /24 or less (to include zero)

Hold IPv4 reassignments/reallocations totaling a /22 or less (to include zero)

In no case shall an ISP receive more than a /16 initial allocation.

  • The maximum allowable allocation shall be the smallest nibble-boundary aligned block that can provide an equally sized nibble-boundary aligned block to each of the requesters serving sites large enough to satisfy the needs of the requesters largest single serving site using no more than 75% of the available addresses. This calculation can be summarized as /N where N = P-(X+Y) and P is the organization’s Provider Allocation Unit X is a multiple of 4 greater than 4/3*serving sites and Y is a multiple of 4 greater than 4/3*end sites served by largest serving site.
  • For purposes of the calculation in (c), an end site which can justify more than a /48 under the end-user assignment criteria in 6.5.8 shall count as the appropriate number of /48s that would be assigned under that policy.
  • For purposes of the calculation in (c), an LIR which has subordinate LIRs shall make such reallocations according to the same policies and criteria as ARIN. In such a case, the prefixes necessary for such a reallocation should be treated as fully utilized in determining the block sizing for the parent LIR. LIRs which do not receive resources directly from ARIN will not be able to make such reallocations to subordinate LIRs and subordinate LIRs which need more than a /32 shall apply directly to ARIN.
  • An LIR is not required to design or deploy their network according to this structure. It is strictly a mechanism to determine the largest IP address block to which the LIR is entitled.
  • An LIR that requests a smaller /36 or /40 allocation is entitled to expand the allocation to any nibble aligned size up to /32 at any time without renumbering or additional justification. /40 allocations shall be automatically upgraded to /36 if at any time said LIR’s IPv4 direct allocations exceed a /24. Expansions up to and including a /32 are not considered subsequent allocations, however any expansions beyond /32 are considered subsequent allocations and must conform to section 6.5.3. Partial returns of any IPv6 allocation that results in less than a /36 of holding are not permitted regardless of the ISP’s current or former IPv4 address holdings.

6.5.2.2. Qualifications

An organization qualifies for an allocation under this policy if they meet any of the following criteria:

  • Have a previously justified IPv4 ISP allocation from ARIN or one of its predecessor registries or can qualify for an IPv4 ISP allocation under current criteria.
  • Are currently multihomed for IPv6 or will immediately become multihomed for IPv6 using a valid assigned global AS number. In either case, they will be making reassignments or reallocations from allocation(s) under this policy to other organizations.
  • Provide ARIN a reasonable technical justification indicating why an allocation is necessary. Justification must include the intended purposes for the allocation and describe the network infrastructure the allocation will be used to support. Justification must also include a plan detailing anticipated reassignments and reallocations to other organizations or customers for one, two and five year periods, with a minimum of 50 assignments within 5 years.

6.5.3. Subsequent Allocations to LIRs

  • Where possible ARIN will make subsequent allocations by expanding the existing allocation.
  • An LIR qualifies for a subsequent allocation if they meet any of the following criteria:
  • Shows utilization of 75% or more of their total address space
  • Shows utilization of more than 90% of any serving site
  • Has allocated more than 90% of their total address space to serving sites, with the block size allocated to each serving site being justified based on the criteria specified in section 6.5.2
  • If ARIN can not expand one or more existing allocations, ARIN shall make a new allocation based on the initial allocation criteria above. The LIR is encouraged, but not required to renumber into the new allocation over time and return any allocations no longer in use.
  • If an LIR has already reached a /12 or more, ARIN will allocate a single additional /12 rather than continue expanding nibble boundaries.

6.5.3.1. Subsequent Allocations for Transition

Subsequent allocations will also be considered for deployments that cannot be accommodated by, nor were accounted for, under the initial allocation. Justification for the subsequent subnet size will be based on the plan and technology provided with a /24 being the maximum allowed for a transition technology. Justification for transitional allocations will be reviewed every 3 years and reclaimed if they are no longer in use for transitional purposes. All such allocations for transitional technology will be made from a block designated for this purpose.

6.5.4. Reassignments from LIRs/ISPs

Reassignments to end users shall be governed by the same practices adopted by the community in section 6.5.8 except that the requirements in 6.5.8.1 do not apply.

6.5.4.1. Reassignment to Operator’s Infrastructure

An LIR may reassign up to a /48 per PoP as well as up to an additional /48 globally for its own infrastructure.

6.5.5. Registration

ISPs are required to demonstrate efficient use of IP address space allocations by providing appropriate documentation, including but not limited to reassignment and reallocation histories, showing their efficient use.

6.5.5.1. Reassignment Information

Each static IPv6 reassignment or reallocation containing a /47 or more addresses, or subdelegation of any size that will be individually announced, shall be registered in the WHOIS directory via SWIP or a distributed service which meets the standards set forth in section 3.2. Reassignment and reallocation registrations shall include each client’s organizational information, except where specifically exempted by this policy.

6.5.5.2. Reassignments and Reallocations Visible Within Seven Days

All reassignments and reallocations shall be made visible as required in section 6.5.5.1 within seven calendar days of reassignment or reallocation.

6.5.5.3. Residential Subscribers

6.5.5.3.1. residential customer privacy.

To maintain the privacy of their residential customers, an organization with downstream residential customers may substitute that organization’s name for the customer’s name, e.g. ‘Private Customer - XYZ Network’, and the customer’s street address may read ‘Private Residence’. Each private downstream residential reassignment must have accurate upstream Abuse and Technical POCs visible on the WHOIS or Distributed Information Service record for that block.

6.5.5.4. Registration Requested by Recipient

If the downstream recipient of a static assignment of /64 or more addresses requests publishing of that assignment in ARIN’s registration database, the ISP shall register that assignment as described in section 6.5.5.1.

6.5.6. [Retired]

6.5.7. existing ipv6 address space holders.

LIRs which received an allocation under previous policies which is smaller than what they are entitled to under this policy may receive a new initial allocation under this policy. If possible, ARIN will expand their existing allocation.

6.5.8. Direct Assignments from ARIN to End-user Organizations

6.5.8.1. initial assignment criteria.

