[AfriNIC-rpd] AFPUB-2006-GEN-001 and Anycast

[Alan Barrett]

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012, Mauritz Lewies wrote:
>>> Often Service providers (SaaS, NaaS) have needed IP space 
>>> to deliver Anycast based services and due to the lack of a 
>>> stipulation for Anycast have had to fabricate information to 
>>> meet the criteria.
>>
>> It's impossible to "fabricate information to meet the 
>> criteria".  If any information associated with your application 
>> is fabricated, then your application is not valid.
>
> I don't agree, who checks the information supplied? Eg serial 
> numbers and performance stats of servers? With virtualisation 
> will Afrinic decide if a micro server can run 124 VMs or 2? Will 
> I really run 8 netflow collectors in VM? So then who decides if 
> my application is not valid?

I was speaking about what the rules are, not about whether or not 
breach of the rules will be detected and punished.

You can fabricate information to pretend to meet the criteria, 
but you can't fabricate information to really and truly meet the 
criteria.

>>> Thus I suggest that the policy be amended to include "d) 
>>> Provide a technically sound Anycast design."
>>
>> What exactly is the problem here?  Can you give real or 
>> theoretical examples of technically sound Anycast designs that 
>> do not meet the existing criteria?
>
> Any NaaS or SaaS provider that is limited to deploying IP 
> based services (i.e. Not DNS or Appliance based) will likely 
> need Anycast.  Redundancy via cloud-based systems will involve 
> deploying an Anycast based model.  One example would be to 
> deploy servers in DCs in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, 
> Anycast will allow for redundancy and proximity to services.
>
> Example:  1. Various African ISPs do not allow core 
> routing/switching platforms to make use of DNS lookups. How will 
> you provide redundancy for syslog/snmp traps/VTY ACLs/AAA//DNS 
> SEC, Auth and cache etc etc if you were a SaaS provider of these 
> platforms?

You haven't answered the question.  Or at least, I am unable to 
see an answer.  How does your anycast deployment fail to meet 
AfriNIC's existing criteria?

Let me try using different words.

If you have a certain number of servers in certain locations, the 
you can quaify for a certain number of IP addresses.  Is that not 
good enough?  What's special about anycast in this context that 
would make you qualify for less address space than if you did not 
use anycast?

--apb (Alan Barrett)