ARIN-prop-333: Rewrite of NRPM Section 4.4 Micro-Allocation

Date: 23 April 2024

Proposal Originator: Randy Epstein, James Jun, Martin Hannigan, and Aaron Wendel

Problem Statement:

The current NRPM Section 4.4 language hasn’t aged well. As the ARIN 53 policy experience report demonstrated, 4.4 has also become difficult to implement by ARIN staff. Growth and use of Internet Exchanges has also changed. The overhaul seeks to improve technical soundness, respect the privilege of a dedicated pool and to more closely observe conservation principles using clear, minimum and enforceable requirements and underscoring the value of routability of assigned prefixes as required.

ARIN 4.4 CI Assignments

The intent of this policy is not to unreasonably preclude the use of an allocated or assigned prefix in servicing the needs of critical infrastructure of the Internet.

ARIN will reserve a /15 equivalent of IPv4 address space for Critical Infrastructure (CI) of the Internet within the ARIN RIR service area. Assignments from this pool will be no smaller than a /24. Sparse allocation will be used whenever practical. CI includes Internet Exchanges, IANA authorized root servers, ccTLD operators, ARIN, and IANA. Addresses assigned from this pool may be revoked if no longer in use or not used for approved purposes. Only Section 8.2 transfers are allowed. Use of this policy for CI is voluntary. ARIN will publish all 4.4 allocated addresses for research purposes.

4.4.1 Internet Exchange Assignments

Internet Exchange operators must justify their need by providing the following:

  • A minimum of three initial participants connected to a physically present ethernet switch fabric to be used for the purpose of Internet Exchange facilitated peering
  • Justification must include:
    • Three unique participant names and ASNs not under common control
    • Direct contact information for each participant
  • Staff can reasonably validate hardware existence and participants intent
  • Applicant Internet Exchange affiliated ASNs are not eligible to be included in meeting the participant requirement
  • Assigned addresses may be publicly reachable at the operators discretion and be used to operate all of the Internet Exchange’s infrastructure
4.4.2 Root and ccTLD Assignments

Root and ccTLD operators will provide justification of their need and certification of their status as currently active zone operators.