Organizations may justify an initial assignment for addressing devices directly attached to their own network infrastructure, with an intent for the addresses to begin operational use within 12 months, by meeting one of the following criteria:

  • Having a previously justified IPv4 end-user assignment from ARIN or one of its predecessor registries, or;
  • Currently being IPv6 Multihomed or immediately becoming IPv6 Multihomed and using an assigned valid global AS number, or;
  • By having a network that makes active use of a minimum of 2000 IPv6 addresses within 12 months, or;
  • By having a network that makes active use of a minimum of 200 /64 subnets within 12 months, or;
  • By having a contiguous network that has a minimum of 13 active sites within 12 months, or;
  • By providing a reasonable technical justification indicating why IPv6 addresses from an ISP or other LIR are unsuitable.

Examples of justifications for why addresses from an ISP or other LIR may be unsuitable include, but are not limited to:

  • An organization that operates infrastructure critical to life safety or the functioning of society can justify the need for an assignment based on the fact that renumbering would have a broader than expected impact than simply the number of hosts directly involved. These would include: hospitals, fire fighting, police, emergency response, power or energy distribution, water or waste treatment, traffic management and control, etc.
  • Regardless of the number of hosts directly involved, an organization can justify the need for an assignment if renumbering would affect 2000 or more individuals either internal or external to the organization.
  • An organization with a network not connected to the Internet can justify the need for an assignment by documenting a need for guaranteed uniqueness, beyond the statistical uniqueness provided by ULA (see RFC 4193).
  • An organization with a network not connected to the Internet, such as a VPN overlay network, can justify the need for an assignment if they require authoritative delegation of reverse DNS.

6.5.8.2. Initial Assignment Size

Organizations that meet at least one of the initial assignment criteria above are eligible to receive an initial assignment of /48. Requests for larger initial assignments, reasonably justified with supporting documentation, will be evaluated based on the number of sites in an organization’s network and the number of subnets needed to support any extra-large sites defined below.

The initial assignment size will be determined by the number of sites justified below. An organization qualifies for an assignment on the next larger nibble boundary when their sites exceed 75% of the /48s available in a prefix. For example:

More than 1 but less than or equal to 12 sites justified, receives a /44 assignment;

More than 12 but less than or equal to 192 sites justified, receives a /40 assignment;

More than 192 but less than or equal to 3,072 sites justified, receives a /36 assignment;

More than 3,072 but less than or equal to 49,152 sites justified, receives a /32 assignment; etc…

6.5.8.2.1. Standard Sites

A site is a discrete location that is part of an organization’s network. A campus with multiple buildings may be considered as one or multiple sites, based on the implementation of its network infrastructure. For a campus to be considered as multiple sites, reasonable technical documentation must be submitted describing how the network infrastructure is implemented in a manner equivalent to multiple sites.

An organization may request up to a /48 for each site in its network, and any sites that will be operational within 12 months.

6.5.8.2.2. Extra-large Sites

In rare cases, an organization may request more than a /48 for an extra-large site which requires more than 16,384 /64 subnets. In such a case, a detailed subnet plan must be submitted for each extra-large site in an organization’s network. An extra-large site qualifies for the next larger prefix when the total subnet utilization exceeds 25%. Each extra-large site will be counted as an equivalent number of /48 standard sites.

6.5.8.3. Subsequent Assignments

Requests for subsequent assignments with supporting documentation will be evaluated based on the same criteria as an initial assignment under 6.5.8.2 with the following modifications:

  • A subsequent assignment is justified when the total utilization based on the number of sites justified exceeds 75% across all of an organization’s assignments. If the organization received an assignment per section 6.11 IPv6 Multiple Discrete Networks, such assignments will be evaluated as if they were to a separate organization.
  • When possible subsequent assignments will result it the expansion of an existing assignment by one or more nibble boundaries as justified.
  • If it is not possible to expand an existing assignment, or to expand it adequately to meet the justified need, then a separate new assignment will be made of the size justified.

6.5.8.4. Consolidation and Return of Separate Assignments

Organizations with multiple separate assignments should consolidate into a single aggregate, if feasible. If an organization stops using one or more of its separate assignments, any unused assignments must be returned to ARIN.

6.5.9. Community Network Allocations

While community networks would normally be considered to be ISP type organizations under existing ARIN criteria, they tend to operate on much tighter budgets and often depend on volunteer labor. As a result, they tend to be much smaller and more communal in their organization rather than provider/customer relationships of commercial ISPs. This section seeks to provide a policy that is more friendly to those environments by allowing community network to receive a smaller allocation than other LIRs or commercial ISPs.

Community networks may also qualify under section 6.5.2 as a regular LIR.

6.5.9.1. Qualification Criteria

To qualify under this section, a community network must demonstrate to ARIN’s satisfaction that it meets the definition of a community network under section 2.11 of the NRPM.

6.5.9.2. Allocation Size

Community networks are eligible only to receive an allocation of /40 of IPv6 resources under this section. Community networks that wish to receive a larger initial allocation or any subsequent allocations must qualify as a regular LIR, see sections 6.5.2 or 6.5.3 respectively.

6.5.9.3. Reassignments by Community Networks

Similar to other LIRs, Community networks shall make reassignments to end-users in accordance with applicable policies, in particular, but not limited to sections 6.5.4 and 6.5.5. However, they shall not reallocate resources under this section.

6.6., 6.7., 6.8., 6.9. [Retired]

6.10. micro-allocations, 6.10.1. micro-allocations for critical infrastructure.

ARIN will make micro-allocations to critical infrastructure providers of the Internet, including public exchange points, core DNS service providers (e.g. ICANN-sanctioned root, gTLD, and ccTLD operators) as well as the RIRs and IANA. These allocations will be no longer than a /48. Multiple allocations may be granted in certain situations. - Exchange point allocations MUST be allocated from specific blocks reserved only for this purpose. All other micro-allocations WILL be allocated out of other blocks reserved for micro-allocation purposes. ARIN will make a list of these blocks publicly available. - Exchange point operators must provide justification for the allocation, including: connection policy, location, other participants (minimum of two total), ASN, and contact information. Organizations receiving these micro-allocations will be charged under the organizations fee schedule. This policy does not preclude exchange point operators from requesting address space under other policies.

6.10.2. Micro-allocations for Internal Infrastructure

Organizations that currently hold IPv6 allocations may apply for a micro-allocation for internal infrastructure. Applicant must provide technical justification indicating why a separate non-routed block is required. Justification must include why a sub-allocation of currently held IP space cannot be utilized. Internal infrastructure allocations must be allocated from specific blocks reserved only for this purpose.

