Hear It from a Resource Analyst [Archived]

By Jennifer Bly

By Cathy Clements, Principal Resource Analyst, ARIN

I have worked in ARIN’s Registration Services Department (RSD) for just about 16 years. RSD processes requests for Internet number resource allocations, assignments, and transfers and maintains such records. The core function of our team is to analyze requests for resources, determine if they qualify under current policy, and distribute the resources that have been approved.

A couple weeks ago I attended the Canadian ISP Summit in Toronto, Canada to help answer questions people had about ARIN and resource requests. The conference ran for three days and was attended by over 300 participants. The agenda was quite full and included various topics such as “The Future of Internet Governance” and “Enabling the Internet of Everything”. We set up an ARIN help desk at the Summit and received many different types of questions over the three day period such as:

• What is the status of IPv4 run out?

• What does the uptake of IPv6 look like?

• How can my organization get a larger IPv6 block?

This is just a sampling of the types of question that were asked.  We let people know that we still have IPv4 address space available, but that it is depleting quickly (for the current inventory please refer to the ARIN webpage).  IPv6 uptake has been occurring at a slow and steady pace and every day we get new IPv6 requests.  We also let them know that there are policies and procedures that allow organizations to obtain an IPv6 block that meets their needs.

Working at the help desk is one of my favorite things to do because I get to meet the community and hear their concerns.   ARIN runs Registration Services help desks at various other conferences as well as at our two annual ARIN Public Policy and Members Meetings and each NANOG meeting.   So next time you see the ARIN help desk please be sure to stop by and say hello!