[address-policy-wg] IPv6 assignment for the RIPE meeting network

Dear Colleagues,

This is an informal submission of the proposal that was presented at
RIPE 57 in Dubai
(http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-57/presentations/Robachevsky-IPv6_assignment_for_RIPE_meeting_network.pdf),
 as was suggested by the community.

Your feedback is appreciated as well as your opinion whether a formal
submission should follow.

Regards,

Andrei Robachevsky
RIPE NCC


IPv6 address space assignment for RIPE Meetings
---------------------------------------

A dedicated IPv6 prefix is assigned to the organisation that organises
the RIPE Meetings. The size of this prefix is a /48 and the assignment
will be valid as long as the organisation is responsible for organising
the RIPE Meetings and the usage of the prefix is limited to RIPE Meeting
networks.

The status of this assignment will be 'ASSIGNED MEETING’ in the RIPE
Database and must be returned to the RIPE NCC if not in use for RIPE
Meeting networks.

Rationale:
--------
a. Arguments supporting the proposal

RIPE NCC has been organising RIPE Meetings for over a decade now and it
is still responsible for the setup of the meeting network.

As IPv6 deployment has became more of a necessity, the RIPE NCC has been
providing IPv6 network during RIPE Meetings too. Although first couple
of setups were more at an experimental level, currently we offer this as
a production-grade service to the attendees. The IPv6 space for these
networks so far has been provided by some other organisations and so the
assignments were in temporary nature. We appreciate the support these
organisations have provided so far.

Today a permanent IPv6 prefix is a necessity to be able to provide a
stable and high quality service during RIPE Meetings. Having such a
permanent and dedicated prefix, the RIPE Meeting Team of the RIPE NCC
will be able to design and test the RIPE meeting network beforehand,
which will ensure stable operation of the IPv6 network during the RIPE
Meetings. This will also allow the team to have complete control over
the network to effectively address issues related to security,
redundancy and setting efficient routing policies with third parties.

The proposal is worded in a way that the IPv6 prefix will be provided to
the RIPE Meeting organiser. This is to ensure that the prefix will stay
with the meeting organiser for the sole usage in RIPE meetings. This
means if the RIPE NCC ceases being the RIPE Meeting organiser in the
future, the prefix will be returned to the free pool.

The reason for the size being set to a /48 is about routing reasons.
Because this is the minimum excepted routable assignment size that is
common among all regions, we think a prefix in this size will guarantee
connectivity during RIPE Meetings.


b. Arguments opposing the proposal

Some may argue that this will cause waste of address space because the
prefix will be only in use effectively during RIPE meeting