[ppml] What's in a name? An address allocation would smell as sweet

[Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com]

>    What's in a name? That which we call PI allocation 
>    By any other name (LIR allocation) would smell as sweet;

> 2)  Redefining/relaxing the definition of what an LIR is?

An LIR is essentially the same as an ISP. Some people in Europe
invented the term LIR because they thought that ISP was too
commercial at a time when the majority of the Internet was
composed of academic or research networks.

The essential characteristic of an LIR or an ISP is that
they are charged with operating a network. That is job number
one for their organization. The PI allocation policy is
targetted at organizations for whom some other activity is
job one, such as car manufacturing, airplane operation,
food distribution, etc. These organizations all operate
networks as a support activity, not a primary activity.

Now, if they spin off the network operations into a separate
entity, that entity is an LIR and can qualify for its own
/32. For an example of this in Europe, go to http://www.mgi.de
and click on "English" on the grey bar along the top, 3rd from
the left. If you go to http://www.ripe.net and do a whois search
for 2001:4d20::/32 you will see their IPv6 PA allocation.

Playing with the definition of an LIR can only make it easier
for other companies to do what MGI has done. I think the intent
of the PI proposal before us is to tailor a policy to the needs
of companies for whom networking is a secondary support activity.

This type of company could go to an ISP and get a /48 for each
of their locations. But if they change ISPs then they must renumber
each site. And they cannot effectively multihome any of their sites
between two ISPs. A good PI policy will give them a /48 for each
location directly from the RIR, and will ENABLE multihoming with
two ISPs.

--Michael Dillon


--Michael Dillon