NIR meeting at APRICOT (I)

[Anne Lord <anne@apnic.net>]

Dear NIR member,

I have appended below, the text of a discussion document for the
NIR meeting at APRICOT. Please read it carefully before the meeting
so that you are able to comment on the suggestions made here. 

I should emphasise that this represents a set of ideas from APNIC
and we are very keen to hear your ideas, so that we can work together 
to improve the current procedures.

We look forward to meeting everyone in Korea.

Best wishes,

Anne
Manager, Member Services  
-------------------------------------------------------------

DISCUSSION DOCUMENT

Current NIR Address Request Process - Overview and Proposal

Abstract

The existing procedures for National Internet Registries (NIRs) to follow 
when requesting a block of additional address space from APNIC have been 
in place for three years and have served the needs of both NIRs and ISP 
confederations. Given that the membership structures for allocating
address space by these two entities is fundamentally different, the use of 
a single form and set of procedures has always been problematic.  With 
the recent separation of confederations into NIRs and ISP confederations, 
it is now appropriate to re-examine these procedures and to consider a
review of the address request form. Specifically, this paper examines the 
request process for NIRs. It is expected that any changes to the existing 
process will be subject to careful and thorough review by all NIRs. 
This paper makes some specific recommendations but does not
redefine the current request form.  A framework for undertaking this 
on an ongoing basis is expected as an outcome of the NIR meeting at 
APRICOT 2000 on 1 March.

Current procedures

To request an additional allocation of address space, NIRs currently 
complete a 'Confederation Address Request' form (APNIC-075 
http://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/confed-address-request). This
form was designed to cater for both NIRs and ISP confederations and has 
been in use without modification since 1997. Each NIR submits address 
assignment and allocation information listing allocations and reservations 
made for each member, customer assignments made by each member and 
assignments made directly by the confederation themselves. This is done to
substantiate that at least 80 percent of the address space allocation 
received from APNIC has been used by the NIR.  Additional address space 
can also be requested when an LIR member of an NIR submits a request that 
is greater than the pool of available address space held by the NIR.

Problems

Volume

Typically NIRs are allocated an address range that exceeds any allocation 
made to an LIR. The total pool of address space held by an NIR is often 
very large. When requesting new allocations, the NIR will submit an 
overview of the last allocation it received. Because the assignment to
customers of long prefixes is now common, the size of a single request sent 
by an NIR is often extremely large, amounting to many pages of information. 
For example, requests have been received which are around 2MB in size. 
Both compiling and evaluating this quantity of information in a qualitative 
way is very time consuming.  If the evaluation could be distributed across 
the duration of an allocation, rather than at a single point in time, the 
process could be more efficient for both NIRs and APNIC.

Timeliness

When an NIR submits a request with only 20 percent of their address pool 
remaining, there is often considerable pressure on all concerned for an 
allocation to be granted quickly, leading to potential problems in the 
evaluation.  If there are queries concerning specific allocations or
assignments, the actual time taken to resolve a request can often be very 
lengthy. This can mean that requests by LIRs to an NIR for an additional 
address allocation can be held up by the processing of the NIR request as 
a whole.

Incomplete data

The address request form currently requires that NIRs declare all the 
address space they hold.  However, due to the volume of documentation 
required, NIRs typically send in details of their last allocations only. 
This means that up to 20 percent of any previous allocation may go 
unreported.

Database consistency

In the past there have been a number of problems with the database entries 
associated with the NIR ranges. Assignments have not been registered, 
allocations have not been registered, and NIC handles have been used 
incorrectly without reference to the appropriate people.  The
magnitude of the problem is considerably greater when an NIR only has 
contact with APNIC at the time of requesting an additional allocation. 
More frequent contact would enable any problems to be identified and 
fixed earlier.

Differing methodologies

The table below gives an overview of the parts of the APNIC procedural 
framework followed by the respective NIRs.

