Regional Internet Registries receive recovered IPv4 addresses from IANA
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has allocated a pool of recovered IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses to Regional Internet Registries. The returned address space is to be added to the RIRs’ free pool and distributed according to their IPv4 allocation and assignment policies. As explained by RIPE NCC, following the exhaustion of IANA’s free pool of IPv4 addresses in 2011, IANA created a recovered pool of leftover and returned IPv4 address blocks. This policy was ratified by all five RIR communities in 2012 and stated that IANA would begin making equal, periodic allocations from the recovered pool.