NAIR: Organizational Meeting of Founders - Democracy in IP

[Larry Vaden]

At 10:53 AM 7/21/97 -0400, Avi Freedman wrote:
><snipped from your message>
>
>> o function as a "buying group" in negotiations with NSPs for multihoming
>> services
>> o offer prefixes to members in the range of /16 to /25
>> o seek permission of the IANA to conduct a 1 year experiment, annually
>> renewable if results warrant, in a /8 mas o menos
>> o result in only 1 prefix being added to core routers, if the original
>> allocation and reservation by the IANA is sufficient to meet the needs of
>> NAIR members.  
>
>So what you're saying is that you're going to form an IP backbone
>and seek an initial allocation of a /8, right?

No, we're looking for firms like yours, like priori.net et al to provide
the backbone services.  Please note "mas o menos"; NAIR's first IP Request
was for a /16 and is in the appeal process at the IANA.  At first, we only
had a small handful of interested parties.

>You're describing an NSP collective, not a registry, if your goal is to have 
>only 1 prefix added to the core routers.

I'm not the best writer in the world;  we're trying to form a "bottom up"
modified ISPAC/limited function registry that would result in considerably
less than one prefix for every member.  We can't just lay claim to the
abused router slots pointed out in Tony Bates' CIDR Report.  We have to put
together an organization which offers better ratios than the extant
universe at this time.  I don't want to argue with you, but I'm not sure
why a net healthy ratio of prefixes to members would make us an NSP
collective.

You are an industry sage, and we'd like for you to help.  You described the
situation regarding IP allocation policy wrt small ISPs quite well in your
Boardwatch article.  NAIR is about a net healthy solution to that
problem/opportunity.

>And as long as you're at it, why not offer prefixes in the range of /16
>to /29?

I imagine there will be demand for longer prefixes;  so far, the longest
prefix a potential member has requested is /25;  that was from a
significant entity in the on line publishing world, not an ISP.  We believe
there will be other similar requests.  Perhaps enough to form a separate
SIG, even warrant a separate organization.

We look forward to your participation in every aspect of NAIR, founder,
organizer, vendor, what ever you please.  Info on joining the mailing list
is at <http://www.nair.net>.