Administration of the IANA Special Purpose IPv6 Address Block
RFC 4773

Network Working Group                                          G. Huston
Request for Comments: 4773                                         APNIC
Category: Informational                                    December 2006

     Administration of the IANA Special Purpose IPv6 Address Block

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2006).

Abstract

   This is a direction to IANA concerning the management of the IANA
   Special Purpose IPv6 address assignment registry.

1.  Introduction

   This is a direction to IANA concerning the management of the IANA
   Special Purpose IPv6 address assignment registry.

2.  IANA IPv6 Special Purpose Address Block

   [RFC2928] specified the assignment of the IPv6 address prefix to
   IANA.  The rationale for this allocation is:

      "The block of Sub-TLA IDs assigned to the IANA (i.e., 2001:
      0000::/29 - 2001:01F8::/29) is for assignment for testing and
      experimental usage to support activities such as the 6bone, and
      for new approaches like exchanges."  [RFC2928]

   This address allocation to IANA was intended to support testing and
   experimental activities.  A more general view of the roles of IANA
   with respect to address allocation functions is documented in
   [RFC2860]:

      "4.3. [...]  Note that [...] (b) assignments of specialised
      address blocks (such as multicast or anycast blocks), and (c)
      experimental assignments are not considered to be policy issues,
      and shall remain subject to the provisions of this Section 4.
      (For purposes of this MOU, the term "assignments" includes
      allocations.)"  [RFC2860]

Huston                       Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 4773                   IANA IPv6 Registry              December 2006

   The reference to section 4 here is to the general technical work for
   the IANA:

      "4.1.  The IANA will assign and register Internet protocol
      parameters only as directed by the criteria and procedures
      specified in RFCs, including Proposed, Draft, and full Internet
      Standards and Best Current Practice documents, and any other RFC
      that calls for IANA assignment."  [RFC2860]

   This document directs IANA to undertake designation of special
   purpose address blocks within the purview of direct assignments by
   the IANA under the terms of the assignment criteria specified in RFC
   2928.

   This document directs IANA to open a Special Purpose IPv6 address
   registry for the management of these IANA-designated address blocks.
   Special Purpose registrations to be made from this registry include
   addresses for experimental purposes, as described in [RFC2928], and
   other special purpose cases, as documented in IESG-reviewed published
   RFCs, according to the provisions described in section 4.1 of
   [RFC2860].

3.  IANA Considerations

   IANA maintains an "IANA IPv6 Address Special Purpose Registry".  The
   registry records current IANA address designations from the IANA-
   managed Special Purpose IPv6 address pool.

   This recommendation concerns the management of the address pool
   assigned by the IETF to the IANA in July 1999 by [RFC2928], namely
   2001:0000::/23.  Following the policies outlined in [RFC2434],
   further assignments of address space to IANA for subsequent
   designation of address prefixes for the purposes listed here shall be
   undertaken only through an IETF Consensus action.  Such directions
   for assignments of address space to augment the IANA-managed special
   purpose address pool should, in the general course of events, be
   consistent with prevailing IANA IPv6 address management policies
   [IPv6-Policies].

   IANA may undertake IPv6 address designations in support of special
   purposes as requested in "IANA Considerations" sections in IESG-
   reviewed RFCs, where an address is requested with an intended use of
   the designated address block for the purpose of testing or
   experimental usage activities initiated by IETF, or for specialised
   use of the address block in a context (e.g., anycast) associated with
   an Internet Standards track protocol.

Huston                       Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 4773                   IANA IPv6 Registry              December 2006

   The IANA IPv6 Special Purpose Address Registry records, for all
   current address designations undertaken by IANA:

   1.  The designated address prefix.

   2.  The RFC that called for the IANA address designation.