Route Aggregation Policy (Draft 1)

Proposal

1. Summary of the problem being addressed by this proposal

Under the current policy text, it is explicitly stated that an LIR has no limits on the amount of additional allocations they can take, if issued individually, it will result in a significant increase of entries in the routing table.

2. Summary of how this proposal addresses the problem

Allow AFRINIC to issue IPv4 prefixes as contiguous bit boundary ranges, limiting the number of broken prefixes being announced.

3. Proposal

Replace Clause 5.4.4 of the Consolidated Policy Manual (CPM) as follows:

Current text:

5.4.4 For any LIR or End User requesting IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion: There is no explicit limit on the number of times an organization may request additional IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion Period.

New text:

5.4.4 For any LIR or End User requesting IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion: There is no explicit limit on the number of times an organization may request additional IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion Period. For the sake of routing table conservation, prefixes will be issued as aggregates when an LIR requests multiple additional allocations.

staff-assesment

Staff Assessment

1.0 Staff Understanding of the Proposal

The proposal requires that for LIRs requesting multiple IPv4 allocations, AFRINIC will issue those blocks as aggregates (on contiguous bit boundary ranges). This provision is in CPM 5.4.4 which is being rephrased.

2.0 Staff Comments

CPM 5.4.4 is being rephrased as follows:

Current: 5.4.4 For any LIR or End User requesting IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion: There is no explicit limit on the number of times an organization may request additional IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion Period.

New: 5.4.4 For any LIR or End User requesting IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion: There is no explicit limit on the number of times an organization may request additional IPv4 address space during the Exhaustion Period. For the sake of routing table conservation, prefixes will be issued as aggregates when an LIR requests multiple additional allocations.

Observations:

• Although we can make a best effort, AFRINIC cannot guarantee that subsequent assignments/allocations will be contiguous.
• CPM 5.5.1.4.3 already covers/appears to cove what this proposal is all about - making this proposal possibly not needed: "AFRINIC will always try to allocate contiguous address ranges, allowing the LIR to minimise the number of route announcements it makes. However, it will not always be possible to allocate a range contiguous with the LIR's previous allocation".

3.0 Comments from Legal Counsel

None Observed