[lir-wg] Sub-allocations, how and when?

Hi,

as the one who made the Sub-Allocation proposal, let me try to clarify
a few things.

On Wed, Feb 12, 2003 at 12:46:18PM +0000, Kristofer Sigurdsson wrote:
> I am currently doing some work for a small ISP with a fair number of
> clients, that wants to get a sub-allocation (in accordance with the new
> sub-allocations policy).  We are going to request a /20 allocation from
> our primary uplink.  However, we may have difficulties in showing usage
> for a /20 assignment for ourselves and our current customers (we're not
> far from it, though), but we need this allocation to deal with
> near-future customers.  We are also going to request an AS in order to
> be properly multi-homed, which means we need the /20 right away to 
> avoid prefix filters.

Sub-Allocation size should not be based on routing considerations.  If you
get a /22 (or similar), and someone "out there" is not accepting that 
announcement, packets will always travel over your upstream's aggregate
(/16 or whatever they announce), so you can be reached.

> We could of course, in accordance with the RIPE community's "slow-start" 
> mechanism, start with a smaller allocation, or even just request 
> assignments for ourselves, our customers, and then new customers as we 
> go along, but this would mean lots of CIDR blocks, instead of just 
> one /20.  

Depending on the layout and fragemntation of your upstream's network,
it might be a good compromise to start with a smaller sub-allocation, but
"keep" the remaining part of a /20 available in case you need it.  If
you really need the /20 quickly, it will be there.

(If the address space is not there, I suggest that your upstream talks
to the RIPE hostmasters how to solve that - a new allocation might be
required.  Maybe they can also demonstrate proper assignments of /23s
and get their AW raised...)

[..]
> Now, my question to the list is, when will the sub-allocation policy be
> operational, and how will one request such an allocation?  Presumably,
> RIPE will provide a sample allocation request form, any idea when?

There's no official request form (yet) because the sub-allocation thing
is something that's happening between you and your upstream.  The NCC
is /not/ involved here (normally).

> Any ideas on how to do this without a sub-allocation?  Any way for our
> uplink to "reserve" a /20, which would then origin from our AS, and then
> assign chunks of it to us as we go along, maybe?  

This would be the traditional way that people have been doing it before
the sub-allocation policy.  It's messy, cause you can't properly document
what's happening.

Gert Doering
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