ARIN-prop-349: Taking IP To Other Planets (TIPTOP)

Taking IP To Other Planets (TIPTOP)

Problem Statement

Today, space agencies are using part of their IPv4 address allocations for numbering missions to the moon, and in outer space. Various agencies come from different continents and thus have allocations from different RIRs. They plan on interconnecting networks across agencies to provide mutual backup and to share scarce deep-space communications resources. As missions proliferate, the concern is that aggregation will become challenging because the addressing is not at all tied to the topology.

For the purposes of this discussion, we consider the moon to be part of ‘outer space’. We exclude low and geostationary Earth orbit.

Policy Statement

The IETF would like to recommend that addressing be done in a way that maximizes the possibilities for aggregation.

The IETF would like to recommend that addressing be done in a way that maximizes the possibilities for aggregation. There should be one organization responsible for addessing for outer space. This could be one of the existing RIRs or a new entity. An address space block should be reserved for use in outer space. Within this block, prefixes should be reserved for

• The moon and its environs
• Earth’s Lagrange points
• The asteroid belt
• Each other planet
• Other regions not covered by the above

Within these prefixes, allocation will be done on a per-agency basis, as is done for ISPs by other RIRs. Space agencies can be regarded as both service providers and consumers, and are generally cooperative, providing each other mutual support and services.

The physical constraints of providing communications across outer space creates natural barriers, which suggests that eventually there will be a topology that is more dense around celestial bodies, with a limited number of links between these bodies. These links for a natural cut set on the topology and provide a natural location for additional aggregation of the prefixes on the body.

This policy does not mandate aggregation. Aggregation requires the consent of all the agencies that are being aggregated. Consent can be granted or withdrawn at any time. Aggregation need not cover all of the prefixes for the celestial body. This policy establishes addressing allocations that will enable this aggregation.

If agencies choose not to aggregate, then more specific prefixes will need to be distributed, as usual.

Timetable for Implementation

None

Comments

This is being proposed jointly with the IETF TIPTOP working group. Please see https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-li-tiptop-address-space/ and https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-many-tiptop-ip-architecture/ for more details.