6.11. IPv6 Multiple Discrete Networks

Organizations with multiple discrete IPv6 networks desiring to request new or additional address space under a single Organization ID must meet the following criteria:

  • Requests for additional space:
  • Organization must specify on the application which discrete network(s) the request applies to
  • Each network will be judged against the existing utilization criteria specified in 6.5.2 and 6.5.3 as if it were a separate organization, rather than collectively as would be done for requests outside of this policy.

7. [Retired]

8. transfers, 8.1. principles.

Number resources are nontransferable and are not assignable to any other organization unless ARIN has expressly and in writing approved a request for transfer. ARIN is tasked with making prudent decisions on whether to approve the transfer of number resources.

It should be understood that number resources are not ‘sold’ under ARIN administration. Rather, number resources are assigned to an organization for its exclusive use for the purpose stated in the request, provided the terms of the Registration Services Agreement continue to be met and the stated purpose for the number resources remains the same. Number resources are administered and assigned according to ARIN’s published policies.

Number resources are issued, based on justified need, to organizations, not to individuals representing those organizations. Thus, if a company goes out of business, regardless of the reason, the point of contact (POC) listed for the number resource does not have the authority to sell, transfer, assign, or give the number resource to any other person or organization. The POC must notify ARIN if a business fails so the assigned number resources can be returned to the available pool of number resources if a transfer is not requested and justified.

8.2. Mergers, Acquisitions, and Reorganizations

ARIN will consider requests for the transfer of number resources in the case of mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations under the following conditions:

  • The current registrant must not be involved in any dispute as to the status of the resources to be transferred.
  • The new entity must sign an RSA covering all resources to be transferred.
  • The resources to be transferred will be subject to ARIN policies.
  • The minimum transfer size is the smaller of the original allocation size or the applicable minimum allocation size in current policy.
  • The Internet number resources being transferred as part of a transfer under section 8.2 will not be subject to a needs-based assessment during the process of the transfer.

AND one or more of the following:

  • The recipient must provide evidence that it has acquired the assets that use the resources to be transferred from the current registrant.
  • The recipient must show that it has acquired the entire entity which is the current registrant.

An organization which serves as the source of an IPv4 under section 8.2 will not be allowed to apply for IPv4 address space under section 4.1.8 ARIN Waitlist for a period of 36 months following said transfer unless the recipient organization remains a subsidiary, parent company, or under common ownership with the source organization.

Mergers, acquisitions, and reorganization activity resulting in the surviving entity ceasing to have a real and substantial connection with the ARIN region shall be permitted to continue holding any numbering resources issued (directly or indirectly) by ARIN prior to the merger, acquisition or reorganization activity, but shall not qualify for any additional numbering resources (directly or indirectly) from ARIN, unless and until it once again has a real and substantial connection with the ARIN region as required by the Numbering Resource Policy Manual.

8.3. Transfers Between Specified Recipients Within the ARIN Region

In addition to transfers under section 8.2, IPv4 addresses and ASNs may be transferred according to the following conditions.

Conditions on source of the transfer:

  • The source entity must be the current registered holder of the IPv4 addresses or ASNs, and not be involved in any dispute as to the status of those resources.
  • With the exception of M&A transfers under section 8.2, the source entity must not have received a transfer, allocation, or assignment from ARIN for the past 12 months. This requirement may be waived by ARIN for transfers made in connection with a renumbering exercise designed to more efficiently utilize number resources under section 8.5.5.1.
  • Address resources from a reserved pool (including those designated in Section 4.4 and 4.10) are not eligible for transfer.
  • The source entity will not be allowed to apply for IPv4 address space under Section 4.1.8. ARIN Waitlist for a period of 36 months following the transfer of IPv4 address resources to another party.

Conditions on recipient of the transfer:

  • The recipients must meet the transfer requirements as defined in section 8.5.
  • The resources transferred will be subject to current ARIN policies.
  • If applicable the recipient will be removed from the ARIN Waitlist and will not be allowed to reapply under section 4.1.8. ARIN Waitlist for a period of 90 days.

8.4. Inter-RIR Transfers to Specified Recipients

Inter-regional transfers of IPv4 addresses or ASNs may take place only via RIRs who agree to the transfer and share reciprocal, compatible needs-based policies.

  • The source entity must be the current rights holder of the IPv4 addresses or ASN recognized by the RIR responsible for the resources, and not be involved in any dispute as to the status of those resources.
  • Source entities outside of the ARIN region must meet any requirements defined by the RIR where the source entity holds the registration.
  • The conditions on a recipient outside of the ARIN region will be defined by the policies of the receiving RIR.
  • Specified recipients within the ARIN region must meet the transfer requirements as defined in section 8.5.
  • Recipients within the ARIN region will be subject to current ARIN policies.

8.5. Specified Transfer Recipient Requirements

8.5.1. registration services agreement.

The receiving entity must sign an RSA covering all resources to be transferred unless that entity has a current (within the last two versions) RSA on file.

8.5.2 Operational Use

ARIN allocates or assigns number resources to organizations via transfer solely for the purpose of use on an operational network.

8.5.3. Minimum Transfer Size

ARIN’s minimum IPv4 transfer size is a /24.

8.5.4. Initial Block

Organizations without direct assignments or allocations from ARIN qualify for transfer of an initial IPv4 block of ARIN’s minimum transfer size.

8.5.5. Block Size

Organizations may qualify for the transfer of a larger initial block, or an additional block, by providing documentation to ARIN which details the use of at least 50% of the requested IPv4 block size within 24 months.

8.5.5.1. Transfer for the Purpose of Renumbering

Organizations with larger direct allocations or assignments than they require may receive transfer of a smaller block for the purpose of renumbering onto the smaller block if they transfer the entire larger block to a qualified recipient under section 8 within one year of receipt of transfer of the smaller block. If the larger block is not transferred within one year of receipt of the smaller block, the organization will be ineligible to receive any further transfers under this section until the larger block is transferred.

8.5.5.1.1 Smaller Block Size

Organizations may qualify to receive transfer of a smaller block by providing documentation to ARIN which details the use of at least 50% of the smaller block size within 24 months. Current use of the larger block may be used to satisfy this criteria.

8.5.6. Efficient Utilization of Previous Blocks

Organizations with direct assignments or allocations from ARIN must have efficiently utilized at least 50% of their cumulative IPv4 address blocks in order to receive additional IPv4 addresses. This includes all IPv4 space reassigned to their customers.

