Exchange Points and LIRs

[Aleksi Suhonen <]

Hello,

TREX is now in a position to start requesting an autonomous system
number and IPv4 and IPv6 address space. I originally thought we'd
just ask one of the connecting ISPs to forward the requests to RIPE
under their LIR, and this is probably what we will end up doing.

But it's not a very convenient way of doing it. I would like to
compare the situation to that of the pure IPv6 transit providers
who have expressed concerns on other mailing lists: they wouldn't
like to be dependent in any way on one of their customers either.

Their situation differs slightly from ours though. They are willing
to become LIRs, or they are already LIRs, whereas the number of
annual change requests to an IXP's database objects is so small
that it won't make sense for a new IXP to become a LIR itself.
(Especially given the recent volatility of the costs associated ...)


So, what would be an ideal solution? One solution that occurred
to me was that there could be an umbrella-LIR for all the IXPs
in Europe. Perhaps it could be operated by RIPE NCC?

Or possibly Euro-IX could operate a LIR for use by its members?

What sort of thoughts do others have on this issue?
Or is it a non-issue? ;-)

--
	Aleksi Suhonen / +358 45 6702048
	TREX  Tampere Region Exchange Oy
	www.trextampereregionexchange.fi