Developing policy for the management of Internet number resources is a key responsibility for the APNIC community and a great way for people to play a part in the governance of the Internet.
Management of these critical Internet resources is an important part of Internet governance and participating in policy development allows technical people a way to share their knowledge and expertise. It is often a way for network operators to address challenges and concerns they have getting IP addressing resources from APNIC.
Of course the APNIC Policy Development Process (PDP) is not just for engineers. Anybody with an interest in IP addressing is welcome to get involved. Although it can sometimes get a little technical, there are always community members (or APNIC staff) available to explain and fill in the gaps. There are plenty of ways to participate, even if you are not personally attending an APNIC Conference. The easiest (and most important way) is to join the discussion on the APNIC Policy SIG mailing list.
The policies under discussion are always posted to the mailing list, but in case you miss that email, you can check the proposal status pages to see what’s coming up and what’s being discussed.
There are currently a number of proposals under discussion. The following policy changes will be proposed at the Open Policy Meeting at APNIC 39 in Fukuoka, Japan and are under discussion on the SIG mailing list.
- prop-112: On demand expansion of IPv6 address allocation size in legacy IPv6 space
This proposal is designed to allow organizations with ‘legacy’ IPv6 blocks to enable them to extend their IPv6 address space up to a /29 without meeting the Utilization Rate criteria for subsequent IPv6 allocation, or providing additional documentation. - prop-113: Modification in the IPv4 eligibility criteria
This proposal would extend the criteria for end-site IPv4 delegation (assignments) so that an organization is eligible if it is currently multihomed, or interconnected with provider (ISP)-based addresses, or demonstrates a plan to advertise the prefixes within 3 months. - prop-114: Modification in the ASN eligibility criteria
This proposal is to modify the eligibility criteria for Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs), so that the absolute requirement to multihome is removed. Under the proposal, an organization is eligible for an ASN assignment if it is planning to use it within the next 6 months. - prop-115-v001: Registration of detailed assignment information in whois DB
This proposal calls for more specific assignment data in the APNIC Whois Database to support network operators wanting to filter out harmful traffic. For IPv4, the proposal is to add ‘port range’ information to IP address entries and for IPv6 to provide ‘assignment prefix size’ information for specific addresses. The proposal suggests these detailed records could be made available only to operators for security reasons.
In addition to the policy proposals, there will be a number of informational presentations and other discussions to act as background for the policy decisions. These cover topics such as whois accuracy, inter-regional transfers, delegation trends and transfer trends.
You can access the proposed agenda at the APNIC 39 program page.
If you are not able to make it to the meeting in Fukuoka, Japan next month, you can participate in the Open Policy Meeting with online chat, while watching the audio and video webcast.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.