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How Does The IPv4 Waiting List Work?

Even though we have run out of IPv4, we will continue to recover small amounts of addresses for the foreseeable future. These are addresses that have been de-registered when members go out of business or are closed down, or that members have chosen to return. The RIPE community has agreed that we should allocate any recovered addresses to members via a waiting list, using a /24 allocation size (256 addresses). You can find more information in the IPv4 Policy.

Who Can Join the Waiting List?

In order to submit an IPv4 request, the following criteria apply:

  • You must have completed the process to become a RIPE NCC member (LIR)
  • The LIR requesting addresses must not have received an IPv4 allocation from the RIPE NCC previously (including via the waiting list)
  • The allocation must be used to make assignments
  • The address space must be used on a network with at least one active element in the RIPE NCC service region

How Does It Work?

  • Allocations will be a /24 in size (256 addresses)
  • Only one allocation per LIR account
  • IPv4 requests are submitted in the LIR Portal and are added to the waiting list automatically
  • We publish statistics showing the number of LIRs on the waiting list and the number of days that the LIR at the front of the queue has been waiting
  • Members will be able to check their place in the queue via the LIR Portal

It is important that members understand they will only receive an IPv4 allocation “if and when” we have enough addresses. How long this takes will depend on the number of addresses we recover and how many request are on the waiting list.

How Does the RIPE NCC Handle Recovered IPv4 Addresses?

When we recover IPv4 addresses, we hold on to them for a quarantine period. During this time, we take a number of actions that help to make it clear the addresses are no longer associated with their previous holder and should be considered as “new” address space. Once a block of IPv4 addresses has finished this process, we will allocate it to members according to their order on the waiting list. It is impossible to predict how many addresses we will recover over the coming years – we do not expect that it will be many.