2006-09-07 - Ratification of Global IPv6 Policy Proposal

During the Meeting, the Board of ICANN ratified a global policy for the allocation of IPv6 addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to Regional Internet Registries.

IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol (IP) addressing scheme. Internet protocol addresses are the unique numerical identifiers used to identify each computer on the Internet, so that Internet data is transmitted to the correct destination. The introduction of IPv6 has greatly expanded the number of IP addresses available for the world to use.

The Board had discussed the proposed policy at previous meetings. During this meeting there was another discussion of the policy, the recent public comment period. Staff noted that their would be a necessary time lag between the ratification of the policy and the implementation including a required mutual agreement between ICANN staff and the US Department of Commerce staff regarding steps for implementation of the policy. The board recognized the time required before implementation and then the proposed resolutions relating to the policy ratification was moved for a vote by Raimundo Beca and seconded by Alejandro Pisanty. Accordingly the board voted on the following resolutions:

Whereas, on 13 July 2006, the Address Supporting Organization (ASO AC) submitted a Global Policy Proposal for Allocation of IPv6 Address Space by IANA to RIRs, to be handled by the Board in line with the Board's Review Procedures for Global Internet Number Resource Policies Forwarded for Ratification by the ASO Address Council in Accordance with the ASO MoU.

Whereas, the ASO AC has verified that consensus has been duly achieved in all RIRs for this Proposal and has also submitted advice in full support of the Proposal to the Board.

Whereas, advice from SSAC expresses support for the Proposal and public comments received are in favor of the Proposal.

Whereas, the Proposal defines a non-discriminatory policy with objective allocation criteria and strikes a balance between the needs to minimize address space fragmentation, to stem routing table growth and to limit wasteful practices.

Whereas, there is a need for timely allocation information in order to enable assessment of how the utilization of the IPv6 address space develops and of how the proposed policy matches such developments in practice.

Resolved (06.__), the Board hereby ratifies the Global Policy Proposal on IPv6 as a Global Policy and instructs ICANN staff to implement its provisions.

Resolved (06.__), the Board directs ICANN staff to develop and implement, in cooperation with the RIRs, a timely reporting arrangement concerning the RIRs' allocation of IPv6 address space.

Resolved (06.__), the Board further directs ICANN staff to perform an evaluation of the effects in practice of the proposed policy within three years of its adoption, including reports from relevant parties concerning end-user allocation issues.

The Board members present for the meeting unanimously approved the above resolutions by a vote of 13-0 with no abstentions.

Raimundo Beca requested the publication of the following statement:

"Not only I am pleased to move and to vote in favor of the ratification of this global policy about the allocation of IPv6 addresses by IANA to the RIRs, but I would also like to highlight a number of relevant facts that clearly show to which extent this is an historical decision and a major contribution to the Internet community:

• This policy has been adopted as a PDP, through a long process that took more than three years. Specifically, this PDP respected strictly all the formalities required by the ASO MOU and the Board's procedures regarding the ratification of addressing global policies;
• This policy is absolutely consistent with Resolution N? 38 of the Tunis Agenda, that pleas in favor of the reinforcement of the management of the Internet global ressources at a regional level;
• This policy allocates an initial /12 bloc of addresses to each one of the five RIRs. Not only this initial bloc of addresses will certainly enable all RIRs to fulfill the demand for at least the next 18 months, but less developed regions will receive exactly the same bloc of addresses as the more developped ones; and
• In the context of this initial /12 bloc of addresses allocated to the RIRs, a number of more consevative downstream allocation policies are currently adopted or under discusion at the five RIRs. Among those policies, I would like to mention, on one hand, the adoption of a higher HD Ratio and, on theother, the oppening of a /56 option bloc of addresses offered to small and medium size enterprises and organizations customers. For sure, under an initial bloc of addresses smaller than /12, those more consevative wouldn't ever be adoptted. Effectively, due to sparse allocation, in order to avoid downstream fragmentation at the final users level, wider allocation sizes are needed at the top level of allocations of the address space."