RIPE Policy Proposal 2006-03

The proposal is to have a new status for IPv6 address space - "LIR-PARTITIONED".

A Local Internet Registry (LIR) can use LIR-PARTITIONED status field in inet6num objects to represent those blocks managed by different groups/parts/departments within the LIR.

This allows an LIR to document the distribution and delegate the management of allocated space within their own organisation. Address space with a status of LIR-PARTITIONED is not considered used. When the addresses are used, a more specific inet6num object should be registered in accordance with the policies for making assignments.

a. Arguments Supporting the Proposal

The LIR-PARTITIONED mechanism described in ripe-239 (New Values of the "status:" Attribute for INETNUM Objects (LIR-PARTITIONED)) is available as a status field in the RIPE Whois Database for inetnum objects. It allows large LIRs to partition their IPv4 allocated address space and to delegate
authority for managing these blocks to departments within the LIR's organisation. The mechanism is however not currently available in IPv6 for inet6num objects.

Some LIRs feel the need to partition their IPv6 allocation before making assignments for different purposes. These may include various services, customers and/or locations etc. Often, different groups within the same LIR are responsible for managing such segments.

Centralising the entire assignment process in such large organisations is not always practical or effective. There is a need for a means to delegate authority over database assignments in IPv6.

b. Arguments Opposing the Proposal

None identified so far.