Removal of multihomed requirement for IPv6 PI

Summary of proposal:

This proposal intends to remove the multihome requirement necessary to receive PI IPv6 address space in the policy ripe-538, “IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy”.

There are enough End Users (businesses) that have a valid reason for their own address space, without the desire to become a LIR or multihoming.

Policy text:

Current

[Following text is to be replaced from the RIPE Policy Document IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy, if the proposal reaches consensus. This would result in a new policy section.]

7. IPv6 Provider Independent (PI) Assignments

To qualify for IPv6 PI address space, an organisation must:

a) demonstrate that it will be multihomed

b) meet the requirements of the policies described in the RIPE NCC document entitled "Contractual Requirements for Provider Independent Resources Holders in the RIPE NCC Service Region".

New

[Following text will replace the part of the section 7. of the RIPE Policy Document "IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy", if the proposal reaches consensus. It was only removed the point a. in first paragraph.]

7. IPv6 Provider Independent (PI) Assignments

To qualify for IPv6 PI address space, an organisation must meet the requirements of the policies described in the RIPE NCC document entitled “Contractual Requirements for Provider Independent Resources Holders in the RIPE NCC Service Region”

Rationale

a. Arguments supporting the proposal

This policy proposal considers the fact that the reasons behind the initial mutihoming restriction for IPv6 PI, at the time ripe-538 was written, might no longer stand valid nowadays.  Furthermore, there is a general perception of an increasing need of PI space for non-multihomed End Users who are not ISP and do not want to become LIRs.

There are enough (strategic) reasons for companies not to make the step towards an LIR membership. However this should not keep them from pursuing their business objectives. Running your own infrastructure and your own AS ensues some complexity and forcing those companies to maintain a multihomed environment may not be in their best interest or in favor of the stability of the Internet.

b. Arguments opposing the proposal

The number of small IPv6 prefixes in the routing table might increase, however this will still be less if each of those End Users would setup their own AS infrastructure and advertise that same prefix via an extra AS, generating multiple entries in the received routes, especially on IXs.

Furthermore, there is no difference between a company that would sign up for PI IPv6 under the new policy and a company that would signup as a LIR because it wouldn’t want to deal with the current PI IPv6 requirements.

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 might have if the proposal is accepted and implemented.

A. RIPE NCC's Understanding of the Proposed Policy

The RIPE NCC understands this policy as follows:

• The requirement to multi-home will be removed from the IPv6 PI policy, making single-homed end-sites eligible for an IPv6 PI assignment. The only requirement will then be to meet the requirements described in the RIPE NCC document entitled “Contractual Requirements for Provider Independent Resources Holders in the RIPE NCC Service Region”.

B. Impact of Policy on Registry and Addressing System

Address/Internet Number Resource Consumption:

Due to the relatively small size of IPv6 PI assignments compared to the overall amount of IPv6 address space, no significant impact is expected in terms of IPv6 address space consumption as a consequence of this policy change.

Fragmentation/Aggregation:

It is not possible to predict how this proposal will change the take-up of IPv6 PI space. As a simple and direct comparison, it can be deemed useful and reasonable to take the number of IPv4 PI assignments, where no multihoming requirement exists, as an absolute upper limit. The number of IPv4 PI assignments the RIPE NCC currently has on file is 16584. The number of IPv6 PI assignments is 447.

C. Impact of Policy on RIPE NCC Operations/Services

Registration Services:

After analysing the data that is currently available, the RIPE NCC does not anticipate that any significant impact will be caused if this proposal is implemented

Billing/Finance Department:

After analysing the data that is currently available, the RIPE NCC does not anticipate that any significant impact will be caused if this proposal is implemented

RIPE Database:

After analysing the data that is currently available, the RIPE NCC does not anticipate that any significant impact will be caused if this proposal is implemented

D. Legal Impact of Policy

After analysing the data that is currently available, the RIPE NCC does not anticipate that the implementation of this proposed policy will cause any significant legal implications

E. RIPE NCC Executive Board

Although the Board is unconvinced that the chosen approach is the best possible solution for the described problem, the decision is of course deferred to the RIPE community.