Phases of IPv4 Exhaustion

This section provides information on the processes and phases of IPv4 exhaustion in the LACNIC region, and the changes to existing procedures and expected response times for each phase.

The term IPv4 exhaustion refers to a phase during which addresses are assigned from reserve pools and assignments are restricted both in terms of their size and frequency. These restrictions were established by policies presented to and discussed by the community at the LACNIC Public Policy Forum.

It is expected that these policies will result in better management of the resources for gradual IPv4 exhaustion, while continuing to allow new entrants into the industry.

In this case, exhaustion refers to the fact that LACNIC will no longer have enough address space to cover the IPv4 address needs of our members.

This phase began on 15 February 2017.

This reserve pool represents LACNIC's last available IPv4 space and comprises IPv4 blocks allocated by the IANA post-exhaustion, along with recovered and returned address blocks. This past 19 August 2020, the pool of IPv4 addresses at LACNIC was exhausted. Now, only recovered and returned addresses are available, in addition to a pool reserved exclusively for critical infrastructure. The number of recovered or returned blocks is dynamic. Since March 2020, these resources must go through a quarantine period and will be gradually released after being quarantined for six months. During this phase, only assignments from the equivalent of a /22 to a /24 can be made and each new member may only receive an initial assignment.

Organizations based in Mexico or Brazil should request resources from their corresponding NIR.

During this phase, only LACNIC members who have not yet received IPv4 resources can request IPv4 addresses. The IPv4 request will only be added to the waitlist once they have been assigned IPv6 resources. It is important to note that being included on the waitlist does not guarantee that the organization will receive the resources, as each request must undergo the corresponding analysis.

More information on the requirements for receiving IPv4 and IPv6 resources: https://www.lacnic.net/solicitar-ip

IPv4 Assignment Report - Phase 3

Beginning of phase 3: 15/Feb/2017

The status of the IPv4 address block for this phase is detailed below:

 

IPv4 Address Waitlist

IPv4 Block Status - Phase 3

The following chart shows how the IPv4 blocks for Phase 3 have been distributed.

The following chart shows how the IPv4 blocks for critical infrastructure for Phase 3 have been distributed.

Number of IP addresses assigned per month - Phase 3

This chart shows the number of IP addresses assigned monthly during Phase 3.

Number of IP addresses assigned per month - Phase 3

This chart shows the number of monthly assignments during Phase 3.

This phase started on 10 June 2014, having allocated IPv4 blocks until we exhaust the /10 reserved for the phase 2.

This phase triggers section 11.2 of the Policy Manual, under which a /10 block is reserved for gradual exhaustion.

During this phase, only assignments from the equivalent of a /24 to a /22 will be made. Requesting organizations may request additional resources every 6 months. This process will be implemented every day until the /10 reserved for gradual exhaustion is finally achieved.

Request Handling:

Applications are processed on a first-come, first-served basis using a ticket system. Both NIC Mexico (NIC.MX) and NIC Brazil (NIC.br) manage their tickets independently from LACNIC. Incomplete applications requiring their applicant to provide additional information are sent to the end of the ticket queue and will only be completed after the client submits the required information and the corresponding ticket reaches the first position in the queue once again .

Once all of the requirements for approval have been met, the hostmaster will enter the application data on a web form with the following information:

  • Ticket number
  • UTC time and date on which the application was entered
  • Pre-approved block

This information will be sent to a pre-approvals management system which will automatically sort them by client ticket creation date, from oldest to newest.

Based on this list, every day at 7:00 UTC, the pre-approvals system will check whether enough space is available in the pool reserved for gradual exhaustion to satisfy all pre-approved requests.

Immediately after the algorithm is processed, if enough space is available to satisfy every assignment, hostmasters will receive an email from the system specifying that they may proceed to complete all pre-approved assignments.

In the case of additional requests, the assignment will be made on the next working day after the pre-approval is granted.

In the case of initial requests or requests triggering a category change and corresponding invoice, the pre-approved block will be reserved for up to 14 days, awaiting payment of the outstanding invoice and the signing of the corresponding service agreement, if required. The assignment will be finalized once both payment and the signed service agreement are received. If payment is not received within 14 days, the block will lose its reserved status and the client will need to submit a new request. The block will be returned to the central pool of available resources and hostmasters will be able to pre-approve it for a new assignment.

