network-v1/registry-ips/README.md

Global IP range registry

This folder is the human-readable registry of IP knowledge collected by this repository. It is organized by network range, not by one file for every individual address: IPv4 alone contains 4,294,967,296 addresses, and registration and routing facts normally apply to prefixes.

Filename convention

<zero-padded-network-address>--<zero-padded-prefix-length>--<registry-or-status>.md

Examples:

000-000-000-000--08--iana.md
001-000-000-000--16--placeholder.md
001-001-001-000--24--apnic.md

The parts mean:

• zero-padded-network-address: canonical IPv4 network address, each octet padded to three digits and separated by hyphens;
• zero-padded-prefix-length: CIDR range number without /, padded to two digits;
• registry-or-status: authoritative number registry when the range has been researched (iana, afrinic, apnic, arin, lacnic, or ripe-ncc), otherwise placeholder.

A known top-level registry is not enough to put that registry in the suffix. If the exact range's holder, routing, and subdivision have not been investigated, use placeholder.

The zero padding is required because repository browsers sort filenames lexicographically: without it, 1-10... would appear before 1-2....

IPv6 filenames use the same rule, with colons replaced by hyphens and compressed notation expanded to avoid ambiguous names.

Current coverage

Range	Registry	Classification	Status	Known exact addresses	Record
0.0.0.0/8	IANA	Special-purpose	Researched	0.0.0.0	record
1.0.0.0/16	APNIC	Pending subdivision/research	Placeholder	—	record
1.1.0.0/24	APNIC	Pending research	Placeholder	—	record
1.1.1.0/24	APNIC	Public unicast	Researched	1.1.1.1	record

These four files now provide contiguous documented coverage from 0.0.0.0 through 1.1.1.255. The two middle files are explicitly marked as placeholders and must not be interpreted as fully researched ownership records.

This is not yet a list of all global ranges. The expansion plan is in research/ip-network-roadmap.md.

Required contents

Use TEMPLATE.md for every new range record. The first section after the title must be Who is this IP range? and must immediately name the registered holder/authority and operator—or explicitly say detailed attribution is unknown.

Every range file must then distinguish:

1. registry and registered resource holder;
2. special-purpose classification, where applicable;
3. observed BGP announcement and origin ASN;
4. operator and service relationships;
5. exact addresses already investigated inside the range;
6. sources and verification dates.

Do not compress these into a single misleading “owner” field. Registration, routing, operation, and service responsibility can belong to different organizations.