[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Enforcing Hierarchical Naming for AS-SETs

[Job Snijders]

Dear ARIN,

> ARIN is seeking feedback from the community on a potential improvement
> to ARIN?s Internet Routing Registry (IRR) that would enforce
> hierarchical naming for new AS-SETs.

Thank you for providing this opportunity to give feedback on ARIN's IRR.

> A community member suggested that ARIN consider updating its IRR rules
> to prohibit the creation of non-unique AS-SET names in our
> authoritative IRR database.

Hierarchical AS-SET naming reduces the potential for accidents, which in
turn helps everyone driving the Internet routing system highways :-)

An decent elaboration on the problem being addressed is available here:
https://manrs.org/2022/12/why-network-operators-should-use-hierarchical-as-sets/

> It is important to note that this proposed change will not impact
> existing AS-SETs, nor apply to AS-SET objects stored in third-party
> IRR databases, and retroactive enforcement is not under consideration.

I think the above described approach will help avoid disruption for
legacy configurations, thanks for being considerate!

> To implement the proposed change, ARIN would need to update the rules
> for naming AS-SET objects. This would require modifications to both
> the web user interface and our RESTful API end point.
> 
> Questions for the Community:
> 
> - Do you have automation that would be impacted by enforcement of this
> proposed change?

No.

> - Are you negatively impacted by the current AS-SET naming conventions?

Nope, quite the contrary. I consider this a positive change to the ARIN
IRR service.

> - Should this work be prioritized ahead of other work on ARIN?s
> development roadmap?

No specific input, I'd just like it to be somewhere on the roadmap.

Kind regards,

Job