This process will be implemented every day until the /10 reserved for gradual exhaustion is finally achieved. At this time, the pre-approval system will send an email to the hostmasters notifying that there is no longer enough free space available to complete all pre-approved requests and will keep a list of all pre-approved requests, sorted by UTC time. Based on this list, the LACNIC [GU1] National Internet Registries (NIR) Assignments Committee (made up by one representative of each of these organizations) will manually review the order in which the requests were received and the amount of space that was requested, informing all hostmasters which organizations are able to receive IPv4 resources from the pool reserved for gradual exhaustion. Hostmasters will then make all corresponding assignments on the next working day.

Organizations whose initial requests cannot be satisfied from the gradual exhaustion reserve will receive a /22 from the pool reserved for New Members, thus triggering Phase 3. These organizations will be notified that the assignment was no longer completed under section 11.1 of the Policy Manual, meaning that this will be the first and last IPv4 request that LACNIC or the NIRs will be able to assign to their organization. Any additional requests opened in the ticket system will be notified that the pool reserved for gradual exhaustion has been exhausted and that LACNIC/the NIRs will not be able to make further IPv4 assignments to their organizations.

In order to increase transparency in the handling of IPv4 resource requests, an iFrame will be added to LACNIC's website where customers will be able to view a sorted list of incoming tickets and their place in the pre-approval queue. Pre-approved requests will be sorted according to their initial reception time.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Requests will be processed according to the provisions of section 11.2 of the Policy Manual.
  • Requests must comply with the requirements set out in chapter 2 of the Policy Manual for initial or additional requests, as applicable.
  • From this point on, incoming IPv4 requests will no longer be jointly processed by LACNIC and the NIRs.
  • From this point on, requests will no longer be processed jointly by more than one hostmaster within the NIRs or LACNIC.

Assignments:

Assignments will be made directly by the hostmaster on the next working day after pre-approval is granted.

Requests Approved List

IPv4 Allocations Report - Phase 2

On 10 June 2014, LACNIC triggered phase 2 of the exhaustion period, thereby reaching the last two /10 available in the IPv4 block inventory.

The status of IPv4 block reserved for this phase are detailed below:

IPv4 reserved for the Phase 2 (/10):  4194304

IPv4 allocated in this block: 

IPv4 available in this block:

Last updated:

Status of IPv4 /10- Phase 2

The following chart shows how the /10 were distributed among the members. View dynamic chart.

Number of IPs allocated monthly – Phase 2

This chart shows the number of IPv4 addresses allocated during Phase 2. View dynamic chart.

This chart shows the number of IPv4 request approved during Phase 2. View dynamic chart.

Exhaustion projection - Phase 2

Taking into account allocations behavior since June 2014 and the time when we started this phase, below is a chart showing  projection modeling with the estimated exhaustion dates. View dynamic chart.

Execution date: 2017-02-15
End of phase 2 modeling 1: 2017-04-09    Error factor: 0.9942795187630591
End of phase 2 modeling 2: 2017-02-24    Error factor: 0.9989379863136172
End of phase 2 modeling 3: 2017-03-01    Error factor: 0.9989256216121833
Estimated date of exhaustion: 2017-03-12

Note: the projection is based on allocated space, not taking into account the space reserved for approved applications. If you want to check the list of reserved prefixes you can visit the following link Approved Requests

This phase started on 19 May 2014, having allocated IPv4 blocks until reached the IPv4 /10 reserved for the soft-landing exhaustion phase.

Request Handling:

Applications will be processed on a first-come,  first-served basis using a ticket system. Both NIC Mexico (NIC.MX) and NIC Brazil (NIC.br) manage their tickets independently from LACNIC. Incomplete applications requiring the applicant to provide additional information are sent to the end of the ticket queue and will only be completed after the client submits the required information and the corresponding ticket reaches the first position in the queue once again .

