Summary

  • RIPE-801 caps a temporary assignment for a conference or another short fixed event at its scheduled length plus one month, and at two months overall. A longer project or ordinary research request gets at most six calendar months or its expected life plus one month, whichever is shorter.
  • Research can reach one calendar year only when its project details are public upon registration and the End User commits to publish results free of charge and without disclosure constraints. The same openness conditions can justify an IPv4 research request larger than the default /24 on routing grounds.
  • RIPE NCC's review procedure sends every temporary IPv4, IPv6 or ASN request longer than two months to at least two resource analysts and requires approval from Registration Services Management and the Policy Development Office.

The conference producer wants a prefix that works from the first rehearsal until the last machine is unplugged. The researcher wants an experiment to survive a data-collection season.

Both ask RIPE NCC for temporary Internet numbers. The institution answers with different clocks, written into the registration record.

RIPE-801 authorizes reserved pools of IPv4, IPv6 and AS numbers for direct, time-limited assignment to End Users. Conferences, academic experiments and deployment tests are examples. The numbers may be used only for the purpose in the application. The RIPE Database records start and end dates. At the end, the assignment is automatically deregistered and the resources return to the relevant reserved pool. Early return is possible. The public entry therefore carries an expiry, not just a holder.

An event gets one month beyond its scheduled duration, with a two-month absolute ceiling. A week-long meeting does not acquire two months by default; its stated duration plus a month is the smaller limit. A two-month conference does not get a third month.

That formulation matters to anyone building a network before doors open or dismantling one after the audience leaves. The preparation and teardown fit inside the same assignment clock.

Longer projects and ordinary research have another test: up to six calendar months, or one month beyond the expected project life, whichever is shorter. The schedule on the application determines how much of that ceiling is available. A short experiment cannot simply claim the full six months. The registry can ask for documents supporting the request's realistic expectations.

Research has a third lane. It may receive up to one calendar year when the project details are made public as the numbers are registered and the End User commits to make the results public without charge or disclosure limits.

That is a bargain with an observable opening act and a promised closing act. The policy does not demand a particular research conclusion. It demands public access to the work that earns the longer hold on a shared pool. An operator relying on the year-long path should budget for that publication obligation before it designs the experiment around the address space.

The size rule sharpens the bargain. The default IPv4 assignment is a /24; smaller requests are possible. Above /24, at least half of the requested address space must be used concurrently at the assignment's peak. A research project can justify more than /24 because of routing requirements when it also makes the project details public and promises unrestricted, free results. A large routing experiment thus needs a case about simultaneous use, not a speculative inventory request. Its public-output commitment appears in both the longer-duration and research-size routes, though the tests remain distinct.

The applicant is not alone at the counter. RIPE NCC's request instructions say the sponsoring LIR first signs a Temporary Independent Assignment and Maintenance Agreement with the End User, then submits the authenticated resource request. The temporary project has an institutional sponsor and a recorded use period. Those are practical control points when a project changes staff, extends its timetable or closes early.

The institution also changes reviewers at the two-month line. Its escalated-evaluation page says all temporary assignments longer than two months go through at least two Internet Resource Analysts and need approval from Registration Services Management and the Policy Development Office. A conference's policy ceiling stops at that threshold. A six-month project or one-year research request crosses it. The same page lists other size and type triggers; the duration rule identifies an additional decision point, not a promise that short applications escape scrutiny.

Renewal has a narrow door. RIPE-801 allows it at the NCC's discretion in exceptional circumstances after a new request explains the continued need. A denied renewal can go to the RIPE NCC Conflict Arbitration Procedure.

A project manager who treats the original expiry as a calendar suggestion has made a network-continuity decision without the authority to extend the registry entry.