By
Steven Wallace - Director, Internet2 Routing Integrity
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) recently released a new version of the Registration Services Agreement (RSA) and announced forthcoming increases to the legacy resource fee structure – offering two more reasons for the research and education (R&E) community to take action to secure their legacy network resources before 2024.
1. ARIN’s fees to secure legacy resources with an RSA are set to substantially increase after 2023.
Approximately half of the Internet2 community’s IP networks are legacy resources – meaning their IP addresses were allocated before ARIN existed – and lack an ARIN RSA. Without an RSA, a network can’t be protected by ARIN’s routing security services, including reverse DNSSEC, RPKI, and authenticated IRR.
ARIN currently offers discounted fees to bring legacy resources under an RSA, but the window of opportunity to take advantage of those perpetually lower fees will close at the end of 2023. With today’s discounted fees for legacy resources, gaining access to ARIN’s routing security services costs $150 per year (with annual increases of $25) for all the legacy resources held by an organization. But for legacy resource holders who delay covering their resources under an RSA until after 2023, the fees will follow ARIN’s standard fee schedule and may be as much as $4,000-$8,000 per year depending on the IPv4 aggregate block size.
Across the R&E community, the total cost per year to access ARIN’s security services may be more than $2,000,000 if we don’t take advantage of the current fee structure. This compares to $75,000 yearly under the current discounted fee structure.
Across the R&E community, the total cost per year to access ARIN’s security services may be more than $2,000,000 if we don’t take advantage of the current fee structure. This compares to $75,000 yearly under the current discounted fee structure. |
2. ARIN continues to accommodate the needs of the R&E community through its RSA process and requirements.
For those public and government organizations that may be prohibited by federal or state law from agreeing to specific terms of the RSA, ARIN does accommodate changes required by those laws. ARIN’s response to this concern is documented in its RSA FAQ:
I represent a federal, state, or provincial governmental entity. Therefore, I cannot agree to the RSA’s standard provisions concerning indemnification, bankruptcy, governing law, and/or binding arbitration. How does ARIN handle this situation?
ARIN accommodates the unique circumstance of federal, state, or provincial governmental entities, and has a practice of modifying RSAs for such requirements. In order for any such modifications to be considered, governmental entities must provide statutory or regulatory references to explain and demonstrate the necessity for a modification in order to meet legal requirements and allow the governmental entity to execute the RSA. For example, when there has been an appropriate statutory or legal reference stating that a governmental entity cannot provide indemnification under applicable law, ARIN has modified or deleted the indemnification provision in its entirety. In other instances, ARIN, when appropriate, has deleted the bankruptcy provision. As to the governing law provision, if you provide ARIN with a federal, state, or provincial statute requiring that another state’s law cannot apply to the agreement, we may revise the agreement to remain silent on choice of governing law. In addition, we can substitute a non-binding mediation provision for the binding arbitration, if required by law. ARIN’s attorneys can quickly respond to such issues.
Learn More
Want to learn more about ARIN’s routing security services? Join us for TechEX22, Dec. 5-9 in Denver! The program includes a session on Protecting Your Resources with RPKI, presented by John Curran, president and CEO of ARIN. Register today!
You can also send your routing integrity questions to manrs@internet2.edu.
ICYMI
About the Author(s)
Steve Wallace promotes the adoption and improvement of routing security and integrity throughout the Internet2 community. He has been an active community member for over 24 years, having started as the engineer responsible for the team that built Abilene, Internet2's first network.