[AfriNIC-rpd] IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks

[Graham Beneke]

#### IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks ####

Name:           IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks
Organization:   Johannesburg Area Wireless Users Group
Version:        Public Draft
Date:           13 Jan 2009
Status:         New
Authors:        Graham Beneke


Incentive
---------
Define criteria for non-profit and community organizations to be
recognized for membership of AfriNIC and to allow them to request resources.

Define criteria for organizations to qualify for blocks of IPv6 PI
address space and define a membership category that can be charged under
an appropriate fee structure.

Background
----------
Many community and non-profit networks exist on the African continent
and around the world. These networks have goals including providing
on-net and local community services and the exchange locally hosted
Internet content. They provide a platform for local skills development
in IP, SysAdmin, Software Development and other ICT related skills.

Many of these organizations provide the services free of charge and do
not have any kind of revenue stream. These networks generally consist of
hundreds or thousands of consumer-grade network devices often linked
though license exempt radio networking technologies.

Current financial policies only recognize academic institutions to
receive discounted rates for their numbering resources. Other suitably
defined community organizations also need ways of obtaining affordable
addressing resources.

These networks are generally addressed using private IPv4 (RFC1918)
address space with NAT technologies used at locations on the network
where gateways are required to link certain internal services to the
Internet.

IPv6 ULA (RFC4193) addresses are also used on these networks when
deploying services over IPv6. NAT however does not exist for IPv6 and
thus it is not possible to connect these ULA based networks to the
global Internet. Announcements of these ULA blocks over private peering
arrangements to large public AS's is often not feasible due to the many
bogon filters that would need to be updated.

The current IPv6 PI allocations policy requires that the address blocks
handed out by AfriNIC be announced within 12 months of allocation. This
puts an expectation that the prefix is visible on a number of public
looking glasses. While the organization may have have a number of
settlement-free peering arrangements with a number of public AS's it is
possible that the organization would never be able to purchase/obtain
transit for its prefix and would thus never be globally routable or visible.

The lack of publicly addressable IP space for these community networks
prevents them from participating on the public Internet more actively.
While IPv4 address space is finite and likely to increase in cost/value
as supply and demand changes over the immediate future - sufficient IPv6
address space exists for responsible allocations to be made to these
organizations at a low cost.


Definitions
-----------
(a) A Non-Profit Network is a network run within a local geographical
area for the purposes of free or low-cost network services within this
particular area. Legal responsibility for the network must be held by an
organization running as a not-for-profit entity and recognized as such
by the laws governing that particular country or region.


Allocation Size
---------------
Organizations that qualify to become members under this policy may apply
to AfriNIC for a /48 IPv6 address allocation. This is the only size of
allocation the Non-Profit Organization may request. Once an HD-Ratio of
0.94 has been reached with respect to subnet utilization then the
organization may make application to AfriNIC for additional addressing
resources and provide justification for this.


Allocation Criteria
-------------------
* The organization must not be an existing LIR.

* The organization must not hold an assignment of globally unique IPv4
address space.

* The organization may qualify for an allocation even if they do not
plan to announce it globally.

* The organization should provide details of peering arrangements with
at least 2 public AS's when applying for the allocation.

* The organization must announce the allocation in an aggregated way.
The organization may not sub-allocate portions of the address space.

Summary
-------
This policy seeks to make it as easy as possible for non-profit entities
to obtain IPv6 addressing resources and drive the deployment of and
demand for IPv6 services through this.

Additionally the policy seeks to limit the way in which these addressing
resources are used to avoid abuse by Internet Service Providers and
other commercial users of Internet addressing resources.

#### /IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks ####