Note: This Working Group is co-chartered in the Internet Area. Multicast address allocation is an essential part of using IP multicast. Multicast addresses are an even more limited resource than unicast addresses, and must be allocated dynamically if they are to satisfy expected demand. To this end, the MALLOC WG will define three protocols which work together to form a global dynamic multicast address allocation mechanism. These protocols will be: - a "host to Address Allocation Server" protocol used by a host to obtain one or more multicast addresses from an address allocation server within its domain. - an intra-domain server to server protocol that address allocation servers within the same domain can use to ensure that they do not give out conflicting addresses. - an inter-domain protocol to provide aggregatable multicast address ranges to domains, which the servers in that domain can then allocate individual multicast addresses out of. This protocol will work in conjunction with the IDMR WG's Border Gateway Multicast Protocol to provide a scalable inter-domain multicast routing solution. Although mechanisms for enforcing policies for multicast address allocation may be considered, setting any such policies is not within the scope of this WG. Alternative multicast models are also out of scope.