About the Number Resource Organisation

The ICANN isn’t the only global entity to care about the IP address pool available for allocation anymore.

For the last few years, a growing initiative driven by powerful domain stakeholders is talking about a credible alternative for managing the bustling IP network future.

Back on October 24th, 2003, the four Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPE NCC – entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form the Number Resource Organization (NRO). The purpose of the NRO is to undertake joint activities of the RIRs, including joint technical projects, liaison activities and policy co-ordination.

The main aims of the NRO are to:

• protect the unallocated Number Resource pool
• to promote and protect the bottom-up policy development process
• to act as a focal point for Internet community input into the RIR system

On October 31, 2003, the RIRs delivered to ICANN an Open Letter advising of the formation of the NRO. This letter included a copy of the NRO MoU, and a proposed MoU for the formation of a new ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO), as required under the reformed ICANN structure. Under the latter document, the ASO would be formed by agreement of the NRO and ICANN.

The most prominent activity of the four Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) is the provision of global Internet resources and related services (IPv4, IPv6 and AS Number resources) and the management of reverse domain space.

It’s important to watch how this entity evolves in the coming months as ICANN’s current Memorandum of Understanding with the United States expires in September, 2006.

After that crucial date, everything the ICANN currently manages, including the IP allocation, is basically up for grabs if they can’t hold their act together.