8.5.6.1 Transfer for the Purpose of Renumbering

Organizations receiving transfer of a smaller block under section 8.5.5.1 may deduct the larger block they are transferring to a qualified recipient when calculating their efficient utilization of previous blocks under section 8.5.6.

8.5.7. Alternative Additional IPv4 Address Block Criteria

Organizations may qualify for additional IPv4 address blocks by demonstrating 80% utilization of their currently allocated space. In organizations operating multiple discrete networks, each discrete network may be assessed individually for the 80% utilization threshold. To qualify under this policy, the organization must provide justification that each network is discrete, per the criteria described in section 4.5. Each discrete network must meet the projection requirements in section 8.5.5, and each discrete network for which IP addresses are requested must meet the utilization requirements in section 8.5.6. Organizations may receive one or more transfers up to the total size of their current ARIN IPv4 address holdings, up to a maximum size of /16.

An organization may qualify via section 8.5.7 for a total of a /16 equivalent in any 6 month period.

8.6. Wait List Restrictions

Any organization which is on the wait list and submits a request to be the source of a transfer under any provision in section 8 will be removed from the wait list.

9. Out of Region Use

ARIN registered resources may be used outside the ARIN service region. Out of region use of ARIN registered resources are valid justification for additional number resources, provided that the applicant has a real and substantial connection with the ARIN region which applicant must prove (as described below) and is using the same type of resources (with a delegation lineage back to an ARIN allocation or assignment) within the ARIN service region as follows:

  • IPv4: At least a /22 used in region
  • IPv6: At least a /44 used in region
  • ASN: At least one ASN present on one or more peering sessions and/or routers within the region.

A real and substantial connection shall be defined as carrying on business in the ARIN region in a meaningful manner. The determination as to whether an entity is carrying on business in the ARIN region in a meaningful manner shall be made by ARIN. Simply being incorporated in the ARIN region shall not be sufficient, on its own, to prove that an entity is carrying on business in the ARIN region in a meaningful manner. Methods that entities may consider using, including cumulatively, to prove that they are carrying on business in the ARIN region in a meaningful manner include:

  • Demonstrating a physical presence in the ARIN region through a bricks and mortar location that is actually used for the purposes of conducting business in the ARIN region in a meaningful manner. That is to say, the location is not merely a registered office that serves no other business purpose.
  • Demonstrating that the entity has staff in the ARIN region. The greater the number of staff, the stronger this connecting factor is.
  • Demonstrating that the entity holds assets in the ARIN region. The greater the asset value, the stronger this connecting factor is.
  • Demonstrating that the entity provides services to and solicits sales from residents of the ARIN region.
  • Demonstrating that the entity holds periodic meetings in the ARIN region.
  • Demonstrating that the entity raises investment capital from investors in the ARIN region.
  • Demonstrating that the entity has a registered corporation in the ARIN region, although this factor on its own shall not be sufficient.
  • Other fact based criterion that the entity considers appropriate and submits for ARIN’s review.

The weight accorded to any of the above-noted factors, if any, shall be determined solely by ARIN.

The services and facilities used to justify the need for ARIN resources that will be used out of region cannot also be used to justify resource requests from another RIR. When a request for resources from ARIN is justified by need located within another RIR’s service region, an officer of the application must attest that the same services and facilities have not been used as the basis for a resource request in the other region(s). ARIN reserves the right to obtain from the applicant a listing of all the applicant’s number holdings in the region(s) of proposed use, when there are factual reasons to support the request.

10. Global Number Resource Policy

10.1. iana to rir allocation of ipv4 address space.

This document describes the policies governing the allocation of IPv4 address space from the IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). This document does not stipulate performance requirements in the provision of services by IANA to an RIR in accordance with these policies. Such requirements should be specified by appropriate agreements among the RIRs and ICANN.

1. Allocation Principles

  • The IANA will allocate IPv4 address space to the RIRs in /8 units.
  • The IANA will allocate sufficient IPv4 address space to the RIRs to support their registration needs for at least an 18 month period.
  • The IANA will allow for the RIRs to apply their own respective chosen allocation and reservation strategies in order to ensure the efficiency and efficacy of their work.

2. Initial Allocations

Each new RIR shall, at the moment of recognition, be allocated a new /8 by the IANA. This allocation will be made regardless of the newly formed RIR’s projected utilization figures and shall be independent of the IPv4 address space that may have been transferred to the new RIR by the already existing RIRs as part of the formal transition process.

3. Additional Allocations

A RIR is eligible to receive additional IPv4 address space from the IANA when either of the following conditions are met.

  • The RIR’s AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv4 addresses is less than 50% of a /8 block.
  • The RIR’s AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv4 addresses is less than its established NECESSARY SPACE for the following 9 months.

In either case, IANA shall make a single allocation of a whole number of /8 blocks, sufficient to satisfy the established NECESSARY SPACE of the RIR for an 18 month period.

3.1 Calculation of AVAILABLE SPACE

The AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv4 addresses of a RIR shall be determined as follows:

AVAILABLE SPACE = CURRENTLY FREE ADDRESSES + RESERVATIONS EXPIRING DURING THE FOLLOWING 3 MONTHS - FRAGMENTED SPACE

FRAGMENTED SPACE is determined as the total amount of available blocks smaller than the RIR’s minimum allocation size within the RIR’s currently available stock.

3.2 Calculation of NECESSARY SPACE

If the applying Regional Internet Registry does not establish any special needs for the period concerned, NECESSARY SPACE shall be determined as follows:

NECESSARY SPACE = AVERAGE NUMBER OF ADDRESSES ALLOCATED MONTHLY DURING THE PAST 6 MONTHS * LENGTH OF PERIOD IN MONTHS

If the applying RIR anticipates that due to certain special needs the rate of allocation for the period concerned will be greater than the previous 6 months, it may determine its NECESSARY SPACE as follows:

A) Calculate NECESSARY SPACE as its total needs for that period according to its projection and based on the special facts that justify these needs.

B) Submit a clear and detailed justification of the above mentioned projection (Item A).

If the justification is based on the allocation tendency prepared by the Regional Internet Registry, data explaining said tendency must be enclosed.

If the justification is based on the application of one or more of the Regional Internet Registry’s new allocation policies, an impact analysis of the new policy/policies must be enclosed.

