[AfriNIC-rpd] Policy Proposal: End user classification for Universities

[Owen DeLong]

On Jun 28, 2012, at 11:23 PM, Mark Slingsby wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm sure the other %NIC's have had this same issue. 

I can't speak for all *NICs (I'm a unix guy, not an sql guy), but in the ARIN region, most universities are actually legacy holders leaving tremendous ambiguity as to whether they are LIRs or end-users.

For those that have obtained non-legacy space, the majority of them are LIRs to the best of my knowledge. However, I don't have visibility into the actual registration data, I base my conclusion on the ones that I have worked with.

> What do they classify university's as? What is their policy?

Policy at ARIN is much like that of AfriNIC. If you are assigning addresses to external entities, you are an LIR. If you are not, you are an end-user. For the most part, ARIN allows for organizations to self-select a category, but, there are also advantages and disadvantages associated with each category which tend to push organizations into selecting the correct category to avoid boxing themselves into an uncomfortable corner later.

> It sounds to me like a uni could be either, depending on their network and if they sold to 3rd party organizations. I don't think dorms should be counted as 3rd party's, the students are still part of the same org. However if the use is by a 3rd party, like another uni or school etc the they should definitely be a LIR. 

We can agree to disagree on this. Dorms and other student residential facilities (at least the ones I am familiar with) are much more like apartments than like classrooms, labs, or other academic facilities.

You would not say that an apartment complex which provides internet to every apartment is an end-user, (or at least I would not), but, would classify them as an LIR because they provide addressing to support networks which are not within their administrative control.

After it hits the first router in the dorm-room, anything behind that is not within the university's administrative control. Hence, I argue that dorms are, in fact, external connections where the university is acting as an ISP.

> So what does this really effect? What else is different between a LIR and end user? This only really sounds like a price issue. Am I wrong?

IMHO there are policy issues which go beyond price.


Owen