Draft Policy ARIN-2025-3

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Current Text (20 August 2026)

Problem Statement

Section 9 of the NRPM, Out of Region Use, requires organizations to use at least a /22 in the ARIN region before they can justify out of region use. This harms smaller organizations that have less than a /22 in region but do require some out of region use.

Policy Statement

Modify the following text in Section 9:

FROM:

IPv4: At least a /22 used in region.

TO:

IPv4: At least a /24 used in region.

Out-of-Region Usage Justification may not be used to receive IPv4 address space from the ARIN Waiting List (4.1.8), the Micro-allocation Pool (4.4), or the Dedicated IPv4 Block to Facilitate IPv6 Deployment (4.10).

Any organization already on the Waiting List at the time this policy is implemented will be exempted and shall remain eligible under the rules in effect at the time of its placement on the Waiting List.

RESULT:

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 /24 used in region

Out-of-Region Usage Justification may not be used to receive IPv4 address space from the ARIN Waiting List (4.1.8), the Micro-allocation Pool (4.4), or the Dedicated IPv4 Block to Facilitate IPv6 Deployment (4.10).

Any organization already on the Waiting List at the time this policy is implemented will be exempted and shall remain eligible under the rules in effect at the time of its placement on the Waiting List.

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

Comments

None

Timetable for Implementation

3 months

Staff and Legal Review (23 February 2026)

Staff Understanding:

NRPM Section 9, Out of Region Use, for IPv4 addresses requires that to justify out-of-region use, an organization must utilize at least a /22 within the ARIN region before additional resources may be approved for use outside the region. Section 9 applies to IPv4 address requests in conjunction with section 4 “IPv4”, section 8.3 “Transfers Between Specified Recipients Within the ARIN Region”, and section 8.4 “Inter-RIR Transfers to Specified Recipients”. This section does not apply to section 4.4 or 4.10 space, these sections have their own restrictions.

Draft Policy 2025-3 proposes reducing the in-region IPv4 utilization threshold from a /22 (or equivalent) to a single /24. Under this change, an organization would need to demonstrate use of only one /24 within the ARIN region to justify receiving additional ARIN-issued IPv4 resources for use outside the ARIN region. Neither the current policy text nor this draft policy establishes any maximum on the amount of IPv4 space that may be justified to be used outside the ARIN region, so long as at least a single /24 is utilized within the ARIN region, meaning a single in-region /24 could, in practice, unlock requests for substantially larger blocks for deployment entirely outside the ARIN region. This draft policy does not modify the current section 9 threshold for Autonomous System Number and IPv6 usage.

In conjunction with section 4.1.8 “ARIN Waitlist”, an organization could request an initial /22 from the IPv4 waitlist with the intent to use a portion outside the ARIN region, provided they demonstrate efficient projected usage of one /24 within the ARIN region, and three /24s outside the ARIN region.

Staff anticipates this draft policy would significantly increase the volume of IPv4 waitlist requests. Because the policy requirements for an organization to justify an initial /24 are generally straightforward to meet, it is expected that more organizations may request a /24 primarily to qualify for additional ARIN-issued IPv4 addresses for out-of-region use. It is expected that this would result in more ARIN IPv4 space being used out of region.

Implementable as Written?:

Yes

Impact on ARIN Registry Operations and Services:

Anticipate increase to staff ticket workload

Legal Review:

No material legal issue

Implementation Timeframe Estimate:

3 months

Implementation Requirements:

• Staff Training
• Updates to public documentation
• Updates to internal procedures and guidelines

Proposal/Draft Policy Text Assessed:

25 March 2025

History and Earlier Versions

Related Meetings