Guidelines - Reporting Reassignment Information

As outlined in the ARIN Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM), organizations that receive IPv4 or IPv6 address space from ARIN directly or as a downstream customer of another organization must provide reassignment information.

ARIN makes allocations based on an organization's utilization history, projected requirements, and other information ARIN deems necessary. Therefore, initial allocations may be relatively small. Likewise, justification for subsequent address blocks is based on the verification of utilization supplied to ARIN in the form of reassignment information.

Information is to be provided to ARIN within seven days of the reassignment so that the WHOIS database may be maintained efficiently. In addition, ARIN may request this information at any time. If the organization does not supply the information, ARIN may withhold future allocations, and in extreme cases existing allocations may be affected.

There are two options for providing reassignment information to ARIN:

Shared WHOIS Project (SWIP)

Organizations use SWIP to submit information about downstream customers’ address space reassignments to ARIN for inclusion in the WHOIS database. Its goal is to ensure the effective and efficient maintenance of records for IP address space.

SWIP is intended to:

Provide information to identify the organizations utilizing each subdelegated IP address block
Provide registration information for each IP address block
Track utilization of allocated IP address blocks to determine if additional allocations may be justified

For IPv4, organizations can use the Reassign-Simple, Reassign-Detailed, Reallocate, and Network-Modification templates to report SWIP information.

Organizations reporting IPv6 reassignment information can use the IPv6 Reassign, IPv6 Reallocate, and IPv6 Modify templates.

Organizations may only submit reassignment data for records within their allocated blocks. ARIN reserves the right to make changes to these records upon the organization's approval. Up to ten (10) templates may be submitted as part of a single e-mail.

Referral WHOIS (RWhois)

RWhois (Referral Whois) is a directory services protocol which extends and enhances the WHOIS concept in a hierarchical and scalable fashion. It focuses on the distribution of "network objects"--the data representing Internet resources or people--and uses the inherently hierarchical nature of these network objects (domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) networks, e-mail addresses) to more accurately discover the requested information.

RWhois synthesizes concepts from other, established Internet protocols to create a more useful way to find resources across the Internet. The RWhois protocol and architecture derive a great deal of structure from the Domain Name System (DNS) [RFC 1034] and borrow directory service concepts from other directory service efforts, primarily [X.500]. The protocol is also influenced by earlier established Internet protocols, such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [RFC 821] for response codes.

ARIN policy establishes requirements for Distributed Information Servers, such as RWhois, including that it be accessible to the public and ARIN staff.

Documentation, source code, and other downloads for RWhois are available at http://www.rwhois.net. Also see RFC 2167.

Reporting Reassignment Information via SWIP

Since ARIN distinguishes reallocations from reassignments, it is important that you submit subdelegation information using the correct template. If you submit reassignment information using the IPv4 Reallocate, IPv6 Reallocate, IPv4 Reassign-Detailed, or IPv6 Reassign templates, the organization must have a unique alphanumeric identifier (an Org ID). An Org ID can be created using the Reallocate or Reassign-Detailed templates or using one of the Org templates.

ARIN requires organizations to submit information for all IPv4 reassignments of /29 and IPv6 reassignments of /56 or shorter prefix within seven days of the subdelegation. Organizations may only submit reassignment data for records within their allocated blocks.

ARIN reserves the right to make changes to these records upon the upstream organization's approval. Up to ten (10) templates may be submitted as part of a single e-mail.

Which templates do I use when reporting via SWIP?

There are a number of IPv4 and IPv6 templates that can be submitted to report reassignment information. They include the following:

IPv4 Net-Mod, IPv6 Net-Mod

Used to change the reverse name servers, network name, or POC handles associated with networks. It can also be used to remove subdelegations.

Network name changes for direct allocations must be submitted by the organization's Administrative or Technical POC. For subdelegations, the template must be submitted by the upstream organization's Administrative or the upstream's Technical POC for the resource. Returns of ARIN-delegated IP addresses must be submitted by the Administrative POC.

If an organization needs to change the POCs associated with a network, the POCs must already exist. To register new POCs in the ARIN database, submit a POC template prior to submitting these templates.

All other modifications including name server changes and the removal of downstream networks are submitted by the Administrative or Technical POC, or the Technical POC for the resource.

IPv4 Reallocate, IPv6 Reallocate

Used to reallocate IP addresses to a downstream organization that can subdelegate address space. Parent organizations can create a new Org ID for the downstream organization. These templates must be submitted by the parent organization's Administrative or Technical POC, or the Technical POC for the resource.

These templates allow the appropriate POCs to create, but not modify, an Org ID and POC.

IPv4 Reassign-Detailed

Used to reassign IPv4 addresses to a downstream organization that can maintain its own reverse name servers via a separate POC. This template allows the parent organization to create an Org ID for the downstream organization. It is submitted by the parent organization's Administrative or Technical POC, or the Technical POC for the resource.

