[arin-ppml] Feedback Request: Policy ARIN-2024-6: 6.5.1a Definition Update

[William Herrin]

On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 5:23 PM Douglas Camin <doug at dougcamin.com> wrote:
> To think about it holistically – for all sections of NRPM aside from 6.5,
> LIRs and ISPs have distinct differences. Inside of Section 6.5, anywhere
> it references an LIR, that policy also applies to an ISP. This policy
> changes the word “Document” to “Section” to ensure there is no confusion about that.

Hi Doug,

Well I sure don't like that plan.

IMO, the proposed change just makes it more confusing. "Section"
means... which section? Why should the reader understand it to mean
section 6.5? Why not section 6?

But that's not the biggest issue. Folks should be able to skip from
section to section and understand the terms "LIR" and "ISP" to mean
the same thing there that they do everywhere else. You're telling me
that 6.5.1.a intends to morph the terms to a different meaning for
section 6.5. That's bad. Really bad. Don't do that.

Now that you call my attention to it, I think I'd like to see section
6.5.1 retired, any relevant terminology moved to section 2 where it
belongs, and any text whose use of words is inharmonious with the rest
of the document revised. And not necessarily in section 6.5 - we
probably should be considering LIRs and ISPs to be the same thing
elsewhere too.

I'm curious: where in the NRPM is LIR and ISP not, for the purposes of
ARIN policy, the same thing?

Regards,
Bill Herrin


p.s. 6.5.2.b is also poorly written. If I didn't already know what the
nibble boundary is, it'd leave me scratching my head. Need simpler
words along with enough context for a reader to gain a basic
understanding of why it matters.

"A nibble is half a byte: 4 bits. A nibble boundary in a netmask is
where the number of bits in the mask is evenly divisible by 4.

Nibble-based address delegation boundaries serve IPv6 in two ways:
First, each written digit of an IPv6 address is exactly 4 bits.
Second, the ip6.arpa reverse-DNS domain is engineered for
nibble-boundary delegation."


--
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/