Dear SIG members,

The proposal, 'Ensuring efficient use of historical AS numbers', has been sent to the Policy SIG for review. It will be presented at the Policy SIG at APNIC 28 in Beijing, China, 25-28 August 2009. The proposal's history can be found at:

http://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-075

We invite you to review and comment on the proposal on the mailing list before the meeting.

The comment period on the mailing list before an APNIC meeting is an important part of the policy development process. We encourage you to express your views on the proposal:

- Do you support or oppose this proposal? - Does this proposal solve a problem you are experiencing? If so, tell the community about your situation. - Do you see any disadvantages in this proposal? - Is there anything in the proposal that is not clear? - What changes could be made to this proposal to make it more effective?

Randy, Jian and Ching-Heng

________________________________________________________________________

prop-075-v001: Ensuring efficient use of historical AS numbers ________________________________________________________________________

Author: Guangliang Pan

Version: 1

Date: 24 July 2009

1. Introduction ----------------

This is a policy proposal to recover unused historical AS numbers for eventual reassignment to other APNIC account holders.

2. Definitions --------------

Historical AS numbers: Historical resources AS numbers that were registered under early registry policies without formal agreements. For more information, see section 2 of "Policies for historical Internet resources in the APNIC Whois Database" [1].

Unused AS numbers: Any AS number which has not appeared in the global routing tables for some specified period of time, as determined by the Routing Information Service (RIS) or other agreed means.

3. Summary of current problem ------------------------------

APNIC has 115 historical AS numbers which transfered to APNIC during the Early Registry Transfer (ERX) project. The full list is available from:

http://www.apnic.net/erx

Currently, around 45% of the historical AS numbers registered in the APNIC Whois Database do not appear in the global routing tables. Assuming these AS numbers remain unused, these AS numbers could be made available for redistribution to other networks.

While APNIC has the ability to reclaim unused AS numbers assigned under current policies [2], there is no equivalent policy for historical AS numbers.

In 2004, to help address the decreasing size of the unallocated IPv4 pool, the APNIC community adopted a policy to recover unused historical IPv4 addresses:

http://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-017

This proposal would allow a similar mechanism to exist for historical AS numbers.

4. Situation in other RIRs ---------------------------

No similar policy exists in other regions.

5. Details of the proposal ---------------------------

It is proposed that APNIC recover and reassign historical AS numbers that have not been used for a reasonable period of time.

Please see Appendix A for the administrative procedure that would be used to carry out this policy.

6. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposal ------------------------------------------------

6.1 Advantages

This proposal would release unused AS numbers back into the unassigned pool.

6.2 Disadvantages

This proposal would result in a minor increase in the workload of APNIC hostmasters.

7. Effect on APNIC members ---------------------------

There is no direct impact to normal APNIC members.

8. Effect on NIRs ------------------

NIRs are encouraged to help APNIC reclaim unused historical AS numbers within their economies.

9. References ---------------

[1] "Policies for historical Internet resources in the APNIC Whois Database" http://www.apnic.net/policy/historical-resource-polices.html

[2] Section 8, Return of unused ASNs, "Policies for Autonomous System number management in the Asia Pacific region" http://www.apnic.net/asn-policy#8

10. Appendix A: Administrative procedure for historical AS number reclamation -----------------------------------------------------------------

1. The APNIC Secretariat will identify unused historical AS numbers and generate a list.

2. The APNIC Secretariat will notify organizations responsible for unused historical AS numbers by all available means and contact the associated NIR if applicable.

The APNIC Secretariat will use all available contact details from APNIC records. Responses will be tracked using dedicated return email addresses and APNIC's request tracking system.

3. Responses to these notifications will be handled using one of three possible options:

A. If a response is received and AS number holder agrees to return the AS number:

- The AS number will be reclaimed.

B. If a response is received and AS number holder does not agree to return the AS number:

- The holder retains the AS number. - All future handling of the historical AS number will be guided by the "Policies for historical Internet resources in the APNIC Whois Database"[1] at:

http://www.apnic.net/policy/historical-resource-polices.html

C. If no response is received after 3 contacts in 3 months (or if only error responses or bounces are received):

- The AS number will be reclaimed.

4. All reclaimed AS numbers will be removed from public APNIC Whois Database and kept in the APNIC unallocated pool for 12 months before redistribution to other networks.