If the justification is based on external factors such as new infrastructure, new services within the region, technological advances or legal issues, the corresponding analysis must be enclosed together with references to information sources that will allow verification of the data.

If IANA does not have elements that clearly question the Regional Internet Registry’s projection, the special needs projected for the following 18 months, indicated in Item A above, shall be considered valid.

4. Announcement of IANA Allocations

When address space is allocated to a RIR, the IANA will send a detailed announcement to the receiving RIR. The IANA will also make announcements to all other RIRs, informing them of the recent allocation. The RIRs will coordinate announcements to their respective membership lists and any other lists they deem necessary.

The IANA will make appropriate modifications to the “Internet Protocol V4 Address Space” page of the IANA website and may make announcements to its own appropriate announcement lists. The IANA announcements will be limited to which address ranges, the time of allocation and to which Registry they have been allocated.

10.2. Allocation of IPv6 Address Space by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Policy to Regional Internet Registries

This document describes the policy governing the allocation of IPv6 address space from the IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). This document does not stipulate performance requirements in the provision of services by IANA to an RIR in accordance with this policy. Such requirements will be specified by appropriate agreements between ICANN and the NRO.

  • The unit of IPv6 allocation (and therefore the minimum IPv6 allocation) from IANA to an RIR is a /12
  • The IANA will allocate sufficient IPv6 address space to the RIRs to support their registration needs for at least an 18 month period.
  • On inception of this policy, each current RIR with less than a /12 unallocated address space, shall receive an IPv6 allocation from IANA
  • Any new RIR shall, on recognition by ICANN receive an IPv6 allocation from the IANA

A RIR is eligible to receive additional IPv6 address space from the IANA when either of the following conditions are met.

  • The RIR’s AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv6 addresses is less than 50% of a /12.
  • The RIR’s AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv6 addresses is less than its established NECESSARY SPACE for the following 9 months.

In either case, IANA shall make a single IPv6 allocation, sufficient to satisfy the established NECESSARY SPACE of the RIR for an 18 month period.

The AVAILABLE SPACE of IPv6 addresses of a RIR shall be determined as follows:

If the applying RIR anticipates that due to certain special needs the rate of allocation for the period concerned will be different from the previous 6 months, it may determine its NECESSARY SPACE as follows:

Calculate NECESSARY SPACE as its total needs for that period according to its projection and based on the special facts that justify these needs.

Submit a clear and detailed justification of the above mentioned projection (Item A).

The IANA, the NRO, and the RIRs will make announcements and update their respective web sites regarding an allocation made by the IANA to an RIR. ICANN and the NRO will establish administrative procedures to manage this process.

10.3. IANA Policy for Allocation of ASN Blocks to RIRs

This document describes the policy governing the allocation of Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) from the IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

This policy document does not stipulate performance requirements in the provision of services by the IANA to an RIR. Such requirements will be specified by appropriate agreements between ICANN and the Number Resource Organization (NRO).

IANA allocates ASNs to RIRs in blocks of 1024 ASNs. In this document the term “ASN block” refers to a set of 1024 ASNs. Until 31 December 2010, allocations of 2-byte only and 4-byte only ASN blocks will be made separately and independent of each other.

This means until 31 December 2010, RIRs can receive two separate ASN blocks, one for 2-byte only ASNs and one for 4-byte only ASNs from the IANA under this policy. After this date, IANA and the RIRs will cease to make any distinction between 2-byte only and 4-byte only ASNs, and will operate ASN allocations from an undifferentiated 4-byte ASN allocation pool.

Each new RIR will be allocated a new ASN block.

An RIR is eligible to receive (an) additional ASN block(s) from the IANA if one of the following conditions is met:

  • The RIR has assigned/allocated 80% of the previously received ASN block, or
  • The number of free ASNs currently held by the RIR is less than two months need. This projection is based on the monthly average number of ASNs assigned/allocated by the RIR over the previous six months.

An RIR will be allocated as many ASN blocks as are needed to support their registration needs for the next 12 months, based on their average assignment/allocation rate over the previous six months, unless the RIR specifically requests fewer blocks than it qualifies for.

The IANA, the NRO and the RIRs will make announcements and update their respective websites/databases when an allocation is made by the IANA to an RIR. ICANN and the NRO will establish administrative procedures to manage this process.

10.4. Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space

This policy describes the process for the allocation of the remaining IPv4 space from IANA to the RIRs. When a minimum amount of available space is reached, one /8 will be allocated from IANA to each RIR, replacing the current IPv4 allocation policy.

In order to fulfill the requirements of this policy, at the time it is adopted, one /8 will be reserved by IANA for each RIR. The reserved allocation units will no longer be part of the available space at the IANA pool. IANA will also reserve one /8 to any new RIR at the time it is recognized.

The process for the allocation of the remaining IPv4 space is divided in two consecutive phases:

10.4.1. Existing Policy Phase

During this phase IANA will continue allocating IPv4 addresses to the RIRs using the existing allocation policy. This phase will continue until a request for IPv4 address space from any RIR to IANA either cannot be fulfilled with the remaining IPv4 space available at the IANA pool or can be fulfilled but leaving the IANA remaining IPv4 pool empty.

This will be the last IPv4 address space request that IANA will accept from any RIR. At this point the next phase of the process (Exhaustion Phase) will be initiated.

10.4.2. Exhaustion Phase

During this phase IANA will automatically allocate the reserved IPv4 allocation units to each RIR (one /8 to each one) and respond to the last request with the remaining available allocation units at the IANA pool (M units).

10.4.2.1. Size of the Final IPv4 Allocations

In this phase IANA will automatically allocate one /8 to each RIR from the reserved space as defined in this policy. IANA will also allocate M allocation units to the RIR that submitted the last request for IPv4 addresses.

10.4.2.2. Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space

After the completion of the evaluation of the final request for IPv4 addresses, IANA MUST:

  • Immediately notify the NRO about the activation of the second phase (Exhaustion Phase) of this policy.
  • Proceed to allocate M allocation units to the RIR that submitted the last request for IPv4 address space.
  • Proceed to allocate one /8 to each RIR from the reserved space.

10.5. Global Policy for Post Exhaustion IPv4 Allocation Mechanisms by the IANA

The IANA shall establish a Recovered IPv4 Pool to be utilized post RIR IPv4 exhaustion. The Recovered IPv4 Pool will initially contain any fragments that may be left over in the IANA. It will also hold any space returned to the IANA by any other means.

