News from RIPE 84
Waiting List for IPv4 Space
You’ll have to wait about 18 months to get IPv4 addresses from the RIPE NCC’s waiting list. This is the news from the RIPE NCC at RIPE 84. So, the open market is the only practical option for organizations who need IPv4 addresses they can use now.
The RIPE community created the waiting list to give new market entrants access to some IPv4 space. Unfortunately, some RIPE NCC members have multiple accounts and take multiple slots of the waiting list. Some members have 10 or more accounts. These members took more than half of waiting list slots at the end of 2021. They take just a quarter of them now, with over half going to members with just one account.
People at RIPE 84 discussed options to address this issue. They included running two queues. The first queue would be for members who have not got any IPv4 space before and the second would be for those who have.
Some people see approaches like this as attractive. But they would be complex to implement. We are unlikely to see changes to the waiting list.
If you need any amount of IPv4 address space, you can get it through the market. We run an auction platform with transparent pricing: find out more at www.ipv4.global/
Or call us on +1 212-610-5601 to discuss how we can help you.
IPv4 PI Assignments
The RIPE NCC reported problems when organizations buy IPv4 unofficially. In some cases, recipients contract for address space that was not allowed to be assigned to another organization. For instance, when the official registrant of the space no longer exists and the user is now in limbo.
The RIPE NCC does not make holders of Provider Independent address space contract directly with them. They can contract with a Local Internet registry, which could be a local ISP.
The RIPE NCC only found out about the improper sub-assignment of the address space when a customer of the Local Internet Registry went out of business. The RIPE community set a policy stopping the RIPE NCC from transferring the addresses to the actual user.
One option is for the user to join the RIPE NCC but this is often more expensive than the user planned.
IPv4.Global can help organizations get the IPv4 address space they need legitimately. It will be properly registered to them with the RIPE NCC.
Contact us for help in getting the IPv4 space you need: https://live-ipv4n.pantheonsite.io
Making IPv4 Assignment Registration Optional
Some organizations have 256 IPv6 addresses allocated to them. They then need to register the addresses they use in an assignment. This is a legacy from the early years of the internet when most organizations connected through ISPs and used the ISP’s IPv4 addresses.
The problem is that an assignment must be smaller than the allocation it comes from. This causes two problems. The registry doesn’t always hold good contact information for the addresses. That makes it harder to resolve technical problems.
It’s also a problem for organizations leasing blocks of 256 addresses. Registering two lots of addresses is confusing – and in some cases nothing is registered at all!
RIPE’s Database Task Force recommended a change. The Address Policy WG discussed at concept for policy proposal at RIPE 84. The proposal would relax the rule to register assignments for one’s own infrastructure.
There was some support but others felt the key problem was a technical limitation. They want that problem fixed.
Personal Data in the RIPE Database
At RIPE 84 we learned that about 2 million people have information about them registered in the RIPE database. This is a problem because these people can’t fix technical problems. Listing them makes it harder to find the people who can.
The RIPE database is for connecting teams who can resolve technical problems. They can use addresses like technical@example.com in their entries. They don’t need to list a person’s name or their email address.
A policy to address this problem will be drafted and presented to RIPE’s Database WG. But fixing it will need work from the ISPs that publish the data as well as the RIPE NCC.