Addressing plan exercise for our IPv6 course

Mon Jul 26 05:05:56 UTC 2010

Owen,

> Correct, now, what portion of ICANN's budget is related to the NRO sector?

Read the ICANN budget. ICANN does not budget things that way.

You asked "explain how the numbers side of IANA pays for anything when the RIRs stop funding it?"

Doug and I, who have a bit of knowledge on the subject, have told you IANA does not "pay for anything".

ICANN is a signatory to a contract with the US Department of Commerce that requires ICANN to provide the IANA functions, of which numbers allocation is one. Failure to perform any of the functions would be interpreted by DoC as a breach of contract. If the NRO did not contribute the (currently) 1.5% (which they have withheld in the past), ICANN would still be required to perform the number allocation function (as they did even when the RIR contribution was withheld).  There is _no_ linkage between the contributions made by any stakeholder and the operation of the IANA functions contract.

In the case of coordinating ULA assignments, I have no doubt IANA staff at ICANN _could_ provide the function quite easily since most of the infrastructure and processes are already in place for other services ICANN provides as part of the IANA functions contract.  The question of whether or not the community, including folks from the RIR community and the IETF, want ICANN to perform that service is entirely different, and highly non-technical.

Regards,
-drc