Get to Know the Draft Policies Up for Discussion at ARIN 56

By Eddie Diego – Policy Analyst

ARIN 56 is almost here, and we can’t wait to gather both in person and virtually! Since ARIN 55 took place last spring, four new Draft Policies have been added to the docket, bringing us to a total of five Draft policies and two Recommended Draft policies to be presented at ARIN 56.

To help you prepare to engage in these important conversations, here’s a look at the Draft Policies up for discussion during the ARIN 56 Public Policy and Members Meeting, 30-31 October in Arlington, Texas, and online. Policies will be discussed Thursday, 30 October, so be sure to mark your calendar and register today if you’d like to participate on site in Arlington or online via Zoom.

Recommended Draft Policies

Draft Policies are moved to this stage of the Policy Development Process (PDP) after the Advisory Council (AC) has determined they are ready to be presented to the community for final comments and consensus. Once these Recommended Drafts are presented at ARIN 56, the AC can then vote to move them to last call prior to sending them to the ARIN Board of Trustees for adoption. If community consensus is gained at ARIN 56, these Recommended Draft Policies could move on to last call and adoption; this may be the last time they are available for discussion by the community at an ARIN meeting.

ARIN-2024-5: Rewrite of NRPM Section 4.4 Micro-Allocation

The Problem: The current policy language governing micro-allocations hasn’t kept pace with how the Internet has evolved. As highlighted in the ARIN 53 policy experience report, the existing Number Resource Policy Manual Section 4.4 has become difficult for ARIN staff to implement consistently. Additionally, the growth and changing use of Internet Exchanges have created ambiguities around requirements and routability that need clarification.

What It Does: This policy rewrites Section 4.4 to rename “Micro-Allocations” as “Critical Internet Infrastructure (CII) Allocations,” better reflecting their purpose. It establishes clearer requirements for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), requiring a minimum of three initial participants not under common control. The policy resolves long-standing questions about whether IXP addresses can be publicly routed (they can, at the operator’s discretion) and clarifies that these addresses are reserved exclusively for IXP operations. The policy also establishes a formal process for organizations requesting additional resources, including a renumber-and-return procedure.

The Impact: This policy clarifies documentation requirements, resolves the routability ambiguity for IXP allocations, and codifies existing ARIN practices into formal policy language. By providing clearer, more enforceable requirements, it will make the allocation process more consistent and easier for both applicants and ARIN staff to navigate while ensuring these special-purpose addresses continue serving critical Internet infrastructure.

ARIN-2025-2: Clarify 8.5.1 Registration Services Agreement

The Problem: Current transfer policy requires entities receiving transferred IP address resources to sign a Registration Services Agreement (RSA) unless they already have an RSA “within the last two versions” on file. However, defining which RSA versions are considered current within policy text creates an operational challenge. Determining RSA versioning is fundamentally a business decision rather than a policy matter, and the current language constrains ARIN’s operational flexibility.

What It Does: This straightforward policy removes the phrase “within the last two versions” from Section 8.5.1, replacing it with language that allows ARIN business practices to determine what constitutes a “current” RSA. The revised text would state that receiving entities must sign an RSA unless they have “a current RSA on file per ARIN business practices.”

The Impact: By removing overly specific versioning language from policy, this change gives ARIN the operational flexibility needed to maintain consistent practices across different business functions. The modification allows ARIN to adapt its RSA requirements to changing business conditions without requiring policy changes each time. This represents good governance by distinguishing between policy decisions (which should go through the Policy Development Process) and operational business decisions (which ARIN staff should handle). Community feedback has been supportive, with commenters agreeing this is an appropriate business decision.

Draft Policies

Draft Policies are works in progress managed by AC shepherds and presented to the community for feedback.

ARIN-2025-1: Clarify ISP and LIR Definitions and References to Address Ambiguity in NRPM Text. This Draft policy notes that although LIRs and ISPs are treated similarly in the NRPM, only LIRs are defined in section 2 while ISPs are not. This Draft policy adds a definition for Internet Service Provider (ISP) and updates the NRPM language to reference only “ISP” where applicable.

ARIN-2025-3: Change Section 9 Out Of Region Use Minimum Criteria. Current ARIN policy allows IPv4 addresses to be used outside the ARIN service region if the organization is already using an IPv4 /22 (or equivalent aggregate) within the ARIN service region. This draft policy reduces the requirement from a /22 to a /24.

ARIN-2025-6: Fix Formula in 6.5.2.1c. Section 6.5.2 in the NRPM contains policies around the initial allocation of IPv6 addresses to LIRs. The maximum initial allocation requirements are described by a text description as well as an equation. This draft policy intends to make a correction to the equation that better aligns with the text explanation.

ARIN-2025-7: Make Policy in 6.5.8.2 Match the Examples. Section 6.5.8.2 in the NRPM describes the requirements for an initial allocation of IPv6 addresses to End-users organizations. The maximum size allocation an End-user may receive is determined by the number of sites in an organization’s network. This Draft policy intends to make clear that organizations with only one site qualify for an IPv6 /48.

ARIN-2025-8: Reserve 4.10 space for In-Region Use. This draft policy modifies Section 4.10 to explicitly restrict the special reserved IPv4 space, reserved to support IPv6 deployment, for use only within ARIN’s service region. 

Participate in Our Policy Discussions

ARIN policy belongs to the community, and we encourage everyone to join the conversation. We look forward to hearing your ideas during ARIN 56, and we hope these simple summaries help you feel prepared and comfortable enough to speak up and share your opinions — or ask any questions of our AC shepherds.

For our virtual participants, you must join the meeting via Zoom as a registered attendee to participate in policy discussions. The livestream will be available on YouTube to all who wish to view the proceedings.

Contribute to the Future of Internet Policy

If you’d like to submit your own Internet number resource policy proposal, fill out our brief template and email it to policy@arin.net. Don’t stress about wording your proposal perfectly — our AC will work with you to polish it so it can move through the PDP.

Additional resources on the PDP can be found on the following webpages:

• Public Policy Mailing List (PPML)
• ARIN Advisory Council
• Current Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM)

We’ll see you at ARIN 56!

Post written by:

Eddie Diego
Policy Analyst

Recent blogs categorized under: Public Policy

• The Invisible War: Why Securing the Internet Is Everyone’s Responsibility
• ARIN 55 Day 3 Recap
• ARIN 55 Day 2 Recap
• ARIN 55 Day 1 Recap