Once all of the requirements for approval have been met, the hostmaster will enter the application data on a web form with the following information:

  • Ticket number
  • UTC time and date on which the application was entered
  • Pre-approved block

This information will be sent to a pre-approvals management system which will automatically sort them by client ticket creation date, from oldest to newest.

Based on this list, every day at 3:00 UTC, the pre-approvals system will check whether enough free address space is available to satisfy all pre-approved requests.

The following day, if there is enough space available to complete every assignment, the hostmasters will receive an email from the system specifying that they may proceed to complete all pre-approved assignments.

In the case of additional requests, the assignment will be made on the next working day after the pre-approval is granted.

In the case of initial requests or requests triggering a category change and corresponding invoice, the pre-approved block will be reserved for up to 30 days awaiting payment of the outstanding invoice and the signing of the corresponding service agreement, if required. The assignment will be finalized once such payment and service agreement are received. If payment is not received within 30 days, the block will lose its reserved status and the client will need to submit a new request. The block will be returned to the central pool of available resources and hostmasters will be able to pre-approve it for a new assignment.

This process will be implemented every day until it is no longer possible to satisfy a customer's request. At this time, the pre-approval system will send an email to the hostmasters notifying that there is no longer enough free space available to complete all pre-approved requests and will keep a list of all pre-approved requests, sorted by UTC time. Based on this list, the LACNIC National Internet Registries Assignments Committee (made up of one representative of each of these organizations) will manually review the order in which the requests were received and the amount of space that was requested. Once this review is complete, the committee will inform all hostmasters which organizations are able to receive regular IPv4 space. Hostmasters will then make all corresponding assignments.

If the last request on the pre-approval queue cannot be satisfied in full, the requesting organization will be offered an amount of regular IPv4 stock that is as close as possible to the requested total. Note that the requesting organization may turn down the assignment offered by LACNIC/NIRs if the disaggregation is deemed too complex. If the requesting organization turns down the assignment, then it will only be able to receive up to a /22 from the 11.2 reserve pool once the regular pool is exhausted. The free space resulting from an assignment that is rejected by a customer who was granted pre-approval will be offered to the requesting organization next in line in the pre-approval queue.

Organizations whose requests cannot be satisfied using regular IPv4 space will receive up to a /22 from the Gradual Exhaustion reserve, thus triggering Phase 2. At the same time, the requesting organization will be informed that the space already falls under section 11.2 of the Policy Manual and, consequently, they will not be able to request additional IPv4 space for a period of 6 months.

To increase transparency in the handling of IPv4 resource requests, an iFrame will be added to LACNIC's website where customers will be able to view a sorted list of incoming tickets and their place on the pre-approval queue. Pre-approved requests will be sorted according to their initial reception time.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Applications will be processed in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of the Policy Manual and assignments will be granted based on justifiable need.
  • Applications for a /15 or more are assessed jointly by the NIRs and LACNIC.
  • Requests for the equivalent of a /16 are assessed jointly by 2 hostmasters within the same organization.

Assignments:

Assignments will be made directly by each organization's hostmaster the next working day after pre-approval is granted.

Important:

Please note that during Phase 1 neither LACNIC nor the NIRs will be able to guarantee that assignments will be aggregated. For example, this means that an organization requesting a /14 may receive more than one prefix, the combined total of which is equivalent to a /14, thus satisfying the customer's request with multiple IP blocks.

This phase started in October of 2013 having allocated IPv4 blocks until the last available /9.

Request Handling:

Applications are processed on a first-come, first-served basis using a ticket system. Both NIC Mexico (NIC.MX) and NIC Brazil (NIC.br) manage their tickets independently from LACNIC. Incomplete applications requiring the applicant to provide additional information are sent to the end of the ticket queue and will only be completed after the client provides the required information and the place of the corresponding ticket in the queue is arrived at once again.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Applications are processed in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of the Policy Manual and assignments will be granted based on justifiable need.
  • Applications for a /15 or more are assessed jointly by the NIRs and LACNIC.
  • Requests for the equivalent of a /16 are assessed jointly by 2 hostmasters within the same organization.

Assignments:

Once a request is approved, assignments are made directly by each organization's hostmaster.

Important:

These new procedures mean that application processing times may vary significantly.