Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre

The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) is the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific region.

APNIC provides number resource allocation and registration services that support the global operation of the Internet. It is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization whose members include Internet Service Providers, National Internet Registries, and similar organizations.

APNIC's main functions are:

• allocating IPv4 and IPv6 address space, and Autonomous System Numbers,
• maintaining the public Whois Database for the Asia Pacific region,
• reversing DNS delegations,
• representing the interests of the Asia Pacific Internet community on the global stage.

Structure

Elections are held at each APNIC Annual General Meeting (AGM), which is conducted during the APNIC Member Meeting (AMM) in February. Voting takes place both on site at these meetings and prior to the meeting via online voting.

APNIC Executive Council

Each APNIC Executive Council (EC) member serves as an individual, not as a representative of any other party or Member. Therefore, they must act at all times in the best interests of APNIC. The APNIC EC meets at about 12 regularly scheduled meetings per year.

APNIC Secretariat

The APNIC Secretariat operates to serve its Members and the Asia Pacific Internet community stakeholders.

Its activities are designed to help the APNIC community achieve APNIC's objectives. The Secretariat (APNIC's staff) carries out the day-to-day work. The Secretariat is structured in five divisions: Services, Technical, Business, Communications, and Learning & Development. These divisions encompass all APNIC activities, including that of acting as a central source of information for Members.

APNIC's open policy development process also invites stakeholders interested in Internet number resources from around the world (but mostly the Asia Pacific) to participate. These include representatives from governments, regulators, educators, media, the technical community, civil society, and other not-for-profit organizations.

Open Policy Meetings

Each year, APNIC conducts two open policy meetings. These give the community the chance to come together for policy development, decision-making, education, information sharing, and networking - both professional and social. The first Open Policy Meeting of each year is held as a conference track of the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT), and the second is held as a standalone meeting. The meetings are held in various locations throughout the Asia Pacific and often involve cultural elements of the host economy.

Meeting schedule

IPv4 exhaustion

In April 2011, APNIC became the first Regional Internet Registry to run down to its last /8 block of IPv4 addresses, thus triggering the final phase of its IPv4 exhaustion policy. As a result, APNIC has now implemented a rationing policy for allocating the last /8 to its users, in which each APNIC customer will be eligible for just one final maximum allocation of a /22 block of IPv4 addresses until the block is exhausted.^[1]

APNIC training

APNIC conducts a number of training courses^[2] in a wide variety of locations around the region. These courses are designed to educate participants to proficiently configure, manage and administer their Internet services and infrastructure and to embrace current best practices.

Whois database

The APNIC Whois Database contains registration details of IP addresses and AS numbers originally allocated by APNIC. It shows the organizations that hold the resources, where the allocations were made, and contact details for the networks. The organizations that hold those resources are responsible for updating their information in the database. The database can be searched by using the web interface on the APNIC site,^[3] or by directing your whois client to whois.apnic.net (for example, whois -h whois.apnic.net 203.37.255.97).

Spam, hacking, etc.

Upon utilising the Whois Database in an effort to determine who may be responsible for sending spam or gaining unauthorized access to their computer (hacking), many people mistakenly misinterpret the references to apnic.net as indicating the source of the spam or hacking attempt. These people are also inclined to believe that APNIC has the authority and power to prevent these kinds of network abuse. Both of these are misconceptions. APNIC plays a passive role, providing its service to both the criminal and upstanding netizen in a non-judgmental way. APNIC exists solely to serve its members, and is not involved in matters of policing cybercrime.

Partners

APNIC works closely with many other Internet organizations, including:

The APNIC membership

Major Internet Service Providers (ISPs), National Internet Registries (NIRs) and Network Information Centres (NICs).

Other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)

ARIN (North America), LACNIC (Latin America and the Caribbean), RIPE NCC (Europe), and AfriNIC (Africa).

The Number Resource Organization

With the other RIRs, APNIC is a member of the Number Resource Organization (NRO), which exists to protect the unallocated number resource pool, to promote and protect the bottom-up policy development process, and to be the focal point for input into the RIR system.

Other leading Internet organizations

These include the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Engineering and Planning Group (IEPG), the Internet Society (ISOC), and others.

The previous registry for Australia, known as AUNIC, is now disbanded, and its responsibilities undertaken by APNIC.

