New Assignment Window Policy implemented

[Apologies for duplicate mails]

Dear all,

At RIPE 40 in Prague (October 2001) the RIPE community changed the
Assignment 
Window (AW) Policy.
(see
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-40/presentations/lir-wg-40/
index.html)

The previous AW policy: 

"The assignment window is the maximum number of addresses that can be
assigned 
by the local IR to an end user without prior approval by the RIPE NCC.
This is 
expressed in /nn notation. Therefore, a local IR with an assignment window
of 
/23 is allowed to assign up to and including 512 addresses to an end user 
without prior approval of the RIPE NCC. As the Local IR staff gain
experience, 
the window size is increased...

...The assignment window is not only applied to individual assignments,
but to 
multiple assignments to the same end user in a 12 month period If a Local
IR 
makes more than one assignment to an organisation in any 12 month period,
the 
total amount of address space assigned may not exceed the Local IR's 
assignment window. This also applies to address space used by the Registry
for 
their internal network. Additional address space can only be assigned to
that 
organisation after approval by the RIPE NCC."
(see http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ir-policies-procedures.html#toc39)

The problem:

This AW policy also applied to address space used by the Local Internet 
Registry (LIR) for their internal network. A registry that mainly assigns 
addresses to their own network would not be able to make the majority of
the 
assignments to themself using their AW as the AW only applies once every
12 
months.

The new AW policy:

Consensus was reached in the LIR Working Group to change this policy so
that 
the LIR can make multiple assignments to their own infrastructure without 
contacting the RIPE NCC as long as the individual assignment is within
their 
Assignment Window.

The Implementation:

Assignments made to the LIR's infrastructure using this new AW policy must 
have a remarks attribute in the inetnum object with the value INFRA-AW. It
is 
important that a seperate remarks attribute is used for this. No other
comment 
may be included in this line. It is possible to have other remarks
attributes 
in the same object, though.

The Audit:

The existing audit policy allows the RIPE NCC to review your assignments
at 
any time in order to assure a fair distribution of address space. It was 
agreed that the RIPE NCC may request proper documentation and an overview
of 
the address space used for the LIR's own infrastructure. "If the LIR fails
to 
show decent documentation the RIPE NCC may lower the LIR's Assignment
Window. 
As this may delay the new allocation of addresses somewhat, the LIRs
should be 
prepared to produce proper documentation upon request." (see 
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-40/presentations/lir-wg-40/sld01
3.html)


This new AW policy will be implemented as of Monday, 17th December 2001.

If you do not want to use this new facility you are welcome to continue 
submitting requests to the RIPE NCC.

For any questions regarding your AW please contact the RIPE NCC via 
<lir-help at ripe.net> including your Reg ID.


Kind regards,

Sabrina Waschke
-- 

o------------------------------------------o
| Sabrina Waschke         sabrina at ripe.net |
| Registration Services Operations Manager |
|                                          |
| RIPE NCC             tel +31 20 535 4444 |
| www.ripe.net         fax +31 20 535 4445 |
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