Changing Internet Rules is Easy
31/08/2015
The possibility of transferring IP addresses among Latin American and Caribbean organizations was brought up during the “Changing Internet Policies is Easy” event organized by LACNIC to promote community involvement in regional Internet policy development.
New types of transfers in the LAC region? During this online meeting, it was explained that there are currently organizations with IPv4 addressing needs that cannot be satisfied from the region’s pool of available resources. This means that these organizations may try to obtain IPv4 addresses in other markets. It was mentioned that, in this case, transfers would not be recorded in the LACNIC registry and these IP addresses would be outside the formal system, which might make them difficult to identify. In this sense, it was stressed that LACNIC is responsible for managing the region’s Internet number resources and therefore, if such transfers begin to be made without a proper policy, their registration information may no longer be accurate. This issue will be discussed in upcoming forums and debates to be organized by LACNIC.
The event also addressed important community news and presented new tools available for the community to participate in changing Internet policies for the LAC region.
The event featured the special participation of Jorge Lam, who shared his experience of having successfully implemented a proposed policy change. Lam shared that he had not been happy with the requirement that an organization needed to be multihomed in order to request an ASN and had consequently submitted a proposal to change this requirement. He noted that he had found the process for implementing his proposal very simple and that he had always felt supported by the moderators and the community.
Changes in IPv4 exhaustion? Regarding the pool of available IPv4 addresses, it was explained that, when exhaustion policies were implemented, the idea was to leave a reserve for Phase 2 (during which only up to a /22 will be assigned) similar in size to the reserve for Phase 3 (during which only new members will be eligible to receive IPv4 blocks). Circumstances, however, have changed: thanks to the blocks allocated by the IANA and those that have been returned and revoked, the reserve for Phase 3 has grown more than expected.
These new circumstances lead to the conclusion that Phase 3 will last approximately until 2024 and that Phase 2 will end approximately in late 2015. For this reason, the community raised the question of whether it would be appropriate to adapt the policy to the new circumstances so as to optimize IPv4 address management.
Policies to be discussed during LACNIC 24. The policies that will be discussed at the upcoming Public Policy Forum that will meet in Bogotá during LACNIC 24 were also presented. In addition, an update was provided about some of the proposals currently under discussion in other regions (APNIC, RIPE, AFRINIC, ARIN) and which might be interesting for the LAC region to consider. One example is the proposal titled Out-Of-Region Use of AFRINIC Internet Number Resources, which suggests defining the amount of allocated resources that might be used outside the AFRINIC region.
Finally, two new options offered by LACNIC to encourage the creation of new policies were presented. First, a “List of Enhancements” which seeks to inspire the creation of new policy proposals. The idea is to generate synergies within the community for creating new policies, in other words, generating synergies among those suggesting enhancements and others who, based on those suggestions, will be able to find a solution and submit it in the form of a policy proposal. Contributions on this topic can be submitted to the mailing list at
http://www.lacnic.net/web/lacnic/politicas-mejoras
Second, a “Policy Shepherds” or “Policy guides” service, which consists of a list of volunteers involved with the community and experienced in the Policy Development Process who will help other members submit their policies. Contacts can be made through info-politicas@lacnic.net
Finally, Carlos Plasencia, Co-Chair of the Public Policy Forum, highlighted the policy development process’s simplicity and the fact that it provides the community with the opportunity to have a positive impact on the Internet rules applied in the region.