[ppml] 2005-1 or its logical successor

[Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com]

> What's the transition plan, if these IXs don't exist now?
> Are these IXs required by law, by policy, or something else?
> Are they privately-owned monopolies, or publicly-owned
> monopolies?

ARIN deals with this problem the same way that it
deals with BGP prefix filters. When ARIN went from
a /19 to a /20 as the minimum sized address block
we did not pass a law requiring ISPs to change the
prefix filters. We didn't even make a policy requiring
ISPs to change address filters.

ARIN enables things like local peering IXes but
neither mandates them nor manages the process of
creating them.

> I hear a lot of support for settlements from telcos,
> some from governments, and little from network people.
> It effectively drives hosting companies out of business,
> if they have to pay for transit (settlement for inbound
> traffic) but carriers get to charge at both ends of the
> stream.

I don't believe any of the talk about settlements.
When settlements become the norm they won't look like
what people talk about today. Since settlements have
to be negotiated they will look more like the secret
SFI peering and paid peering agreements that currently
exist. In other words, we are well down the road to
settlements. 

In any case, settlements are not the job of ARIN
or any of the RIRs.

> Is there evidence that this model provides a network 
> that is better, faster, or cheaper?

Some people believe that imposing one business model
in all regions and all cities results in a network
that is better, faster and cheaper in only the largest
population centers.

> but I think having a single point of failure
> (nuke the IX) in each geographical area sounds contrary
> to good internetwork design.

Quite true. That is why ARIN should not address the
IX issue. Let the engineers deal with it. They will
probably build a model with 3 or more IXes in every
city with good interconnections between them. In some
cities that may be a single IX with bridging to 3
or more locations. In others, the detail will all be
visible at the IP layer. These are not issues for
an RIR to deal with other than to know that the 
technology is available.

-- Michael Dillon