This template will allow you to create, but not modify, an Org ID and POC. Having registered Org IDs for your downstream will facilitate management of these types of sub-delegations.

IPv4 Reassign-Simple

Used to reassign IP addresses to a customer, change an existing customer, or modify the customer's address information. It can also be used to remove simple reassignments. It is submitted by the parent organization's Administrative or Technical POC, or the Technical POC for the resource.

When registering reassignments to residential customers, ARIN policy allows an ISP the option of substituting its own organization name for its customer's name and to use the designator "Private Residence" for the customer's street address. In addition, ISPs should provide their customers’ actual city, state, postal code, and country code.

POCs are not associated with simple reassignments. The customer receiving the reassignment will have the assigning ISP's POCs and name servers.

IPv6 Reassign

Used to reassign IP addresses to a customer, change an existing customer, or modify the customer's address information. It is submitted by the parent organization's Administrative or Technical POC, or the Technical POC for the resource.

When registering reassignments to residential customers, ARIN policy allows an ISP the option of substituting its own organization name for its customer's name and to use the designator "Private Residence" for the customer's street address. In addition, ISPs should provide their customers’ actual city, state, postal code, and country code.

Reporting Reassignment Information via RWhois

As outlined in the Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM), ARIN has requirements for organizations that use distributed information servers, such as RWhois. While the exact details of these requirements are available through the link above, here is a summary:

The server must always be operational and available to both the general public and ARIN staff. Reasonable downtime for server maintenance is allowed.
Organizations may protect its distributed information server by restricting the number of queries allowed per time interval from a host or subnet.
While the server must return reassignment information for the IP address queried, privacy protections for residential customers may be put in place following ARIN's residential privacy policy.
The distributed information service may return results for non-IP queries and may include optional attributes.
The distributed information service must respond to a query with the minimal set of attributes per object as defined by ARIN staff, and results must by up-to-date on reassignment information.

Examples

For IP network address requests, ARIN analysts use the requirements outlined in ARIN policy and guidelines to review reassignments from upstream providers to their customers. The RWhois attributes that ARIN reviews as part of the IP network address process are listed along with example network reassignments using RWhois 1.0 and RWhois 1.5.

(version 1.5)
         network:ID:
         network:Network-Name:
         network:IP-Network:
         network:Org-Name:
         network:Street-Address:
         network:City:
         network:State:
         network:Postal-Code:
         network:Country-Code:
         network:Tech-Contact:
         network:Updated:
         network:Updated-By:
         network:Class-Name:network

(version 1.0)
         network:Organization-Name:
         network:Organization-Postal:
         network:Organization-Postal:
         network:Organization-Country-Code:
         network:Handle:
         network:Network-Name:
         network:IP-Network:
         network:Class-IP-Network:
         network:Class-IP-Network-Block:
         network:Admin-Contact:
         network:Admin-Contact:
         network:Admin-Contact:
         network:Admin-Contact:
         network:Updated:

(version 1.5)
         network:ID: NET-WIDGET
         network:Network-Name: WIDGET
         network:IP-Network: 10.1.1.0/24
         network:Org-Name: Widget Corp
         network:Street-Address: 211 Oak Drive
         network:City: Pineville
         network:State: WI
         network:Postal-Code: 48888
         network:Country-Code: US
         network:Tech-Contact: BZ142-MYRWHOIS
         network:Updated: 19991221
         network:Updated-By: jo@myrwhois.net
         network:Class-Name:network

(version 1.0)
         network:Organization-Name: Widget Corp
         network:Organization-Postal: 211 Oak Drive
         network:Organization-Postal: Pineville, WI 48888
         network:Organization-Country-Code: US
         network:Handle: NET-WIDGET
         network:Network-Name: WIDGET
         network:IP-Network: 10.1.1.0/24
         network:Class-IP-Network: 10.1.1.0
         network:Class-IP-Network-Block: 10.1.1.255
         network:Admin-Contact: Smith, Jo
         network:Admin-Contact: BZ142-MYRWHOIS
         network:Admin-Contact: jsmith@widget.com
         network:Admin-Contact: 444-444-1212
         network:Updated: 21-Dec-1999

Where can I find more information on RWhois?

Additional information about RWhois is available from http://www.rwhois.net.

Special Reporting Requirements

Cable Address Space

For organizations that have residential cable subscribers, IPv4 assignment information regarding each market area holding an address block should be submitted to ARIN using one of the methods listed above, with the network name used to identify each market area. Cable ISPs must show that they have reassigned at least 80% of their current IPv4 address space, with a 50 to 80% utilization rate, in order to request additional addresses.

Each IPv4 assignment to a specific end-user (if holding /29 and larger blocks) requires the submission of a SWIP template or use of an RWhois server. Requesters will also be asked to provide detailed plans for use of the newly requested space.

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