History

APNIC was established in 1992 by the Asia Pacific Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks (APCCIRN) and the Asia Pacific Engineering and Planning Group (APEPG). These two groups were later amalgamated and renamed the Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG). It was established as a pilot project to administer address space as defined by RFC-1366, as well as encompassing a wider brief: "To facilitate communication, business, and culture using Internet technologies".

In 1993, APNG discovered they were unable to provide a formal umbrella or legal structure for APNIC, and so the pilot project was concluded, but APNIC continued to exist independently under the authority of IANA as an 'interim project'. At this stage, APNIC still lacked legal rights, a membership, and a fee structure.

In 1995, the inaugural APNIC meeting was held in Bangkok. This was a two-day meeting, run by volunteers, and was free to attend. Voluntary donations were sought according to the size of the organization, ranging from $1500 for 'small', through to $10,000 for 'large'. Three member types were defined by APNIC-001: ISP (local IR), Enterprise, and National.

1996 saw a proper fee structure introduced, the establishment of a membership, and the holding of the first APRICOT meeting.

By the time 1997 rolled around, it was becoming increasingly clear that APNIC's local environment in Japan was restricting its growth - for example, the staff was limited to 4-5 members. Therefore, the consulting firm KPMG was contracted to find an ideal location in the Asia Pacific region for APNIC's new headquarters.

For reasons such as the stable infrastructure, the low cost of living and operation, and tax advantages for membership organizations, Brisbane, Australia was chosen as the new location, and relocation was completed between April and August, 1998, while maintaining continuous operation throughout.

By 1999, the relocation was complete, the Asian economic crisis ended, and so began a period of consolidation for APNIC - a period of sustained growth, policy development, and the creation of documentation and internal systems.

Since then, APNIC has continued to grow from its humble beginnings to a membership of more than 1,500 in 56 economies throughout the region and a secretariat of around 60 staff members located in the head office in Brisbane, Australia.

Policy development process

APNIC's policies are developed by the membership and broader Internet community. The major media for policy development are the face-to-face Open Policy Meetings, which are held twice each year, and mailing list discussions.

APNIC's policy development process is:

• Open
  • Anyone can propose policies.
  • Everyone can discuss policy proposals.
• Transparent
  • APNIC publicly documents all policy discussions and decisions.
• Bottom-up
  • The community drives policy development.

APNIC documents all policy discussions and decisions to provide complete transparency of the policy development process.

Phases of policy development process

There are three main phases of the APNIC policy development process:

1. Before an APNIC meeting
2. At an APNIC meeting
3. After an APNIC meeting

1. Before the meeting

You must submit your proposed policy or amendment to the APNIC Secretariat at least four weeks prior to the meeting at which the proposal will be considered. After the SIG Chair accepts the proposal, it will be posted to the mailing list so that the community can discuss it. This allows anybody to discuss the proposal, and it is an important way for people who cannot attend the meeting to have their say. All discussion is taken into account when the proposal is discussed at the APNIC Open Policy Meeting (OPM).

2. At the meeting

At the meeting, the proposed policies are presented during the appropriate SIG session. This is your opportunity to present your proposal in person, or by other means if you are unable to attend. The community will use this opportunity to comment on the proposal. If the proposal reaches consensus, the SIG Chair reports the decision at the APNIC Member Meeting (AMM) at the end of the week. The APNIC membership is then asked to endorse the SIG's decision.

3. After the meeting

Within a week of the proposal's endorsement at the APNIC Member Meeting (AMM), the proposal is sent back to the mailing list for an eight-week comment period. If any changes were made to the proposal during the APNIC meeting, this eight-week comment period gives the community the opportunity to comment on the modified proposal. If the proposal is deemed to have reached consensus during the eight-week comment period, the SIG Chair will ask the APNIC Executive Council (EC) to endorse the proposal. After the APNIC EC endorses the policy proposal, the APNIC Secretariat implements the policy. This usually occurs a minimum of three months after EC endorsement.

Economies

APNIC represents the Asia Pacific region, comprising 56 economies:

APNIC covered Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles until AfriNIC was formed.

References

1. ^ "APNIC IPv4 Address Pool Reaches Final /8". APNIC. 15 April 2011. http://www.apnic.net/publications/news/2011/final-8. 
2. ^ APNIC.net
3. ^ APNIC.net

External links

• http://www.apnic.net – Official website