An Architecture for IP Address Allocation with CIDR

The global Internet can be modeled as a collection of hosts interconnected via transmission and switching facilities. Control over the collection of hosts and the transmission and switching facilities that compose the networking resources of the global Internet is not homogeneous, but is distributed among multiple administrative authorities. Resources under control of a single administration form a domain. For the rest of this paper, "domain" and "routing domain" will be used interchangeably. Domains that share their resources with other domains are called network service providers (or just providers). Domains that utilize other domain’s resources are called network service subscribers (or just subscribers). A given domain may act as a provider and a subscriber simultaneously.