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APNIC Document identity
Title: Confederation Requirements, Fees and Policies
Short title: confed-requirements
Document ref: DRAFT-CONFED
Version: 002
Date of original publication: August 1998
Date of this version: 1 December 2001
Review scheduled: n/a
Obsoletes: Previous versions
Status: Obsolete
Comments: This draft was formerly labelled
incorrectly as APNIC-074.
Without affecting existing
confederations, the acceptance of
new confederations is currently
suspended.
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Confederation Requirements, Fees and Policies
1. Introduction
APNIC, having limited resources, is unable to provide its services in
the many languages and cultures of the Asia and Pacific Rim regions.
As a means to improve allocation and registration services for the
Asia Pacific Internet community, APNIC provides for the establishment
of confederations of Internet service providing organizations. These
confederations enable the provision of registry services in the local
language and culture thereby providing the opportunity for better
services.
Originally, confederations derived from the concept of "National
Network Information Centers", organizations which provide registry
services on a national basis. As the Internet uses hierarchical
addressing that corresponds to network topology and the topology of
the Internet is defined by Internet service providers as opposed to
geo-political topology, the concept of national NICs has been
generalized to include any group of entities (generally Internet
service providers) requiring independent and topologically significant
address space which are able to work together when requesting registry
services.
The creation of confederation has however resulted in several
complications in the management of Internet administrative resources.
These complications arise due to the added complexity APNIC faces in
attempting to insure efficient address space utilization and
appropriateness of allocation of autonomous system numbers. With the
added layer of indirection implied by confederations, the resource
demands placed on APNIC as a result of confederation requests is
significantly greater, thus there exists a need to insure
confederations do not negatively impact the provision of registry
services to all other APNIC members.
This document describes the steps necessary to form an APNIC
confederation, the fees associated with confederations, and the
delegation policies to confederations by APNIC. Any questions
regarding these policies should be referred to hostmaster@apnic.net.
1.1 Definitions
In an attempt to limit confusion over terminology, the following
definitions are offered:
1.1.1 "Internet administrative resources" are those resources
administered by the Internet registry system including Internet
addresses, autonomous system numbers, and in-addr.arpa domains
associated with the Internet addresses administered by the
registry.
1.1.2 "Delegation" indicates the transfer of Internet administrative
resources from one organization to another. Delegations may be
done "internally", e.g., within a single organization or
"externally", e.g., between one organization and an independent
outside organization.
1.1.3 "assignment" denotes the delegation of a resource to an end user
organization with the understanding that there will be no
further external delegation, that is, resources will only be
sub-delegated internally.
1.1.4 "end user organization" describes an organization which makes
use of delegated resources internally, that is, does not
sub-delegate those resources outside their organization.
1.1.5 "allocation" denotes the delegation of a resource to an
organization which may subsequently sub-delegate the resource
either as an assignment or as a sub-allocation.
1.1.6 "confederation" is defined as an organization which acts on
behalf of its membership in all interactions with APNIC and
which allocates resources to its membership.
1.1.7 "confederation member" describes an autonomous sub-entity of the
confederation which requires an independently routable block of
address space. An "autonomous sub-entity" may be an independent
organization or an independently routable sub-region within a
single organization.
1.1.8 "independently routable block" denotes a routing prefix which
may generally be accepted for routing on the Internet according
to current Internet operational practices. The size of a
"routable prefix" is taken by APNIC to mean a /19 (8192
addresses). APNIC chooses /19 in order to be consistent with
other regional registries, however APNIC can in no way assure
address space it allocates is actually routed by service
providers either now nor in the future. APNIC can only insure
global uniqueness in the address space it delegates and as
whether a given prefix is routed depends entirely on Internet
service providers over which APNIC has no control, APNIC can
provide no assurance the address space it allocates will be
routed.
2. Establishment of a Confederation
This section details the requirements for the establishment of a
confederation. These requirements, while somewhat stringent, are put
in place to insure confederation policies and procedures are
consistent with Internet registry policies currently in effect. In
addition, the documentary requirements specified here enable
confederations to share policies and procedures, thereby promoting
consistency of delegation policies and providing models for new
confederations which are establishing themselves.
2.1 In order for a confederation to be established, the following
requirements must be met:
2.1.1 Acceptance of the APNIC Confederation Agreement. This document
is available from:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/confed-agreement
and must be signed by the person responsible for the
confederation. The original signed document must be provided to
APNIC prior to any requests of resources for the confederation.
2.1.2 Submission and approval of the confederation's delegation policies
document which includes:
- A description of the confederation's allocation and
assignment policies
- A description of the mechanisms by which the confederation
corroborates the sub-delegations made by the confederation's
members
These documents must be submitted in English and will be posted
on the APNIC servers for public reference. In order to insure
compliance with existing Internet resource delegation policies,
APNIC will review these documents and may recommend changes
prior to the creation of the confederation. Should a
confederation update their delegation policies, APNIC should be
informed of the changes as soon as possible.
