What PI and PA mean
Provider Independent (PI) address space is assigned to your organization and stays with you regardless of which upstream or hosting provider you use. Provider Aggregatable (PA) space is allocated to a LIR and assigned to you as a customer — it is tied to that provider and is normally returned if you leave.
Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | PI (Provider Independent) | PA (Provider Aggregatable) |
|---|---|---|
| Portability | Stays with you across providers | Tied to the allocating LIR/provider |
| Who holds it | Your organization | The LIR; assigned to you |
| Typical use | Your own infrastructure, vendor-neutral routing | Customer assignments under a provider |
| Reassignment to others | Not allowed — your own use only | Possible by the LIR |
| RIPE setup | Sponsoring LIR + contract | Held within the LIR allocation |
Which should you choose?
Choose IPv6 PI if you want address space independent of any single provider — useful for multihoming and avoiding renumbering when you switch hosts. See our IPv6 PI application guide.
Choose an allocation if you want a larger block to manage and assign within your own organization — our RIPE IPv6 allocations (/44 to /32) come with RPKI. See IPv6 allocation & prefix management.
How this maps to GetIPv6
- RIPE IPv6 PI — provider-independent /48 by default, with PI sponsoring available.
- RIPE IPv6 allocations — /44 to /32 allocation-style space with RPKI delegation.
New to the terminology? See the networking glossary.
Get Provider Independent IPv6
View IPv6 PI & allocations