The Recovered IPv4 Pool will be administered by the IANA. It will contain:

a. Any fragments left over in the IANA inventory after the last /8s of IPv4 space are delegated to the RIRs

  • The IANA inventory excludes “Special use IPv4 addresses” as defined in BCP 153 and any addresses allocated by the IANA for experimental use.

b. Any IPv4 space returned to the IANA by any means.

The Recovered IPv4 Pool will stay inactive until the first RIR has less than a total of a /9 in its inventory of IPv4 address space. When one of the RIRs declares it has less than a total of a /9 in its inventory, the Recovered IPv4 pool will be declared active, and IP addresses from the Recovered IPv4 Pool will be allocated as follows:

a. Allocations from the IANA may begin once the pool is declared active.

b. In each “IPv4 allocation period”, each RIR will receive a single “IPv4 allocation unit” from the IANA.

c. An “IPv4 allocation period” is defined as a 6-month period following 1 March or 1 September in each year.

d. The IANA will calculate the size of the “IPv4 allocation unit” at the following times:

  • When the Recovered IPv4 Pool is first activated
  • At the beginning of each IPv4 allocation period

To calculate the “IPv4 allocation unit” at these times, the IANA will use the following formula:

IPv4 allocation unit = 1/5 of Recovered IPv4 pool, rounded down to the next CIDR (power-of-2) boundary.

No RIR may get more than this calculation used to determine the IPv4 allocation unit even when they can justify a need for it.

The minimum “IPv4 allocation unit” size will be a /24. If the calculation used to determine the IPv4 allocation unit results in a block smaller than a /24, the IANA will not distribute any addresses in that IPv4 allocation period.

The IANA may make public announcements of IPv4 address transactions that occur under this policy. The IANA will make appropriate modifications to the “Internet Protocol V4 Address Space” page of the IANA website and may make announcements to its own appropriate announcement lists. The IANA announcements will be limited to which address ranges, the time of allocation, and to which Registry they have been allocated.

11. Experimental Internet Resource Allocations

ARIN will allocate Internet Number Resources to organizations requiring temporary Internet Number Resources for a fixed period of time under the terms of a recognized experimental activity.

11.1. Eligibility Criteria for Recognized Experimental Activity

The eligibility criteria for a recognized experimental activity under this policy are:

  • The experiment’s description and objectives are published in a publicly accessible document, which for the purposes of this policy means that the document is readily available free of charge to the public, and free of any constraints of disclosure within one year after the end of the experiment;
  • The experiment’s outcomes must also be published in a publicly accessible document;
  • Demonstration to ARIN that the experimental activity is technically sound; and
  • Demonstration to ARIN that the experimental activity is technically coordinated in that consideration of any potential negative impact of the proposed experiment on the operation of the Internet and its deployed services has been considered, and a description of experimenter mitigation plans to contain any negative impacts has been provided.

11.2. [Retired]

11.3. [retired], 11.4. resource allocation term and renewal.

The Internet Number Resources are allocated for a period of one year under this policy. The allocation can be renewed on application to ARIN, prior to the expiry of the one-year period, providing information as to why an extension is necessary for a successful experiment. The resources allocated under this policy must be returned to ARIN at the earliest of: (1) the recognized experimental activity has ended; or (2) the end of the one-year period and any extension thereof.

11.5. Single Resource Allocation per Experiment

ARIN will make only one allocation per recognized experiment. An allocation may consist of multiple Internet Number Resources if required to conduct the recognized activity. Additional allocations to an organization already holding experimental activity resources will not be made under this policy unless justified by a subsequent complete application relating to a different experimental activity.

11.6. [Retired]

11.7. resource allocation guidelines.

The Internet Number Resources requested come from the global Internet Number Resource space, shall not overlap any currently assigned space, and shall not be from private or other non-routable Internet Number Resource space. The allocation size shall be consistent with existing ARIN minimum allocation sizes, unless smaller allocations are explicitly required due to the nature of the experiment. If an organization requires more resources than stipulated by the minimum allocation size in force at the time of its request, the request must clearly describe and justify why a larger allocation is required. All research allocations must be registered publicly in ARIN’s directory services. Each research allocation will be designated as a research allocation with a comment indicating when the allocation will end.

11.8. Commercial Use Prohibited

If there is any evidence that the temporary resource is being used for commercial purposes or is being used for any activities not documented in the original experiment description provided to ARIN, ARIN reserves the right to immediately withdraw the resource.

11.9. [Retired]

12. resource review.

  • ARIN may review the current usage of any resources maintained in the ARIN database. The organization shall cooperate with any request from ARIN for reasonable related documentation.
  • when any new resource is requested,
  • whenever ARIN has reason to believe that the resources were originally obtained fraudulently or in contravention of existing policy, or
  • whenever ARIN has reason to believe that an organization is not complying with reassignment or reallocation policies, or
  • at any other time without having to establish cause unless a full review has been completed in the preceding 24 months.
  • At the conclusion of a review in which ARIN has solicited information from the resource holder, ARIN shall communicate to the resource holder that the review has been concluded and what, if any, further actions are required.
  • The degree to which an organization may remain out of compliance shall be based on the reasonable judgment of the ARIN staff and shall balance all facts known, including the organization’s utilization rate, available address pool, and other factors as appropriate so as to avoid forcing returns which will result in near-term additional requests or unnecessary route de-aggregation.
  • To the extent possible, entire blocks should be returned. Partial address blocks shall be returned in such a way that the portion retained will comprise a single aggregate block.
  • If the organization does not voluntarily return resources as requested, ARIN may revoke any resources issued by ARIN as required to bring the organization into overall compliance. ARIN shall follow the same guidelines for revocation that are required for voluntary return in the previous paragraph.
  • Except in cases of fraud, or violations of policy, an organization shall be given a minimum of six months to effect a return. ARIN shall negotiate a longer term with the organization if ARIN believes the organization is working in good faith to substantially restore compliance and has a valid need for additional time to renumber out of the affected blocks.
  • In case of a return under paragraphs 12.4 through 12.6, ARIN shall continue to provide services for the resource(s) while their return or revocation is pending, except any maintenance fees assessed during that period shall be calculated as if the return or revocation was complete.
  • This policy does not create any additional authority for ARIN to revoke legacy address space. However, the utilization of legacy resources shall be considered during a review to assess overall compliance.
  • In considering compliance with policies which allow a timeframe (such as a requirement to assign some number of prefixes within 5 years), failure to comply cannot be measured until after the timeframe specified in the applicable policy has elapsed. Blocks subject to such a policy shall be assumed in compliance with that policy until such time as the specified time since issuance has elapsed.

