[rpd] More confusion from Noah

[Mimi dy]

Hello all,

I would like to clarify that the bylaws are a document explicitly drafted
to serve AFRINIC LTD, which is holding corporate status. It is completely
irrelevant to resource management. To put it differently, the bylaws itself
is specific about being the "Constitution of AFRINIC" as an entity, i.e. it
is not the constitution of the community, and certainly not the rulebook of
internet resources management in Africa.

Actually, AFRINIC as an RIR assumes the responsibility of resource
distribution, nonetheless, it cannot stipulate how those numbers shall be
operated. From the financial perspective, AFRINIC simply is unable to
afford it. Legally speaking, AFRINIC does not represent a government body,
nor holding the legitimate power to impose a certain mode of resource
management. That being said, using the bylaws as a basis is senseless.

To paint you a clearer picture, this scenario resembles the fact that
someone is using Greenpeace's Constitution and telling people they are
wrong because it is not something that is integrated into the
Greenpeace Constitution. However, sincerely, do NGOs like the Greenpeace
Constitution, or does AFRINIC detain the power to intervene in such
matters?

Best,

Le mer. 7 juil. 2021 à 17:19, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> a écrit :


>

>

> On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 1:06 AM Anthony Ubah <ubah.tonyiyke at gmail.com>

> wrote:

>

>> Hi Noah,

>>

>>

> Hi Oga Ubah,

>

>

>> What you describe sounds nice if you are one of the established ISPs who

>> are running a top to bottom network. However you can not say the same

>> for smaller enterprises, too small to be an LIR, and unable to run full

>> operations profitably, giving inability to afford the RIR/AFRINIC fees.

>>

>

> RIR membership fees are annual and AFRINIC today has close to 200 resource

> members across the region both large and small.

>

> I know a good number of small enterprises across the eastern coast of

> Africa that get sub-allocations of /29, /28, /26 to /24 from ISP (LIR's)

> providing them with connectivity or hosting services. This practise is

> common and it enables such small enterprises who don't need to become

> AFRINIC resource members to enjoy internet related services through ISP or

> hosting providers infrastructure on the continent.

>

> I similarly know of hyperscalers who provide compute and storage services

> across their infrastructure to a wide range of customers and each service

> comes with some assignment of an integer which is fundamental to provision

> of the IP related services of (compute, storage, applications) enabled by

> integer wrapped in the service to enable IP communication. Customers are

> not paying hyperscalers or hosting providers for an integer but a service.

>

> AFRINIC Bylaws Section 3.4) Sections i. and iii. Below talk about *enabling

> communication to assist in the development of the Internet in Africa and

> promote responsible management of number resources* and not

> leasing/brokering.

>

>

> *i. to provide the service of allocating and registering Internet

> resources for the purposes of enabling communications via open system

> network protocols and to assist in the development and growth of the

> Internet in the African region;*

>

>

> *iii. to promote responsible management of Internet resources throughout

> the African region, as well as the responsible development and operation of

> Internet infrastructures; *

>

>

>> I feel total reliance on network providers/carriers also limits

>> flexibility

>>

>

> As far as I am concerned, we have had multiple customers who wanted their

> own managed INR beyond what we as an LIR can sub-allocate as part of the

> connectivity services they enjoy from us and we encouraged and guided them

> to seek small blocks from AFRINIC. This turned out to be a much cheaper

> alternative than going to brokers and folks who lease each IPv4 for 30USD

> without providing any Internet related service to the customer beyond

> dashing out IP's with LOA's.

>

> AFRINIC FYI, does more than just allocating and managing INR. Read Bylaws

> section 3.4 in full to understand her complete objectives as an RIR for

> this region.

>

>

>>

>> No textbook analogy. IP leasing can allow the enterprise/organizations

>> certain flexibility in administration. Like having a single contiguous

>> range to numbers on all their interfaces and infrastructure either locally

>> and across the cloud, for better administration and scaling of their

>> network they need. This way all their IPs are unique and contiguous, and

>> they can number their offices networks, servers, VPN etc. for easy

>> management.

>>

> So Yes, fully (physical)provider independent. Without the physical

>> connection to provider being involved, that provider will still be there of

>> course, but the end user is not forced to number their LAN with that

>> provider's IP addresses.

>>

>

> Ooooh well.... last I checked ... AFRINIC is provider Independent and has

> alway been.

>

> So I encourage you to encourage those enterprises to reach out to AFRINIC.

> All they need is to become resource members, sign an RSA and justify their

> needs and they will be served.  AFRINIC manager INR transfers within the

> region as well.

>

>

>>

>> On another note, AFRINIC itself would give out such IP addresses as

>> assignments with the same justifications,  These  provider-independent

>> address space (PI) has some limitations in the current CPM. The PIs

>> assignments are also called "leasing", and well.

>>

>

> There is no language in the CPM that indicates that PI assignments are

> also called *leasing*. Please point me to such a language.

>

> However, Section 9.0 talks of temporary assignments of not more than one

> month in section 9.2 and this is often done by AFRINIC to support Internet

> related events and capacity building and education activities through

> various Af* initiatives (AIS, NOG's etc) as per the Bylaws section 3.4 iv.)

> v.) and vi.).

>

> This short term assignment as far I know is done for free and AFRINIC does

> not charge the temporary requesters any fees.

>

>

>

>>

>> AFRINIC as a non profit organisation should not place itself in direct

>> competition with its members.

>>

>

> Which members is AFRINIC competing with exactly?

>

>

>

>> Resource owners are restricted from leasing,

>>

>

> There is no such thing as a Resource owner. What there is, is Membership.

>

> *Bylaws section 6.1 subsection i.) talks of Membership as below.*

>

>

>

> 6) *MEMBERSHIP*

>

> 6.1) Subject to the other provisions of this Article, membership shall be

> open to:

>

>

> *i. any Person who is geographically based within, and providing services

> in the African region, and who is engaged in the use of, or business of

> providing, open system protocol network services;*

>

> So to break down the above for you, the language talks of *engaged in

> the use of* and not leasing or brokering IPv4's but rather ''*use of*"

> meaning using the IP  to provide internet related services in the Afrinic

> region on some network or system infrastructure.

>

> while the registry can lease out space as described in the policy, placing

>> AFRINIC in a very awkward situation.

>>

>

> AFRINIC does not lease, it allocates to LIR's and assigns members who seek

> PI INR's....

>

> CPM Section 5.4.6.2 reads as below and still talks of *use*

>

>

> *5.4.6.2 AFRINIC resources are for AFRINIC service region and any use

> outside the region should be solely in support of connectivity back to the

> AFRINIC region*

>

>

> Cheers,

> Noah

>

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