IP Resources Management

Language Notice: Please note that this translation has been provided at best effort, for your convenience. The English page remains the official version.

Introduction

AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa and the Indian Ocean and ensures fair management and distribution of Internet number resources in the African region.

Summary of Resources Managed

IPv4	IPv6	ASN
1. 41/8 2. 102/8 3. 105/8 4. 196/8 5. 197/8 6. other fragments.	1. 2001:4200::/23 2. 2c0e::/12	1. AS33762 - AS33791 2. AS36864 - AS37887 3. AS327680 - AS328703 4. AS328704 - AS329727 5. AS329728 - AS330751 6. Various ASNs

WHOIS

AFRINIC maintains a WHOIS database which holds information about the resources issued to its resource members as well as organisations in its service region which received resources before the RIR system was established (Commonly known as Legacy Resource Holders).

The database can be queried using a command-line client (e.g. under Unix/Linux), as well as a web-based whois client.

How does AFRINIC handle resource requests?

AFRINIC evaluates resource requests against the guidelines provided by the ratified policies in the Consolidated Policy Manual.

Once the resources are approved, IPv4 resources are temporarily marked as reserved (IPv6 prefixes & ASNs are not reserved in this way), and the member has invoiced the corresponding fees (allocation/assignment fee) based on the fees table available here.

In the case of new members, they are also billed a pro-rated annual membership fee in addition to any allocation/assignment fees. The invoice validity is 45 days for both existing resource members requesting for additional resources and prospective members.

After the fees are settled, the resources are issued to the resource member and registered as such in the AFRINIC WHOIS database. In the event that the fees are not settled, any temporary reservation is released and the affected resources return to the available pool.

What is the AFRINIC inventory?

The AFRINIC inventory consists of all the above resources. The resources in the inventory have various states:

Available - These resources are available and shall be issued to resource members who can satisfy the applicable resource policies as allocations or assignments.
Allocated/Assigned - They are registered on the AFRINIC WHOIS database to an organisation. The latter can be either an AFRINIC Resource Member or an organisation that received IP resources before the RIR system was established.
Reserved - Not available for allocations and assignments.

There are three types of reservations that we currently do at AFRINIC.

Flowchart of how AFRINIC handles a resource request: request received, evaluated against CPM/RSA/Bylaws, IPv4 resource reserved for 45 days, invoice issued from the fees table, and on payment converted to an allocation/assignment on the WHOIS database (or the reservation cancelled and returned to the pool). — Click to enlarge

Policy reservations - Some policies that have been ratified mandate AFRINIC to reserve an IP prefix. The size is stipulated in the policy documentation. Some reference sections of the CPM are 11.4 and 5.4.7.1.
Temporary reservations - Prefixes limited to the size of the approved allocation/assignment is reserved for 45 days for both existing member or a new member, while the resource member/applicant makes arrangements to settle the allocation/assignment fees they were billed. If the invoices expire and no payment is received, these reservations go back to the available pool.
The resource member is not given any details about the reserved prefix.

This is done to ensure uniformity between the operational level view and the community level view of the resource availability at any instance during the soft landing period; this is necessitated by the adoption of the first in first out approach for resource evaluation in the soft landing period. To ensure that AFRINIC fulfils its role of issuing resources once payment is received within the validity period of the invoice, the temporary reservation had to be introduced for the specific period an invoice is valid. This enables AFRINIC to mitigate the risk of approving more than it can issue, assuming that all issued invoices are settled in time.
Quarantine - When resource members default on the payment of their annual membership fees, they breach the Registration Service Agreement (RSA). AFRINIC, therefore, enforces its Member Closure Process entailing reclamation of the resources held by the resource member and nullifying the RSA. The resources are kept in quarantine for a period of time.