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The RIR System

Paul WilsonDirector General, APNIC

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What are RIRs?• Regional Internet Registries

– Allocation and registration of IP addressesand related “Internet resources”

– Open policy process– Technical services, training and education…– No involvement in DNS registration!

• First established in early 1990’s– Voluntarily by consensus of community– To satisfy emerging technical/admin needs

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Early years: 1981 – 1992

“The assignment of numbers is also handled by Jon. If you aredeveloping a protocol or application that will require the use of alink, socket, port, protocol, or network number please contactJon to receive a number assignment.” (RFC 790)

1981:

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Addresses and Routing: ’83 – ’91

0

2

4

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16

18

1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991

0

1000

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7000

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Jul-88 Jan-89 Jul-89 Jan-90 Jul-90 Jan-91 Jul-91 Jan-92 Jul-92

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The Boom: 1992 – 2001

“It has become clear that … these problems are likely to become criticalwithin the next one to three years.” (RFC1366)

“…it is [now] desirable to consider delegating the registration function to anorganization in each of those geographic areas.” (RFC 1338)

1992:

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Today: 2002 – 2006

2004:Number Resource Organisation

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Addresses and Routing : 2006

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

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18

1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005

afrinic

various

assigned

ripencc

lacnic

arin

apnic

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What else are RIRs?• Industry self-regulatory structures

– Open membership-based bodies– Self-funded service organisations– Non-profit, neutral and independent

• Participants in the ICANN process– Through NRO and ASO

• In the “Internet Tradition”– Consensus-based decision making– Open and transparent– Multi-stakeholder processes

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RIR Policy Development Process

OPEN

TRANSPARENT‘BOTTOM UP’

Anyone can participate

All decisions & policies documented& freely available to anyone

Internet community proposesand approves policy

Need

DiscussEvaluate

Implement Consensus

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RIR research and reporting

1983

1984

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1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

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2004

2005

2006

0

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16

afrinic

various

assigned

ripencc

lacnic

arin

apnic

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

Jan-

1993

Jan-

1994

Jan-

1995

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1996

Jan-

1997

Jan-

1998

Jan-

1999

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2000

Jan-

2001

Jan-

2002

Jan-

2003

Jan-

2004

Jan-

2005

Jan-

2006

afrinic

ripencc

lacnic

arin

apnic

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Internet Geography• “Nations” of the Internet are networks

– “Frontiers” are border routers– “Treaties” are peering relationships betweenrelationships

• It’s a very dynamic world…– New nations are formed daily, borders hourly– Routing tables change by the minute– Driven by industry – no centralised control

• Very different from “traditional” networks– telephony for example... and requiring a very different approach

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Thanks

pwilson@apnic.nethttp://www.apnic.net