Policy 2007-17: Legacy Outreach and Partial Reclamation [Archived]

Status: Adopted - NRPM Section 4.6

Tracking Information

Discussion Tracking

Mailing List:

Formal introduction on PPML on 28 August 2007

Revised by the author on 17 September 2007
Staff assessment - 14 October 2007
Revised staff assessment - 17 October 2007
AC to revise with author - 23 October 2007
Revised by the author - 21 February 2008
Staff Assessment - 21 March 2008
Revised by the author - 28 March 2008
Revised Staff Assessment - 1 April 2008
To be revised - 14 April 2008
Revised/Last Call - 16 May 2008
Adopted - 15 August 2008

Public Policy Mailing List

ARIN Public Policy Meeting:

ARIN XX
ARIN XXI

ARIN Advisory Council:

AC Shepherds:
Cathy Aronson and Lea Roberts

19 July 2007
23 August 2007
20 September 2007
18 October 2007
15 November 2007
20 December 2007
17 January 2008
21 February 2008
20 March 2008
9 April 2008
15 May 2008
19 June 2008
17 July 2008

ARIN Board of Trustees:

20 June 2008
11 August 2008

Revisions:

Click here to view previous versions.

Implementation:

24 September 2008

Author(s):

Owen DeLong

Policy Proposal 2007-17
Legacy Outreach and Partial Reclamation

Author: Owen DeLong

Date: 16 May 2008

Proposal type: modify

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement:

Replace section 4.6 as follows:

4.6 Amnesty and Aggregation requests

4.6.1 Intent of this policy

This policy is intended to allow the community and ARIN staff to work together with holders of address resources in the best interests of the community by facilitating the return of unused address space and the aggregation of existing space in a manner which is in the best interests of both parties.

All transactions under this policy must either create greater aggregation (a reduction in the number of prefixes) or the return of address space. ARIN should reject any transaction which staff judges is not in the interests of the community.

4.6.2 No penalty for returning or aggregating

ARIN shall seek to make the return of address space as convenient and risk-free to the returning organization as possible. An organization with several non-contiguous blocks seeking to aggregate and return space at the same time should be accommodated if possible. If it is possible to expand one block, for example, to facilitate the return of other blocks, ARIN should do that.

4.6.3 Return should not force renumbering

An organization shall be allowed to return a partial block of any size to ARIN. For any return greater than a /24, ARIN shall not require that the non-returned portion of the block be renumbered unless the returning organization wishes to do so.

4.6.4 Timeframe for return

Any organization which is returning addresses under this policy shall negotiate with ARIN an appropriate timeframe in which to return the addresses after any new resources are received under this policy. In the case of a simple return, the timeframe shall be immediate. In the case where renumbering into new addresses out of existing addresses to be returned is required, the returning organization shall sign a contract with ARIN which stipulates a final return date not less than 6 months nor more than 18 months after the receipt of new addresses. If an organization misses this return date, but, ARIN believes the organization is working in good faith to complete the renumbering, ARIN may grant a single extension of 6-12 months as staff deems appropriate to the situation. Such an extension must be requested in writing (email to hostmaster@arin.net) by the organization at least 15 days prior to the original expiration date.

4.6.5 RSA Required if new addresses received

Any organization which receives any additional addresses under this policy shall be required to sign an ARIN RSA which will apply to all new addresses issued and to any retained blocks which are expanded under this policy.

4.6.6 Annual contact required

Any organization which participates in this policy shall be required to sign an agreement stipulating that ARIN will attempt contact at least once per year via the contact mechanisms registered for the organization in whois. Should ARIN fail to make contact, after reasonable effort the organization shall be flagged as “unreachable” in whois. After six months in “unreachable” status, the organization agrees that ARIN may consider all resources held by the organization to be abandoned and reclaim such resources. Should the organization make contact with ARIN prior to the end of the aforementioned six month period and update their contact information appropriately, ARIN shall remove the “unreachable” status and the annual contact cycle shall continue as normal. If the organization pays annual fees to ARIN, the payment of annual fees shall be considered sufficient contact.

Rationale:

Existing policy supports aggregation (4.7) and provides some amnesty (existing 4.6) for returning blocks. However, a number of resource holders have expressed discomfort with the current section 4.6 believing that they will be forced to return their entire address space and renumber rather than being able to make partial returns and retain some of their existing space.

This policy seeks to eliminate those concerns and make the return of unused address space more desirable to the resource holders.

A very high percentage of underutilized space is in the hands of legacy holders who currently have no benefit to joining the ARIN process and no way to return any portion of their address space without incurring significant disadvantage as a result.

A suggestion to the board would be to adopt benefits along the following lines for people returning space. These benefits would provide additional incentive for resource holders to make appropriate returns and for legacy holders to join the ARIN process:

1. If the organization does not currently pay ARIN fees, they shall remain fee exempt.

2. If the organization currently pays ARIN fees, their fees shall be waived for two years for each /20 returned, with any fractional /20 resulting in a one-time single year waiver.

3. Any organization returning address space under this policy shall continue under their existing RSA or they may choose to sign the current RSA. For organizations which currently do not have an RSA, they may sign the current RSA, or, they may choose to remain without an RSA.

4. All organizations returning space under this policy shall, if they meet other eligibility requirements and so request, obtain an appropriate IPv6 end-user assignment or ISP allocation as applicable, with no fees for the first 5 years. Organizations electing to receive IPv6 allocation/assignment under this provision must sign a current RSA and must agree that their IPv4 resources are henceforth subject to the RSA.

The overriding intent of this policy proposal is to make it as easy as possible for both ARIN and resource holders to “do the right thing” with regard to excess resources or dis-aggregated (fragmented) address blocks. It is the desire of the author that staff make any judgment calls necessary under this policy with that ideal clearly in mind. While the author has made a concerted effort to make the policy as clear as possible and as concrete as can be, the reality is that these types of transactions must rely heavily on the judgment and expertise of the ARIN staff in determining what is in the best interests of the community.

Note to the board:

The advisory council believes that the Board of Trustees should consider creating incentives for organizations to return addresses under this policy.

This idea was part of the policy proposal as discussed by the membership, but, we (the AC) feel that it should not be part of the NRPM (fees are not policy matter) so we have pulled it out of the policy and moved it to this note.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate