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[rpd] proposed policy: reservation of resources for IXPs

Bill Woodcock woody at pch.net
Fri Oct 31 00:07:30 UTC 2014


I support. 

    
                -Bill


> On Oct 31, 2014, at 5:07, "Frank Habicht" <geier at geier.ne.tz> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
>> On 10/30/2014 8:59 PM, David Huberman wrote:
>> Hello,
>> 
>> In regard to the proposed policy, "Resource Reservation for Internet
>> Exchange Points", I have two comments:
>> 
>> 1) I support the policy as written.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
>> 2) I ask the community for input on a separate policy proposal I would
>> like to make, which is related.
>> 
>> One of the lessons we've learned over 20+ years of operating public IXes
>> is that the worst thing that can happen to an IX is to grow so big that
>> it outgrows its peering fabric /24.  Renumbering a peering fabric is a
>> nightmare scenario.  It is preventable by having allocation policies
>> which keep successful IXes in mind.
>> 
>> I propose, therefore, text which directs AFRINIC staff to:
>> 
>> - issue no less than a /24 to each IX peering fabric AND - either
>> reserve the adjacent /24 so the /24 can grow to a /23 in the case where
>> the IX is successful; or - issue the /24s sparsely (using the bisection
>> method) to ensure the most number of /24s can grow into /23s over time.
>> 
>> By carefully issuing /24s on /23 boundaries, it allows the (relatively
>> few) IXes that will outgrow a /24 to easily move into a /23 with the
>> same starting IP address, which makes it easy for the participants at
>> the exchange.
>> 
>> Would this proposal have support?
> 
> 
> I think we could incorporate text towards this into the existing proposal,
> after hearing more voices on this, but in general, the authors agree.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Frank
> 
> 
>> Thanks and with regards, David
>> 
>> David R Huberman Microsoft Corporation Principal, Global IP Addressing
>> 
>> 
>>> Subject: [rpd] proposed policy: reservation of resources for IXPs To:
>>> "rpd" <rpd at afrinic.net> Cc: "Nishal Goburdhan" <nishal at ispa.org.za> 
>>> Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 5:01 PM
>>> 
>>> Hello all,
>>> 
>>> please find this proposed policy, which we (3 co-authors)  have 
>>> submitted to  the pdpwg last week:
>>> 
>>> Resource Reservation for Internet Exchange Points
>>> 
>>> Author(s): a) Frank Habicht, Tanzania Internet Exchange b) Michuki
>>> Mwangi, Internet Society/KIXP c) Nishal Goburdhan, Packet Clearing
>>> House/JINX
>>> 
>>> 1) Summary of the Problem being addressed by this proposal
>>> 
>>> This policy reserves IPv4 and 2-byte ASNs resources for  public 
>>> Internet  Exchange Points (IXPs) in the African region, ensuring that
>>> there would be  discrete IPv4 resources to allow the establishment
>>> and growth of future IXPs.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 2) Summary of How this Proposal Addresses the Problem
>>> 
>>> This policy requests AfriNIC to reserve, and publish IPv4  resources,
>>> and  2-byte ASNs for use by IXPs only.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 3) Proposal
>>> 
>>> 3.1 Introduction
>>> 
>>> It is widely considered that Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)  are one
>>> of the  critical elements needed for Internet economies to develop. 
>>> Africa is still in the process of developing these, and is, at the
>>> same  time, faced with  the imminent exhaustion of its IPv4 resources.
>>> Not having IPv4 addresses to grow, or start new, IXPs would create
>>> unnecessary and  unneeded routing  complexity for Internet connected
>>> networks, looking to peer at IXPs to  further their network scope.
>>> AfriNIC already has an existing  policy to make  allocations to IXPs
>>> [1], but that policy does not  specifically reserve IPV4  space to
>>> ensure that there will be such, for future IXPs to  grow and  develop.
>>> Additionally, this policy reserves a set of 2-byte  ASNs for use by
>>> IXPs for use at IXP BGP Route Servers.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 3.2 Distinction between IXP peering and management networks
>>> 
>>> We distinguish between two kinds of IP address resources  needed and 
