[address-policy-wg] 2010-03 New Policy Proposal (Global Policy State in RIPE PDP)

Dave Wilson wrote:
> Hi Nigel,
> 
> Good questions, thanks.
> 
> I see what you mean. Let me characterise the problem like this:
> 
> At this moment, if the RIPE community reaches consensus on a global
> policy, and it is adopted in our region before all other regions have
> adopted it, then there is still a risk that another region may propose a
> change that we want to adopt. This risk could, in principle, slow down
> the process of getting consensus in the RIPE region.
> 
> The object of this proposal is to mitigate that risk, by allowing a
> proposal to be adopted in the RIPE region specifically, but ensuring
> that it can be revised if an alternative surfaces and reaches consensus.
> But a global policy of course can't be implemented until it has been
> adopted in all regions, and this proposal would not directly affect the
> speed at which that occurs.

So this allows a holding state, before the policy becomes instantiated
in the RIPE region, from which it can be returned to a previous phase
and allow changes (such as may have been made in another region), hence
avoiding the startup delay?

If so then I agree. Sounds like a fine idea.

> Good point. There are two trapdoors though that can be "manually"
> triggered in the event that a policy seems to be stuck - one by the RIPE
> WG chairs, the other by the ASO AC. I have the feeling that adding a
> fixed timeout would probably not help the process, which can be lengthy.
> Does that sound reasonable?

Yes, it does.

Nigel