Summary

  • Erik Bais authored RIPE proposal 2014-02 to permit complete or partial transfers of Provider Independent IPv4 assignments. The proposal challenged a mismatch between real transactions and the registry's ability to record them.
  • RIPE accepted the proposal in September 2014 and announced implementation that December. A sponsoring LIR could open the transfer ticket, and the RIPE NCC would update the resource record.

The side letter and the silent ledger

Imagine an address block changing hands with a side letter while the registry keeps pointing at yesterday's holder. The letter may satisfy the parties. A network operator checking the record sees a different story. Erik Bais put that mismatch at the center of his 2014 proposal to RIPE. He argued that some PI IPv4 holders were already making private arrangements or dressing transfers as mergers because the published policy offered no direct route to transfer their assignments. Those examples were his case for changing the rule, not a count of proven transactions.

Provider Independent, or PI, space sits with an end user rather than inside a provider's own aggregate. Before 2014-02, the RIPE text said a PI assignment could remain with its end user while the original criteria held, but it could not be reassigned to another party. Bais wanted the address record to follow a real change in holder. He proposed transfers of an entire PI block or a part of it, subject to the contractual rules for independent resources. The recipient would inherit the same policy obligations as someone assigned PI space directly.

That change created paperwork worth having. The transferring holder stayed responsible until completion. The new holder entered the RIPE Registry, the change appeared in the RIPE Database, and approved transfers went onto a public list. A recipient could not pass the block on again for 24 months under the proposed text. The rule moved a transaction from a private margin note to a sequence a third party could inspect.

RIPE NCC's impact assessment spotted the extra work hiding behind the cleaner record. Staff would have to verify the old holder, the recipient, contracts and database objects. Splitting PI blocks might also produce more specific routes. The assessment identified those as expected effects; it did not supply a measured postimplementation result. It also kept IXP peering-LAN assignments outside this transfer path. A peering fabric's special address block was not inventory for an ordinary PI deal.

The proposal record dates acceptance to 30 September 2014. An RIPE NCC implementation notice later told end users that complete or partial PI transfers could begin and that a sponsoring LIR for either side should open a ticket. The meeting-room argument had acquired an inbox and a procedure.

Original records