Beeing the first on this list in 2004 I can't resist to express my best wishes to everyone :-) During the last year, when we made plans for our further operations of our nameservice (i.e. anycast and introduction of IPv6), we discovered that we are getting into conflict with some of the RIPE allocation policies. I have been encouraged to start a discussion about making a policy change request. So here it comes: Request For An IPv4/IPv6 Policy Allowing Assignments For Network Critical Infrastructure Abstract At the moment, DENIC has eleven nameservers serving the de zone. At the moment they are all IPv4 only. DENIC wants to change the DNS setup with a higher total number of nameservers which not only have IPv4 but also IPv6 connectivity. However DENIC cannot simply increase the number of NS records and add AAAA records as this would quickly occasion truncation in the authority section of the UDP answer. Ignoring this limitation would cause negative effects that are described in http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf- dnsop-respsize-00.txt In order to keep at least the current quality of service, improve the resilience against distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) and easier future scalability, the deployment of anycast technology (RFC3258) has been chosen for the future DENIC DNS operation. DENIC can not simply use addresses out of their current assignment because it is current practice to filter announcements on allocation boundaries. Therefore DENIC requests to establish a policy for ccTLD and gTLD nameservers that allows RIPE NCC to assign IPv4, IPv6 addresses that are not likely to be filtered by common practise for anycast-operation of their DNS services. Technical justification for this policy Pros: 1. Acceptance of DNS to be network critical Studies like http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-45/presentations/ripe45-eof- rickard.pdf shows clearly that ccTLD and gTLD nameservers are a critical network infrastructure that justify special policies to guarantee operability of Internet applications. Three out of four RIRs (APNIC, ARIN and LACNIC) have policies allowing assignments to network critical infrastructure. All three policies classify ccTLDs as critical infrastructure. Extracts from these policies can be found in Appendices I through III. 2. Usage of DNS By size DENIC has 7 million registered domains with a monthly increase of 1%. The introduction of IDN in 2004 will increase the number of de-domains by roughly 500,000 to 1,000,000 domains in addition to the normal growth rate. Query load on nameservers DENIC currently serves 10,000 queries per second (all nameservers combined). The load is expected to increase exponentially as the acceptance of the Internet as a communication infrastructure is rising. New usage for DNS New integrating services like ENUM rely on DNS as their distributed information database. The adoption of ENUM will contribute to the importance of DNS for normal life of industry operations. 3. Resilience As availability expectation for Internet applications grow, nameservers are part of the critical Internet infrastructures to make these applications work. Anycasting is currently the state-of- the-art solution to lower the impact of DDoS attacks. 4. Allow smooth IPv6 transition As the world starts exploiting IPv6, the critical infrastructures should support them natively. However the limit of 512 bytes UDP responses put a limit on the total number of names and addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) that can be supplied using DNS protocol. Extension mechanisms for DNS (EDNS0) has removed this limitation but is not widely deployed yet. This dilemma, needing more space in the packets than DNS protocol provides, can be overcome by using anycast technology. Cons: 1. Accepting a number of IPv4/24 and IPv6/32 allocations for critical network infrastructures does not align with the traditional address conservation efforts. With anycasting it is very likely that only a few addresses from the entire assignment would be used. 2. RIPE document 233 dated from 24th May 2002 says: "Although it is undesirable to give special status to any IP (IPv4 or IPv6) address block, it was agreed by the community that the particular need defined in this document is the only justifiable exception to that general principle." Consequences of a policy change After allowing special assignments for anycast ccTLD/gTLD nameservers, there is a need to establish consensus in the RIPE region about which criteria will qualify a service to be considered Internet critical infrastructure. There might be other services beside TLD DNS falling into this category. Appendix I APNIC Policy (Following section is taken from http://www.apnic.net/docs/policy/add-manage-policy.html - 11.3) 11.3 Critical infrastructure The following critical infrastructure networks, if operating in the Asia Pacific region, are eligible to receive a portable assignment: * root domain name system (DNS) server; * global top level domain (gTLD) nameservers; * country code TLD (ccTLDs) nameservers; * IANA; * Regional Internet Registry (RIRs); and * National Internet Registry (NIRs). Assignments to critical infrastructure are available only to the actual operators of the network infrastructure performing such functions. Registrar organisations which do not actually host the network housing the registry infrastructure, will not be eligible for an assignment under this policy. The minimum assignment made under these terms is /24. Appendix II ARIN Policy (Following section taken from http://www.arin.net/policy/ipv4.html#microalloc) Micro-allocations (Policy 2001-3) Note: This policy makes obsolete the former micro-allocation policy. ARIN will make micro-allocations to critical infrastructure providers of the Internet, including public exchange points, core DNS service providers (e.g. ICANN-sanctioned root, gTLD, and ccTLD operators) as well as the RIRs and IANA. These allocations will be no longer than a /24 using IPv4 or a /48 using IPv6. Multiple allocations may be granted in certain situations. Exchange point allocations MUST be allocated from specific blocks reserved only for this purpose. All other micro-allocations WILL be allocated out of other blocks reserved for micro-allocation purposes. ARIN will make a list of these blocks publicly available. Appendix III LACNIC (Following section is taken from http://lacnic.net/policy-en.pdf) 3.3.3 Micro Allocations Micro allocation is the name given to those allocations that imply blocks smaller than /20 but always larger than or equal to /24. LACNIC can grant this type of allocation in case of projects and infrastructure for networks that are key or critical for the region, such as IXPs (Internet Exchange Points), NAPs (Network Access Points), RIRs, ccTLDs, among others. In the case of IXPs or NAPs, in order to be able to apply for this type of allocation, organizations shall meet the following requirements: 1. Duly document the following aspects: 1. 1Prove by means of their bylaws their capacity of IXP or NAP. The organization shall have at least three members and an open policy in relation to the association of new members. 1. 2Submit a company structure organizational diagram. 1. 3Document the numbering plan to be implemented. 2. Provide a usage plan for the following three and six months. The rest of the applications shall be studied based on the analysis of the documentation justifying the critical and/or key aspects of the project. Organizations receiving micro allocations are not authorized to suballocate these addresses. -- Andreas Baess DENIC eG Wiesenh�ttenplatz 26 D-60329 Frankfurt