WHEREIS: IP Address Registration Geo-Consistency

2026-02-11

AI Summary

This study addresses the critical issue of geographic inaccuracy in IP address registration data, which undermines internet operations, security, and equitable policy-making—particularly amid IPv4 scarcity that intensifies allocation disputes. For the first time, it systematically quantifies the geographic consistency between Regional Internet Registry (RIR)-allocated IPv4/IPv6 prefixes and their actual usage locations. Integrating large-scale geolocation measurements, registry data analysis, operator surveys, and collaborative validation with three RIRs, the work proposes a geographic consistency classification framework. Findings reveal overall consistency exceeding 98%, yet significant regional disparities persist—most notably with AFRINIC—and IPv6 shows no improvement over IPv4. Identified inconsistencies have already propagated into major commercial geolocation databases, highlighting structural drivers of bias and prompting coordinated efforts between RIRs and operators to rectify registration data.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Mining of Spatial, Temporal or Spatio-Temporal Data
• Computer Vision: Remote Sensing / Geospatial AI

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data quality in the era of algorithmically-generated content
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

The five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) provide the critical function of IP address resource del egation and registration. The accuracy of registration data directly impacts Internet operation, management, security, and optimization. In addition, the scarcity of IP addresses has brought into focus conflicts between RIR policy and IP registration ownership and use. The tension between a free-market based approach to address allocation versus policies to promote fairness and regional equity has resulted in court litigation that threatens the very existence of the RIR system. We develop WHEREIS, a measurement-based approach to geolocate delegated IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes at an RIR-region granularity and systematically study where addresses are used post-allocation and the extent to which registration information is accurate. We define a taxonomy of registration ``geo-consistency''that compares a prefix's measured geolocation to the allocating RIR's coverage region as well as the registered organization's location. While in aggregate over 98% of the prefixes we examine are consistent with our geolocation inferences, there is substantial variation across RIRs and we focus on AFRINIC as a case study. IPv6 registrations are no more consistent than IPv4, suggesting that structural, rather than technical, issues play an important role in allocations. We solicit additional information on inconsistent prefixes from network operators, IP leasing providers, and collaborate with three RIRs to obtain validation. We further show that the inconsistencies we discover manifest in three commercial geolocation databases. By improving the transparency around post-allocation prefix use, we hope to improve applications that use IP registration data and inform ongoing discussions over in-region address use and policy.

Problem

• IP address registration
• geo-consistency
• Regional Internet Registries
• geolocation accuracy
• address allocation

Innovation

• geo-consistency
• IP address registration
• RIR
• geolocation measurement
• WHEREIS