Latest in the News: Updates From Regional Internet Registries 

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are nonprofit organizations responsible for managing internet number resources. Five RIRs exist in total – AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPE NCC – and they operate in five different geographical regions.  

Primarily, RIRs are responsible for the allocation and management of IP addresses. Now that the IPXO Marketplace welcomes IPs from all five RIRs, we closely follow the updates from each organization. Here’s the latest in the news from the Regional Internet Registries.  

A few weeks after IPXO opened its Marketplace to APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Center) clients, the Center shared that it is currently working on a new route management prevalidation feature. This feature will stop users from creating routing issues for their announcements in BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).  

Once the feature is introduced, APNIC users will be automatically warned if they make route management changes that could make BGP announcements RPKI-invalid.  

More on the topic: Route management prevalidation  

Undeniably, IPv4 addresses are a scarce commodity, and companies trying to get IPv4 allocations from ARIN – the American Registry for Internet Numbers – must join a waiting list. The RIR has recently fulfilled 73 requests for IP resources, and some of the clients reported routing issues.  

ARIN allocates IPv4 addresses that have been revoked by the RIR or returned by the registrants. In some cases, these resources exist in blocklists. Consequently, ARIN has started publishing a list of IP blocks and recommends that organizations providing blocklists refer to it.  

More on the topic: Help! My Newly Allocated IPv4 Block is on a Blocklist 

The Network Information Center of Chile (NIC Chile) belongs to the service region of LACNIC – Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center. The RIR has recently shared NIC Chile’s proposal to introduce DNAME, a type of record that allows delegating a DNS (Domain Name System) subtree to another DNS node. 

A DNS subtree is maintained for the reverse resolution of the IP resources delegated to a resource holder. The proposal discusses how to better delegate reverse resolutions in the DNS during inter-RIR transfers when IP addresses move between two RIRs.  

More on the topic: Use of DNAME for Reverse DNS Mapping of Inter-RIR Transferred Resources 

Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Center – RIPE NCC – has recently published its annual and financial reports for 2021. The annual report provides insights into membership statuses, internet resource allocations per country, inter- and intra-RIR transfers, and much more. 

More on the topic: RIPE NCC Annual Report 2021 and RIPE NCC Financial Report 2021 Published 

Finally, the African Network Information Center – AFRINIC – has announced that the Board of Directors is planning to fill open Northern Africa, Western Africa and Region-Independent seats.  

A recent announcement called AFRINIC Resource members to nominate potential candidates. Although the nomination process has already ended, NomCom (the Nomination Committee) will hold the official election in June 2022.  

The AFRINIC Board is the main governing body determining the guidelines for regional address allocation and considering broad internet policy issues. 

More on the topic: Call for Nominations for open AFRINIC Board of Directors Seat