Appendix A - Change Log

The Change Log can be found at:

https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/nrpm/changelog/

  • Number Resource Policy Manual Appendix A: Change Log
  • Text Version

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What does IP address assignment actually mean?

I don't understand when it said organization like IANA 'assign' block of IP address to RIRs. I mean did they just write this block belong to this RIR, this other block belong to that RIR, etc... and RIRs like "Yeah, when we send packages to other RIR server, we won't send if its source IP (the IP that send this packages) not within our IP block assigned by IANA and we definitely won't break that law". Or IANA have RIRs connect to IANA's servers and won't send packages to other RIR if their packages not follow the rule and assigned block range.

ab ab's user avatar

  • Did any answer help you? if so, you should accept the answer so that the question does not keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you could post and accept your own answer. –  Ron Maupin ♦ Commented Dec 23, 2021 at 20:06

2 Answers 2

There are a number of misunderstandings in your question:

Did they just write this block belong to this RIR, this other block belong to that RIR, etc...

That is all that the IANA does (at least in respect of IP blocks), it does not have servers or routers that manage transfer of data to or from said IP blocks.

and RIRs like "Yeah, when we send packages to other RIR server, we won't send if its source IP (the IP that send this packages) not within our IP block assigned by IANA and we definitely won't break that law". Or IANA have RIRs connect to IANA's servers and won't send packages to other RIR if their packages not follow the rule and assigned block range.

RIRs just sub-divide the blocks and hand them out, they also don't have equipment on those blocks. So the whole question is a complete fallacy, neither IANA nor the RIRs facilitate data transfer, and are not directly responsible for route publication.

By the way, the term is packets , not packages , when referring to data moving on an IP network.

But let us assume what you actually mean, is "what stops anyone attempting to publicize IP ranges that don't belong to them over BGP?" BGP being the mechanism widely used to pass routes between different autonomous networks (ASNs).

The answer is lies in turning the question on its head: what allows them to publish routes in the first place?

Routes to IP blocks are published over BGP from your border routers (the ones that connect to other networks). The routes need to be passed over existing BGP sessions, so you already need to have sessions with other routers. This will typically be paid-transit ISPs or free-peering networks.

For them to accept your routes, you will have contractual obligations that say what you can and cannot do. They will then set up their routers to accept a BGP session. The other network will typically have some kind of filtering in place (for example RPKI) to prevent route spoofing.

If the other network does not have filtering mechanisms in place, then there is nothing to stop anyone publicizing a route for anyone else's IP ranges. This is called BGP hijacking , and is something that has been done accidentally and maliciously in the past, and something which networks are trying to prevent.

Charlieface's user avatar

The assignment means " you may use addresses from this block/prefix on the open Internet ".

Your ISP may require you to provide proof of assignment before announcing the prefix. Then that block prefix is announced on the open Internet, informing the other routers where your packets should be routed to.

If you're peering yourself with your own ASN and BGP routers, there's no further checking and you can announce the prefix on your border gateways. Of course, there may be filtering by your peers, so they may or may not accept a prefix announced by you.

If there are conflicting announcements/routes, routing will break - and only then will the delegation chain be checked.

Source addresses aren't that commonly screened, but you won't be able to receive replies for packets sent with a spoofed/non-assigned source address.

Zac67's user avatar

  • What prevent RIRs faking IP address? –  ab ab Commented Jun 18, 2021 at 17:02
  • 1 Contractual obligations. –  Zac67 ♦ Commented Jun 18, 2021 at 21:51

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Why do you need geolocation?

There are several ways to find the geolocation of a user: HTML5 API, Cell Signal, and IP Address to name a few. The pairing of an IP address to a geographical location is the method we used to provide geolocation data. There are times when you need to identify where your web visitors are coming from. You might have an ecommerce website, and would like to know where your potential customers are, pre-populate country codes on forms, display different languages and reduce credit card fraud based on geographic location. Or, you might want to fight against illegal spammers and hackers and would like to locate the sources of a problem.

Although it would be nice to be able to find the precise location of a visitor, it is almost impossible to find the exact location of a host given its IP address . However, there are tools available to help identify the approximate location of the host. ARIN Whois database provides a mechanism for finding contact and registration information for IP resources registered with ARIN.

You may also use 3rd party websites such as Geobytes or Dnsstuff to look up the IP address. The whois lookup will reveal the name of the ISP who owns that IP address, and the country where it originated from. If you're lucky, you might also find the city of origin. You may also use products developed by 3rd-party companies like Ip2location and MaxMind.

You may also use reverse DNS to find out the hostname of the IP address, which might give you some clues. Many ISPs, Corporations, and Academic institutions use location as a qualified hostname, although this is not always true. A couple of things to note here: (1) Reverse DNS translation do not always work. It depends on the correct configuration of the ISP's DNS server. (2) The US domain names such as .com, .net and .org does not always imply that the host is located in the United States.

You may use ' traceroute ' command to find clues to the location of the IP address. The names of the routers through which packets flow from your host to the destination host might hint at the geographical path of the final location.

IP-based Geolocation FAQ

1. what is ip-based geolocation.

IP-based Geolocation is the mapping of an IP address or MAC address to the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computing or a mobile device. Geolocation involves mapping IP addresses to the country, region (city), latitude/longitude, ISP, and domain name among other useful things.

2. Where can I get an IP-based Geolocation database?

There are several commercially available geolocation databases, and their pricing and accuracy may vary. Ip2location, MaxMind, Tamo Soft, DB-IP, Ipinfo, and IPligence offer fee-based databases that can be easily integrated into a web application. Most geolocation database vendors offer APIs and example codes (in ASP, PHP, .NET, and Java programming languages) that can be used to retrieve geolocation data from the database. We use several commercial databases to offer free geolocation data on our website.

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3. How accurate is IP-based Geolocation?

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4. How does IP-based geolocation work?

