Regional Internet Registry
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A Regional Internet Registry (RIR) is an organization that oversees the registration and allocates IP addresses, both IPv4 and IPv6 and Autonomous System numbers in a certain region of the world. Namely there are currently 5 registries, all overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA):
- American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) [1] (http://www.arin.net) for North America
- RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) [2] (http://www.ripe.net) for Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia
- Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) [3] (http://www.apnic.net) for Asia and the Pacific region
- Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) [4] (http://www.lacnic.net) for Latin America and the Caribbean region
- African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) [[5] (http://www.afrinic.net)] for Africa
Collectively the RIRs form part of the Numbers Resource Organization [6] (http://www.nro.net/) formed as a body to represent their collective interests and ensure that policy statements are coordinated globally.
IANA delegates the allocation of IPv4 addresses to RIRs in large chunks (typically /8 =16.7 million adresses or more at a time), and the RIRs then follow their own policies for address allocation. They typically further delegate address assignment to Internet Service Providers in small chunks, with the smallest currently being /22 (=1024).