>>> used at  IXPs. An IXP peering LAN is the contiguous network address 
>>> block that the  IXP would use to assign unique IP addresses to each 
>>> peering  member, for  each peering participant to exchange network 
>>> traffic across  the shared  peering infrastructure. Best practice has
>>> the IXP peering  LAN *not* being  visible in a view of the global 
>>> routing table, among other  things to reduce  the attack vectors for 
>>> ISP border routers via the IXP.
>>> 
>>>> From a network identification, monitoring and analysis  perspective,
>>> it is  thus desirable, that the "peering LAN" space be provided  from
>>> a contiguous  block. The IXP management LAN is the management network
>>> that  the IXP uses  to provision services at the IXP, like
>>> monitoring, statistics, mail, ticket  systems, provisioning of transit
>>> to DNS Roots, etc.
>>> 
>>> Management networks, are meant to be reachable globally, for instance
>>> to  publish data and allow remote access for common good network
>>> infrastructure  (such as root and TLD DNS servers) and research
>>> projects.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 3.3 BGP Route Servers use
>>> 
>>> Typically IXPs use BGP route servers to help manage peering  sessions
>>> between different participants. The route servers implement  IXP 
>>> routing  policy in the form of BGP communities, typically in the form
>>> of A:B, where  A,B represent A=IXP BGP route server and B=participant
>>> ASN. Current BGP implementations utilise 6 bytes for the extended
>>> community  attribute [RFC5668]. Therefore, an IXP with a 4-byte ASN in
>>> use at its  route server  would not be able to successfully implement
>>> the A:B BGP community mapping,  if an IXP participant has a 4-byte
>>> ASN. This situation is  likely to be  experienced by more IXPs, as
>>> additional 4-byte ASNs are  allocated through  the current AfriNIC
>>> process.
>>> 
>>> If, IXP route server communities include the IXP ASN and the  peer's 
>>> ASN  (expected to be 4-byte), and a total of only 6 bytes are 
>>> available, it  follows that IXP route servers ASN could not be longer
>>> than  a 2-byte ASN.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 3.4 Proposal
>>> 
>>> To ensure that there are sufficient resources for IXPs to  develop, 
>>> this  policy proposes that AfriNIC reserve IPv4 addresses for IXP 
>>> peering LANs  out of an address block marked particularly, and 
>>> exclusively, for IXP  peering LAN use. Assignments for IXP peering 
>>> LANs must be  from one  dedicated block, published as such by AfriNIC.
>>> Assignments  for IXP  management addresses should NOT be provided
>>> from the same  block as the IXP  peering LANs.
>>> 
>>> It is proposed that a /16 block be reserved for future  requirements 
>>> for IXP  peering LANs in the AfriNIC service region, and that AfriNIC
>>> publish this  block as such.
>>> 
>>> It is further proposed to reserve the equivalent of an  additional /16
>>> block  for IXP management prefixes, separate from the peering LANs. It
>>> is proposed that AfriNIC reserves a block of 2-byte ASNs for use in
>>> BGP  route servers  at IXPs in the AfriNIC service region.
>>> 
>>> The number of ASNs to be reserved should be the larger of  114, or 
>>> half of  the remaining 2-byte ASNs within AfriNIC's block at the date
>>> of  ratification of this policy.
>>> 
>>> AfriNIC will allocate these resources on a first come first  served 
>>> basis.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 3.5 Evaluation criteria
>>> 
>>> This policy does not suggest new evaluation criteria for  what 
>>> determines a  valid IXP.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 4.0 References
>>> 
>>> [1] AfriNIC Policy for End User Assignments - AFPUB-2006-GEN-001 
>>> http://afrinic.net/en/library/policies/127-afpub-2006-gen-001 Sections
>>> 5) and 6)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Note: proposal also available at
>>> 
>>> http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposal
> s/1231-resource-reservation-for-internet-exchange-points
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards, Frank _______________________________________________ rpd
>>> mailing list rpd at afrinic.net 
>>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd
>> 
>> 
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