RIR

The RIR (Regional Internet Registry) is an organism that issues blocks ofIP addresses within its geographical area of authority.

It is the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) that allocates IP address blocks to the regional internet authorities. The RIR then distributes addresses to local internet registries (LIR).

The various RIRs

There are five RIRs:

• RIPE-NCC (European IP networks) for Europe and the Middle-East;
• ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) for North America;
• APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Center) for Asia and the Pacific;
• LACNIC (Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry) for Latin America and the Caribbean;
• AfriNIC (African Network Information Center) for Africa.