2.1.3 Submission of the confederation's membership policies document
which includes:
- A description of the confederation's membership admittance
policies
- A description of the confederation's membership revocation
policies
These documents should be submitted in English and will be
posted on the APNIC servers for public reference. As membership
admittance and revocation are not related to resource
delegation, APNIC will accept these documents without comment.
2.1.4 Submission of the confederation's membership list consisting of:
- All confederation members' organization names
- All confederation members' addresses
- All confederation member's contact information including the
administrative and technical contacts with (at a minimum) a
telephone number and email address
- Date when the members joined the confederation
- A list of the existing resources allocated to each confederation
member, including:
- IP addresses
- AS numbers
This list should be inclusive of all resources the
confederation's members are using whether allocated by APNIC,
the confederation, or other registry and it is critical that
this list be updated to reflect any changes in the
confederation's membership that may occur.
2.1.5 Payment of all relevant fees for the establishment and operation
of the confederation as described in section 3.
2.2 Discussion
To explain the requirements above, the following discussion is
provided.
2.2.1 As allocation policies to confederations differ from the
policies applied to regular members, the specifics of the
confederation policies must be clearly understood by both APNIC
and the confederation. As a result, a separate agreement must
be implemented between APNIC and confederations above and beyond
the standard APNIC membership agreement.
2.2.2 Confederations by definition delegate resources their membership
who will in turn sub-delegate those resources to other
organizations. As such, it is important that APNIC have full
knowledge and understanding of the policies under which the
confederation operates. The requirement for documentation of
the delegation policies of the confederation, both in terms of
delegations as well as the method by which the confederation
verifies the information provided to it by its membership allows
APNIC to understand the confederation's delegation policies and
suggest modifications to those policies in order to conform with
RFC 2050 and subsequent Internet resource delegation policies.
In addition, the publication of confederation policies enables
new confederations to reference existing policies thereby
avoiding "re-inventing the wheel" as well as encouraging more
consistent policies among all confederations.
2.2.3 The requirement of submitting the confederation's membership
policies is intended to allow APNIC to refer appropriate
organizations to the confederation. While APNIC cannot require
organizations to go to any particular confederation, APNIC will
encourage organizations that fit the membership criteria to
apply to appropriate confederations.
2.2.4 The confederation's membership list is essential to insuring
confederation members are not able to circumvent existing
delegation policies by obtaining resources from multiple
sources. As such it must be fully inclusive, listing all
confederation members and including sufficient information to
allow APNIC to verify confederation members are not already a
member of APNIC or another confederation.
2.2.5 The confederation fees are designed to insure regular APNIC
members do not subsidize confederations and that APNIC has
sufficient resources to provide services to both confederations
and regular members.
3. Confederation Fees
In order to insure regular APNIC members do not subsidize
confederation members and that confederations provide sufficient
funding to cover the cost of providing services to the confederations
and regular members alike, fees must be charged for the operation of
confederations.
The fees associated with the operation of confederations are based on
the resources allocated to the confederation. The fee structure is
dependent on the size of the confederation and the amount of Internet
address space allocated to the confederation:
Member Tier Per-Address Fee
----------- ---------------
Extra Large US $0.02
Very Large US $0.03
Large US $0.06
Medium US $0.11
Small US $0.16
Very Small n/a
Associate n/a
The fees are applied prior to allocation and have no recurrent
component, that is they are one-time only fees. The amount of address
space allocated depends on the prior address allocation history of the
confederation and the imminent requirements the confederation
documents.
Note that these fees are in addition to (and independent of) the
yearly membership fees.
4. APNIC Address Delegation Policies to Confederations
As delegations to confederations follow standard "slow-start"
procedures similar to that of allocations to regular APNIC members,
delegation policies to confederations have two categories, the initial
delegation and delegations made when the free address space pool of
the confederation is insufficient to satisfy a particular member's
request.
4.1 Initial Address Delegations
Confederations are initially delegated a /19 per confederation member
after they meet the requirements described in section two.
Note: the minimum allocation unit made by APNIC to confederations is a
/19 (8192 addresses) as this quantity of addresses is the customary
"maximum prefix length" generally accepted for routing as discussed in
the introduction. Confederations are assumed to sub-delegate at least
a /19 to its members. Confederation should not sub-delegate longer
prefixes except under very unusual circumstances and should be
prepared to document those circumstances.
In the case where a confederation member has not consumed previously
allocated resources (e.g., when a confederation member moves from
regular APNIC member status to a confederation member or changes
confederations), APNIC will defer allocation of the /19 until the
confederation member has exhausted its existing space.
In the case where a confederation member has not received any previous
delegation of resources, APNIC will delegate a /19 to the
confederation for that member. The confederation is assumed to
immediately sub-delegate the /19 to the confederation membership.
APNIC will only delegate /19s to the confederation for organizations
which are listed in the confederation's membership list. When a new
organization joins a confederation, the confederation must notify
APNIC of the new member before an initial (or additional) delegation
can be made.
When address space is delegated, APNIC will invoice the confederation
for the fees computed on the amount of address space delegated and the
member's self determined tier of membership. Terms of payment are
payable upon receipt. Failure to pay the specified fees will result
in the address space being returned to the free pool and no additional
resources being delegated to the confederation.
