thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Networking Fundamentals · Intermediate

Regional Internet Registry (RIR)

One of five organizations that allocate IP addresses and AS numbers within a world region: ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, LACNIC and AFRINIC.

Definition

RIRs receive address space from IANA and assign it to ISPs, local registries and large organizations according to regional policy. ARIN serves North America, RIPE NCC serves Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, APNIC serves Asia-Pacific, LACNIC serves Latin America and the Caribbean, and AFRINIC serves Africa. All RIRs have exhausted their free IPv4 pools except for small reserved allocations.

Example

A US company requesting its own IPv6 /48 applies to ARIN.

Exam tip

Know the five RIR names and that IPv4 exhaustion is why NAT and IPv6 matter.

Related terms