IP addresses are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), who have overall responsibility for the Internet Protocol (IP) pool.
IANA distributes large blocks of addresses to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
The RIRs manage, distribute and publicly register IP addresses, together with related Internet number resources such as Autonomous System Numbers (ASN) and reverse Domain Name System (DNS) delegations.
There are currently five RIRs:
- AfriNIC – African region
- APNIC – Asia Pacific Region
- ARIN – North America and several Caribbean & North Atlantic Islands
- LACNIC – Latin America and the Caribbean
- RIPE NCC – Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia
Together the five RIRs also form the Number Resource Ogranization (NRO), who carry joint activities including technical projects, liaison activities and policy co-ordination.