ISP group manages protocol transition
President of American Registry for Internet Numbers sees a 5-to-10-year supply of IPv4 addresses.
 
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The American Registry for Internet Numbers, a 3-year-old nonprofit run by the ISP industry, is a behind-the-scenes player in some of the hottest debates among Internet policymakers. Responsible for assigning blocks of Internet addresses to companies operating in North and South America, ARIN has an interesting perspective on the depletion of addresses for IPv4, the current version of the Internet protocol, as well as demand for IPv6, its long-delayed replacement. ARIN President Ray Plzak sat down recently with Network World Senior Editor Carolyn Duffy Marsan to discuss IPv4/IPv6 transition and other issues facing ARIN.
When did you join ARIN and what was your background?
I took over as president in September of 2000. Before that I was an assistant vice president with Science Applications International. I was the operations manager for the Defense Department's Network Information Center, which includes the .mil domain and the delegation of IP addresses.
Who are ARIN's members and how does it operate?
ARIN has a staff of 32 in Chantilly, Va. We have 1,430 members, mostly ISPs. They pay us an annual fee depending on the amount of Internet address space they require. The fees are $2,500, $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000. We also have a couple of hundred corporate end users who pay us a one-time fee to get a large block of address space. A corporate end user can become a member of ARIN for $500 per year.
We have a board of trustees that is nominated and elected by the members. The board is six individuals - five elected members and me - but we are expanding the board to seven individuals. The board meets three times per year, at the same time as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings. ARIN's policy decisions come out of its members. The board ratifies those decisions after showing that consensus is there.
What's your view of IPv4 address exhaustion?
Approximately 30% of the Internet address space has not been allocated. But a lot of what's been allocated is not in use. Whether you think we're running out of IPv4 addresses depends on your view of the world. My personal view is that we've got 5 to 10 years at least, based on how the address space is being handled.
What is the status of IPv6 address assignments for ARIN?
We've allocated space to 20 ISPs and corporate end users since IPv6 addresses became available in the fall of 1999. In order to remove barriers to IPv6 usage, we suspended fees for IPv6 space until December of 2002.
Explain the ongoing controversy between ARIN and the IETF over IPv6 address assignments.
The issue is what is the standard block of IPv6 address space an ISP should allocate to an individual. . . . The problem is that nobody knows what that number should really be. We hope to have it decided by the end of the summer.
What interaction do you have with corporate network managers?
They come to us for Internet address space. If they justify the space, they get it. The larger companies with larger infrastructures tend to get their requests met. The smaller companies get their addresses from their ISPs. Say Company A buys Company B. Their IP address space is not property; it doesn't transfer like furniture. When Company A takes over Company B, they need to justify taking over the address space. I can't think of a time when we have said no.
What is the relationship between ARIN and the IETF?
The IETF does protocol development. ARIN is the Internet Protocol registry. Many of our members are active in the IETF. I am co-chair of the IETF's Domain Name Server Operations working group. We have this understanding: The IETF does technical stuff, and the registry does policy stuff. We try to stay out of each other's business.
What is ARIN's relationship to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers?
ARIN is one of three Regional Internet Registries (RIR) and a member of the Address Support Organization (ASO) of ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers]. Three members of the ASO Address Council are from the ARIN region. Three are from RIPE [Reseaux IP Europeens] and three are from APNIC [Asia Pacific Network Information Center.] The ASO selects three members of the ICANN board, and Ken Fockler of the ICANN board is from the ARIN region. I go to all the ICANN meetings. The three RIRs contribute to the ICANN budget.
How does ARIN interact with the other RIRs?
We joke that we see each other more than we see our families. We all go to the IETF and ICANN meetings. On our Web site, we have a policy comparison that shows that our policies are very, very close although we have some differences in practice. Some of the major ISPs, like Global Crossing, are members of all three registries.
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