Still reading this very word dense executive order that came out recently:
I did notice however that it has:
(i) Within 90 days of the date of this order, FCEB agencies shall take steps to ensure that all of their assigned Internet number resources (Internet Protocol (IP) address blocks and Autonomous System Numbers) are covered by a Registration Services Agreement with the American Registry for Internet Numbers or another appropriate regional Internet registry.
I don't have numbers on hand for how much US Gov space is already with
ARIN, but this seems like a pretty nice win for ARIN getting an order
for the US Gov legacy space attached to them (mentioned by name),
while other RIRs are available in that order, I don't imagine it's
going to other RIRs 
or another appropriate regional Internet registry.
Important end of the sentence.
I mean sure, but if ARIN is being named directly I assume that all or almost all of it is going to go to ARIN!
not all the US federal government’s interests reside in the USA.
Nick
For clarity, FCEB stands for Federal CIVILIAN Executive Branch. So,
this order excludes the military, probably the intelligence agencies,
state and local governments, etc. And not everything operated for the
Federal government is done on their IP addresses. This won't affect
address space assigned to federal contractors.
In a nutshell, this means that the few non-military federal agencies
still operating on "legacy" IPv4 addresses will now have to officially
sign a contract with ARIN. And nothing more than that.
Regards,
Bill Herrin
Please indulge me - as a non-American perhaps this is obvious.
The directive states 'or another appropriate regional Internet registry'. Of course there's a default assumption (or perhaps, just obvious example) of ARIN for a North American nature. But given any other "appropriate regional Internet registry" is also valid, I don't see that this is the aspect that should have any focus.
Put it another way - what _assigned_ resources (the use of the word 'assigned' needs to be considered) would any FCEB be using that aren't from either ARIN or another appropriate registry? And where they're not, perhaps they should be as this would be an important measure for risk management (liability protection?)
I feel like people are reading too much into it; it's not about monopolistic behaviour (except to the degree that the RIR's _are_ monopolies within the economies they serve). It's just about ensuring good/correct practices are in place, which feels reasonable.
Mark.
Hi Mark,
The answer is: so-called "legacy" IP addresses which were assigned by
one of the incarnations of the "InterNIC" prior to ARIN's inception in
1997 and for which the registrants have subsequently declined to sign
a contract with ARIN.
Regards,
Bill Herrin
Thanks Bill, I should've thought of this!
So I suppose that 'subsequent decline' position will need to be reconsidered by agencies thus within that scope.
Presumably the RIR relationship is seen to deliver advantages from a risk management perspective.
Mark.
The contract with ARIN gets you access to their authenticated route
registry (IRR) and lets you create RPKI records. Legacy registrants
don't have access to it.
Regards,
Bill Herrin