Most of us are familiar with IP Address. We know our Internet Service Provider provides us with a unique IP Address. But who provides these IP Addresses to the ISP? This is a question which isn't thought about most of the times.
There exists an organisation known as IANA since 1988 which is responsible for a few things. One of them is providing IP Addresses to the ISP.
There exists an organisation known as IANA since 1988 which is responsible for a few things. One of them is providing IP Addresses to the ISP.
After reading this post, you would be well-verse with:
- What is IANA?
- What are the responsibilities of IANA?
- How does IANA distribute and allocate IP Addresses?
What is IANA?
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a department of ICANN, a nonprofit private American corporation that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and Internet numbers.
What are the responsibilities of IANA?
IANA is responsible for coordinating some of the key elements that keep the Internet running smoothly. Whilst the Internet is renowned for being a worldwide network free from central coordination, there is a technical need for some key parts of the Internet to be globally coordinated, and this coordination role is undertaken by us.
Specifically, they allocate and maintain unique codes and numbering systems that are used in the technical standards (“protocols”) that drive the Internet.
The various activities can be broadly grouped in to four categories:
Domain Names - Management of the DNS Root, the .int and .arpa domains, and an IDN practices resource.
Number Resources - Co-ordination of the global pool of IP and AS numbers, primarily providing them to Regional Internet Registries.
Protocol Assignments - Internet protocols’ numbering systems are managed in conjunction with standards bodies.
Time Zone Database - The IANA time zone database holds the time zone differences and rules for the various regions of the world and allows this information to be mirrored and used by computers and other electronic devices to maintain proper configuration for timekeeping.
IANA is one of the Internet's oldest institutions, with the IANA functions dating back to the 1970s. Today the services are provided by Public Technical Identifiers, a purpose-built organization for providing the IANA functions to the community. PTI is an affiliate of ICANN, an internationally-organised non-profit organisation set up by the Internet community to coordinate our areas of responsibilities.
How does IANA distribute and allocate IP Addresses?
IANA delegates allocations of IP address blocks to regional Internet registries (RIRs). Each RIR allocates addresses for a different area of the world. Collectively the RIRs have created the Number Resource Organization formed as a body to represent their collective interests and ensure that policy statements are coordinated globally.
The RIRs divide their allocated address pools into smaller blocks and delegate them to Internet service providers and other organizations in their operating regions. Since the introduction of the CIDR system, IANA has typically allocated address space in the size of /8 prefix blocks for IPv4 and /23 to /12 prefix blocks from the 2000::/3 IPv6 block to requesting regional registries as needed. Since the exhaustion of the Internet Protocol Version 4 address space, no further IPv4 address space is allocated by IANA.
References:
www.iana.org
www.wikipedia.org
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