ARIN Whois database provides a mechanism for finding contact and registration information for IP resources registered with ARIN. The IP whois information is available for free, and determining the country from this database is relatively easy. When an organization requires a block of IP addresses, a request is submitted, and allocated IP addresses are assigned to a requested ISP.

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What is the Routed IP Address Block?

I am helping a new client and received a document with their static IP information. It has their assigned Interface IP block: xx.xx.92.96/30

However, there is another heading: "Routed IP Address Block". xx.xx.95.80/29

What is this routed block for? Thanks for looking.

Edit: I get it now. Traffic to the routed block will be routed to the /30 block, and I could use it for servers, DMZ, etc. This is a small office with no public-facing servers, no externally accessible services, no DMZ, nothing. So it seems unnecessary to have these addresses.

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    Each / 8 block contains 256 3 = 2 24 = 16,777,216 addresses, which covers the whole range of the last three delimited segments of an IP address. This means that 256 /8 address blocks fit into the entire IPv4 space. As IPv4 address exhaustion has advanced to its final stages, some organizations, such as Stanford University, formerly using 36.0.0 ...

  2. IANA IPv4 Address Space Registry

    The allocation of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address space to various registries is listed here. Originally, all the IPv4 address spaces was managed directly by the IANA. Later parts of the address space were allocated to various other registries to manage for particular purposes or regional areas of the world.

  3. IP Lookup Tool

    ABOUT ARIN LOOKUP. This test will query the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) database and tell you who an IP address is registered to. Generally speaking, you will input an IP address and find out what ISP or hosting provider uses that block for its customers. Very large end customers may have there own ARIN allocations.

  4. Number Resources

    We are responsible for global coordination of the Internet Protocol addressing systems, as well as the Autonomous System Numbers used for routing Internet traffic. Currently there are two types of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in active use: IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6). IPv4 was initially deployed on 1 January 1983 and is ...

  5. IP Address Blocks ARIN Issues From

    ARIN (or its predecessor registries) have performed allocation and assignment of IPv4 address blocks from specific address blocks assigned by IANA. The list of IPv4 address blocks is available here on the IANA website. ARIN's free pool of IPv4 address space was depleted on 24 September 2015. As a result, we are no longer fulfilling requests ...

  6. How are IP addresses actually assigned?

    IPs are assigned in blocks by IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIR). See this ( list and map) of the RIRs. The RIRs then lease out smaller blocks IPs to individual companies (usually ISPs). There are requirements (including fees and proof of use) for getting a distribution and failing to maintain these means a loss of lease.

  7. internet

    1. IP addresses are assigned by ICANN, so that won't happen. But there's also a more fundamental reason. IP addresses are used for routing. When a packet comes into a router, it compares the IP address against entries in its routing table, and sends the packet on through the appropriate outgoing line.

  8. Requesting IP Addresses or ASNs

    If requesting a block larger than the minimum assignment, provide documentation justifying the need for additional subnets based on the number of sites in the organization's network within 12 months. Your initial assignment size will be determined by the number of justified sites your network has, for example: 2 - 12 sites: /44; 13 - 192 ...

  9. How are IP addresses assigned?

    When you're connected to a network, your computer or smart device will obtain an IP address either from your ISP or your router. There are 2 ways how you can assign an IP address to your device: (1) dynamically via DHCP or (2) statically by manually assigning an IP address yourself. In either case, you must use the IP address that is provided ...

  10. IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry

    The IETF has reserved the address block of 192.0.0.0/24 for use for. special purposes relating to protocol assignments. This registry. contains the current assignments made by the IETF from this address. block. Address prefixes listed in the Special-Purpose Address Registry are. not guaranteed routability in any particular local or global context.

  11. Understanding IP Addressing and CIDR Charts

    IP addresses are assigned to networks in different sized 'blocks'. The size of the 'block' assigned is written after an oblique (/), which shows the number of IP addresses contained in that block. For example, if an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is assigned a "/16", they receive around 64,000 IPv4 addresses. ...

  12. Understanding IP Address Assignment: A Complete Guide

    In simple terms, an IP address is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It consists of four sets of numbers separated by periods (e.g., 192.168..1) and can be either IPv4 or IPv6 format. IP Address Allocation Methods.

  13. Exploring IP Address Block by Country: A Comprehensive Guide

    Exploring IP Address Blocks by Country: A Comprehensive Guide. Introduction: Understanding the distribution of IP address blocks by country is essential for various purposes, including network administration, cybersecurity, and geo-targeted marketing. IP addresses are assigned to countries in blocks, each block representing a range of addresses ...

  14. IP Netblocks Owner Lookup

    Identify the range an IP address belongs to and all relevant intel on it with IP Netblocks Owner Lookup. ... IP netblocks refer to series or ranges of successive IP addresses that are part of the same block, such as 8.8.8.0-8.8.8.255. RIRs assign IP netblocks to netblock owners, typically ISPs and large enterprises that require a sizable ...

  15. A Short Guide to IP Addressing

    IP addresses are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which has overall responsibility for the Internet Protocol (IP) address pool, and by the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) to which IANA distributes large blocks of addresses. The RIRs manage, distribute, and publicly register IP addresses and related Internet number ...

  16. Major IP Addresses Blocks By Country

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  17. Network Administration: IP Address Blocks

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  18. Number Resource Policy Manual

    ARIN assigns blocks of IP addresses to end-users who request address space for their internal use in running their own networks, but not for sub-delegation of those addresses outside their organization. End-users must meet the requirements described in these guidelines for justifying the assignment of an address block.

  19. What does IP address assignment actually mean?

    2. I don't understand when it said organization like IANA 'assign' block of IP address to RIRs. I mean did they just write this block belong to this RIR, this other block belong to that RIR, etc... and RIRs like "Yeah, when we send packages to other RIR server, we won't send if its source IP (the IP that send this packages) not within our IP ...

  20. What is an IP Block? (/24)

    An IP block is a range of IP addresses assigned to an organization or individual.

  21. IP Address Lookup

    The IP whois information is available for free, and determining the country from this database is relatively easy. When an organization requires a block of IP addresses, a request is submitted, and allocated IP addresses are assigned to a requested ISP.

  22. What is the Routed IP Address Block? : r/networking

    The Routed IP block are the static IPs you would assign directly to servers or NAT'd to individual internal server IPs. Some ISPs have the routed IP block contained in the Interface IP subnet, which is maybe what you're used to seeing. The /30 is the physical connection.