  NIR      ALLOCATION WINDOW	ASSIGNMENT WINDOW      APNIC-065
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

TWNIC	       No	          Yes	 		 Yes
CNNIC	       Yes		  Unknown		 Yes
JPNIC	       No		  Yes		         No
APJII	       Yes		  Planned	         Yes
KRNIC	       No		  No		         No


- An 'Allocation Window' defines the amount of address space that an NIR is 
able to allocate to an LIR without first seeking a 'second opinion' 
from APNIC.  This increases as the NIR demonstrates understanding of the 
'Policies for address space management in the AP region'.

- An 'Assignment Window' defines the amount of address space that an LIR 
can assign to its end-users without first seeking a second opinion from 
APNIC or from an NIR. This increases as the LIR demonstrates understanding 
of the 'Policies for address space management in the AP region'.

While it is necessary that each NIR is able to define their own local 
procedures for address requests, there is a clear trade off against the 
need for consistency. In the interests of fairness and consistency to 
all members, and also of compliance with global RIR policies, APNIC strongly
believes that NIRs should follow consistent procedures.

Management overhead

The IR system globally is one of delegated authority. Responsibility for 
the management of the address space is delegated to the users of the 
address space. However, increasing the number of layers of delegated 
authority, increases the management complexity.

While the fine detail of specific NIR procedures and local policy 
variations is not fully understood by APNIC and while each NIR is 
different, in the interests of fairness and consistency to all
members, it is necessary that APNIC collects detailed documentation from 
all NIRs in order to ensure that policies are complied with.  If, however, 
there is a common framework, then the management of the delegation 
becomes much less complex.

Proposal

In seeking to improve the mechanics of the procedures by which NIRs request 
additional address space from APNIC, an alternative framework to the one 
above, which is consistent across all NIRs, would simplify the overall 
approach to management. A number of related suggestions are offered to the 
NIRs for discussion.

1) One possible approach is to use an 'allocation window' mechanism. The 
size of the 'allocation window' would determine the size of an allocation 
that an NIR could make to its members without a second opinion from APNIC. 
Two NIRs are using an allocation window system already.  If an 'allocation 
window' is used, APNIC is able to carefully evaluate a subset of the 
requests received by the NIR from their LIR members for consistency across
the region. Unlike current procedures, APNIC would be able to see how 
infrastructure was being used as well as receiving a declaration of 
customer assignments.

An allocation window, like an assignment window, would increase over time, 
as a member gained more experience. However, this would require that all 
NIRs use a request form that is similar to the APNIC-065 form. At the 
moment, three NIRs are already doing this.  Overall this would also have 
the advantage that the NIR would have more frequent contact with APNIC,
which would foster a closer working relationship.

2) It is also proposed that NIRs implement the 'assignment window' 
procedure with their LIRs. This would ensure that the LIRs assignments 
are being monitored with a high degree of granularity.

3) APNIC-075 should be simplified. The current request form could be 
simplified to a list of allocations and reservations, with the bulk of 
the evaluation and monitoring work moved from a single point of 
evaluation to a series of ongoing interactions with APNIC.  This would be
more efficient for both NIRs and APNIC.

4) A training document could be written with guidelines for all hostmasters 
on how to evaluate address space allocations. It would contain examples 
of specific difficult cases and include step by step checks on what to do 
in certain scenarios. It is proposed that all NIRs contribute sections of 
the document.

5) Based on the above training document, APNIC could prepare specific 
training courses for NIRs. These could be delivered to NIRs simultaneously 
as one group. The courses should be presented at least once a year and 
should be run for at least one day, possibly two. The course should 
also include plenty of time for workshop sessions running through practical 
examples and problems faced by NIR hostmasters.  APNIC should also make its 
Local IR training course material available to NIRs to modify for delivery 
to their members.

The future

APNIC is currently developing software which will automate the allocation 
of address space to members once an approval for a subsequent allocation 
has been given. APNIC would like to plan in the future to make this software 
interface available to NIRs so that they are able to query the interface 
and obtain the next contiguous block for their members. This would mean 
that address space would not be held by an NIR but that through an 
encrypted session they were able to obtain the next block for an 
individual member without interaction from APNIC hostmasters.
The management by APNIC and NIRs of a common pool of IP space will reduce 
address space fragmentation which is a problem with the current model.