RIPE Internet Network Numbers Template

D.Karrenberg

Aug 1992



To whom it may concern,

The RIPE Network Coordination Centre now handles all requests for IP
network numbers from European organisations. Our aim is to provide a
rapid and efficient service to all European organisations. As this is
a recent initiative, procedures for handling network number requests are
in the process of being established. Therefore we apologise in advance
for any duplication of effort that may be required by you due to new
forms and templates. As the European NIC, we require different
information to that required by the US and for it to be presented in a
format which is both easy for you to complete and for us to process.
Before your application can be processed any further, you will need to
complete the enclosed templates and return them to the appropriate
organisation responsible for issuing IP network numbers. In most cases
this will be your IP service provider or the RIPE NCC. Before
completion of the template, please be sure to read the following text
and examples carefully which will guide you.

A new classless IP addressing scheme called CIDR has recently been
adopted to cope with routing table growth and address space exhaustion
problems in the Internet. Under this scheme it is beneficial for
everyone to get their network numbers allocated via their respective
IP service providers. Your IP service provider is the organisation
providing external connectivity to your network. If you are planning
to connect your network to other networks outside your organisation in
the foreseeable future we strongly urge you to get numbers allocated
from your current or prospective IP service provider. Alternatively, if
this is not likely, then you will be allocated a number from a different
part of the address space by the RIPE NCC. Please pay careful attention
to this matter.

Class A and B network numbers are a scarce resource and some
justification in terms of expected network size and structure will be
needed before such a number can be allocated. Class A numbers will only
be assigned to networks which technically need more than 65000 hosts to
be on one network number. A detailed technical justification is needed,
review takes place on a global scale and the allocation process can take
several months. Similarly due to class B scarcity, a reasonable number
of class C numbers will be assigned over class B. If you can engineer
your network to use multiple class C numbers, it is strongly advised.

This RIPE document has been obsoleted due to the RIPE NCC reaching the last /8 of IPv4 address space. Link: /publications/news/ripe-ncc-begins-to-allocate-ipv4-address-space-from-the-last-8/