RIPE Policy Proposal 2009-08

This proposal is to allow LIRs to receive IPv6 PI assignments in addition to an IPv6 allocation.

[Following text is to appear in the RIPE Policy document IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy, if the proposal reaches consensus.]

New:
8.a <removed by this proposal>
8.1. IPv6 Provider Independent (PI) Assignments for LIRs

LIRs can qualify for an IPv6 PI assignment for parts of their own infrastructure that are not used for customer end sites. Where an LIR has an IPv6 allocation, the LIR must demonstrate the unique routing requirements for the PI assignment.

The LIR must return the IPv6 PI assignment within a period of six months if the original criteria on which the assignment was based are no longer valid.

If an organisation already received a PI assignment before becoming an LIR, the PI assignment should be returned upon receiving an IPv6 allocation if there are no specific routing requirements to justify both.

a. Arguments Supporting the Proposal

LIRs with a need for a different routing policy currently do not qualify for an IPv6 PI assignment. End Users do have that option under the current IPv6 policy:

"Additional assignments may also be made when the need is demonstrated and documented based on address usage, or because different routing requirements exist for additional assignments. When possible, these further assignments will be made from an adjacent address block."

An LIR may need to run two discrete networks for some load balancing, resilience, and continuity applications. They may have PA for their usual services, and for making assignments to End Users, and PI for their own infrastructure or services, which must be announced independently.

b. Arguments Opposing the Proposal

There may be negative effects on the routing table growth.

Note: In order to provide additional information related to the proposal, details of an impact analysis carried out by the RIPE NCC are documented below. The projections presented in this analysis are based on existing data and should be viewed only as an indication of the possible impact that the policy may have if the proposal is accepted and implemented.

A. Impact of Policy on Registry and Addressing System

Address/Internet Number Resource Consumption:
It is not realistic to make an assumption on how many LIRs will actually request a PI assignment, and how many assignments of a particular size an LIR could need. Accordingly, there is no significant impact that the RIPE NCC could deduce realistically for this proposal.

Fragmentation/Aggregation:
The introduction of this policy would increase the number of entries in the routing table, simply because the proposal is for assignment of new IPv6 prefixes. However, it is not realistic to make an assumption on how many LIRs will actually request a PI assignment, and how many assignments an LIR could need.

B. Impact of Policy on RIPE NCC Operations/Services

Having analysed the data that is currently available, the RIPE NCC does not anticipate that this proposal will cause any significant impact on RIPE NCC operations/services if it is implemented.