The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. Following the IANA Stewardship Transition in 2016, the IANA function is carried out by Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), a purpose-built organisation wholly owned by ICANN.
With regard to Internet number resources, IANA's role is to allocate IP addresses and AS Numbers from the pools of unallocated resources to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) according to their needs, and to document protocol assignments made by the IETF. When an RIR requires more IP addresses for allocation or assignment within its region, IANA makes an additional allocation to the RIR. The five Regional Internet Registries have a Service Level Agreement with ICANN regarding provision of those IANA functions relating to Internet number resources (IP addresses and AS Numbers).
IANA does not make allocations directly to ISPs or End Users except in specific circumstances, such as allocations of multicast addresses or other protocol-specific needs.
The policies under which the IANA role is carried out are referred to as Global Addressing Policies, and must be agreed to by all of the five RIR communities. Any new policy proposal must go through the Policy Development Process in each RIR and be ratified by each community, and this process will then be reviewed by the ASO Address Council (ASO AC) before the new global policy is adopted.
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ICANN 55 was held from 5-10 March 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco, and marked another milestone in the march towards transition of the IANA functions stewardship to the global Internet community. RIPE NCC Executive Board members, staff and RIPE community participants took part in meetings throughout the week, discussing issues ranging from IANA stewardship and the accountability of ICANN to the accuracy of RIR whois databases.
Yesterday, on 1 March 2016, the RIPE NCC and other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) were each allocated the equivalent of a /15 of IPv4 address space from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The RIPE NCC received the IPv4 address ranges 45.65.64.0/18, 147.78.0.0/16, 192.144.0.0/18 and 192.145.0.0/17. We are currently adding these to our available pool.
Yesterday, on 2 September 2015, the RIPE NCC and other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) were each allocated a /14 of IPv4 address space from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The RIPE NCC received the IPv4 address ranges 45.66.0.0/15, 139.28.0.0/16 and 152.89/16. We are currently adding this to our available pool.
The 52nd ICANN meeting was held in Singapore from 8-12 February, attracting around 1800 participants on-site, as well as numerous remote participants. The issues surrounding ICANN accountability and the transition of IANA stewardship were again at the top of the agenda, and RIPE community members and RIPE NCC staff contributed to these discussions.
More than 3,000 people gathered in London last week to participate in the largest ever ICANN meeting. Some of the key issues discussed included the evolution of IANA stewardship arrangements and ICANN's accountability to its many stakeholders.