[APNIC Members] [apnic-announce] COMMENTS REQUIRED ON ASSIGNMENT OF IPv6 ADDRESSES FOR EXCHANGE POINTS

[APNIC Secretariat <secretariat@apnic.net>]

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COMMENTS REQUIRED ON ASSIGNMENT OF IPv6 ADDRESSES FOR EXCHANGE POINTS

Dear Colleagues,

Your comments are requested on issues relating to assignments of IPv6
address space to Internet exchange points, as described below.


BACKGROUND

Recently there have been a number of IPv6 requests send to the RIRs
concerning address space requirements for exchange points.

Typically the amounts of address space requested for the purpose of
addressing exchange points are very small, rarely more than a /24 in IPv4
and a /48 in IPv6. Often such assignments are 'Provider Independent' and
do not form part of a provider's CIDR block.


CURRENT CONCERNS

The existing policy framework for IPv6 does not cater for small "Provider
Independent" assignments. Unless the exchange point operator is providing
transit services to its customers, it will not be eligible to receive IPv6
addresses directly from a Regional Internet Registry.


FEEDBACK REQUIRED

In developing an IPv6 policy for exchange points, the following issues
arise:

 - does an exchange point require globally unique address space?
 - if so, how much address space should be assigned?
 - should any assignments be from a special reserved block within
   APNIC's subTLA range or from a globally reserved range?
 - how do we define an exchange point?

At the recent RIPE meeting in Bologna the issue of IPv6 address
assignments to Internet exchange points was discussed. During the meeting
an Internet exchange point was defined as follows:

  "3 or more ASes and 3 or more separate entities attached
   to a LAN (the same infrastructure) for the purpose of
   peering and more are welcome to join."

Furthermore it was proposed to assign a /64 to an isolated Exchange Point
and to assign a /48 to a group of inter-connected Exchange Points.
Discussions are still ongoing and details can be found at:

    http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail-archives/ipv6-wg/current/

This issue is also being actively discussed on the mailing lists within
the ARIN region. ARIN currently has a policy in place for assignments of
IPv4 address space to exchange points. This policy can be found under the
heading "Micro-allocations" at:

   http://www.arin.net/regserv/initial-isp.html

Your comments on any of the issues raised here would be much appreciated.

Please send your comments to <sig-policy@apnic.net>. The deadline for
comments is July 31st. After this deadline comments will be summarised and
sent to this list. If you are not currently subcribed to this list, you
may use our online subscription form at:

    http://www.apnic.net/lists/index.html

Best wishes,

Anne Lord
APNIC

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APNIC Secretariat                                 <secretariat@apnic.net>
                                                     Tel: +61-7-3367-0490
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) Ltd  Fax: +61-7-3367-0482
Level 1, 33 Park Road, PO Box 2131, Milton, QLD 4064, Australia
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