[rpd] New proposal - "Out-Of-Region Use of AFRINIC Internet Number Resources" (AFPUB-2014-GEN-002-DRAFT-01)

[Owen DeLong]

On Jul 19, 2014, at 07:19 , Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:

> On Saturday, July 19, 2014 08:02:49 AM Andrew Alston wrote:
> 
>> That’s about the most bizarre thing I’ve read in quite a
>> while… as a provider I want my members to advertise
>> every block of space they possibly have to me – the more
>> they advertise to me, the more traffic flows via me to
>> them, the more transit I sell them.  I really don’t
>> understand the logic behind some providers.
> 
> Andrew, the idea is not that bizarre, really :-).
> 
> There have been quite a number of discussions in the 
> industry in past years about service providers charging 
> downstreams to accept routes (typically longer than a /24, 
> or even longer than a /20) as a way to mitigate the costs 
> the exploding IPv4 BGP table is placing on router FIB's.

It's been bandied about, but at least in America, there's enough
competition that won't that it's usually seen as a losing proposition
from a business perspective and doesn't actually get implemented.

I don't know of any American ISPs that are doing this.

> If an American service provider were doing this, I wouldn't 
> be surprised. I'd be surprised if an African service 
> provider is doing this, however.

Really? My perspective is quite the reverse. Such an action can only
really work in an environment of limited or no competition. For circuit-
based connections and BGP, I would think that far more likely in the
AfriNIC service region.

Owen