4.2 Subsequent Confederation Address Delegations
APNIC maintains an "allocation window" which defines how much address
space a confederation may sub-delegate to its membership without a
second opinion from APNIC. Initially, the confederation's allocation
window is zero (0) addresses implying the confederation may not
sub-delegate addresses to a confederation member without obtaining a
second opinion from APNIC. As the confederation gains experience in
delegating addresses to its members, APNIC will open the window (by
/19s) to allow the confederation to allocate more and more address
space autonomously.
When a confederation member has consumed the address space delegated
to it, either via assignments to customers or via use for internal
infrastructure, the confederation member should contact the
confederation for additional address space. The confederation is
required to verify the confederation member has:
4.2.1 Assigned address space efficiently, in particular that the amount
of address space assigned conforms to the documented requirements
of the confederation member's customers, i.e., the confederation
member is not assigning a "class C" or other fixed address size per
customer.
4.2.2 Updated the APNIC database appropriately, specifically that all
reassignments can be found within the APNIC database. This may be
done directly by the confederation member (recommended) or via the
confederation which submits reassignments on behalf of its
membership.
4.2.3 Has consumed at least 80% of the space allocated to it, including
both internal infrastructure and customer delegations.
4.2.4 Provided enough summary information of all assignments made to permit
the confederation to submit CUST-NETWORK information to APNIC for the
member
If all four of these conditions are met, the confederation should
allocate additional address space to the confederation member. The
amount of additional address space allocated depends on how well the
confederation member has conformed to the delegation policies defined
in RFC 2050, by APNIC, and by the confederation, but in all cases must
be less than the allocation window as defined by APNIC.
4.3 Obtaining Additional Space from APNIC
If the confederation has insufficient space to satisfy its member's
request, the confederation should contact APNIC to obtain additional
space. In order for APNIC to allocate additional address space, the
confederation must provide (via
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/confed-ip-request):
4.3.1 An exhaustive list of all delegations the confederation has made
to demonstrate it has insufficient address space to cover the
request of the confederation member. This list must document
all address space delegated to the confederation by APNIC and
the subsequent sub-delegation to confederation members.
4.3.2 An exhaustive list of the assignments and/or allocations in
"cust-network" format made by the confederation member which has
exhausted its address space.
When this information is provided, APNIC will verify the APNIC
database has been updated (either directly by the confederation member
or via the confederation), that address space was allocated
appropriately by the confederation, and the confederation member
assigned its address space efficiently. Assuming address space has
been delegated efficiently both by the confederation and the
confederation member, APNIC will delegate additional address space to
the confederation and may (at APNIC's option) update the allocation
window.
APNIC will only verify the assignments of the confederation member
which has consumed the address space delegated to it. Other
confederation member's assignments will not be used in determining
whether the confederation requires additional address space. However,
APNIC will maintain a history of all allocations the confederation has
made and may request additional information should there be any
confusion on the status of address space delegated to the
confederation.
Should a confederation member have not assigned address space
efficiently, APNIC may not delegate additional address space to the
confederation for subsequent sub-delegation to that member. However,
should another confederation member exhaust its address space, APNIC
may delegate address space to the confederation for the second member.
4.4 Summary
Address delegation procedures to confederations can be summarized as:
* A confederation will receive a /19 for each of its members that are
either new or have exhausted their previously allocated space.
* When a confederation member has exhausted its address space, it
should contact its confederation for additional address space. The
confederation will verify the confederation member has:
1. Used its address space efficiently
2. Updated the APNIC database
3. Consumed at least 80% of the space delegated to it
Assuming these conditions are met, the confederation should delegate
additional space to the confederation member
* If a confederation has insufficient address space to satisfy a
confederation member's request, the confederation may request
additional space from APNIC by providing (via the confed-ip-request
form):
1. A summary of all delegations the confederation has made
2. A summary of all delegations the confederation member which
has run out of address space has made.
Assuming all the conditions listed above are met, APNIC will allocate
additional address space to the confederation should it be necessary.
5. Autonomous Number Delegation Policies
Autonomous system numbers are delegated to confederations under a
similar "slow-start" procedure as was described in the previous
section. Initially, APNIC will delegate four (4) AS numbers to a
confederation upon request. When this initial block of AS numbers has
been sub-delegated and the APNIC database has been updated to reflect
the reassignments (see ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/database-update-info),
APNIC will allocate additional AS numbers. The actual number of
additional AS numbers delegated will depend on the confederation's
conformance to the allocation policies described in RFC 1930, but
typically the total number of ASes delegated to the confederation will
be doubled.
6. Conclusions
This document has provided the requirements for establishing and
operating a confederation. Confederations are designed to allow for a
higher level of service in resource delegation than can be possible
given the limited resources of APNIC. The guidelines and fee
structures presented here are intended to allow confederations to
continue to be created and operated while at the same time insuring
APNIC continues to exist to provide the resources the confederation
needs.