Re: Your Input Needed: Can ROA Replace LOA? – Short Survey (7 mins)

Thu Nov 16 21:21:29 UTC 2023

Hi Christopher and Tom,

I'll reply to you together, as they seem to be along the same lines.

For the purposes of this survey/research, a reference to an LOA is a reference to an LOA for the advertisement/filtering of IP space. I agree, the acronym LOA has multiple uses in the world of IT for things such as datacentre cross-connects, however given what we are looking into, I believe its quite clear that any references to an LOA is a reference to a Letter of Authorisation for the advertisement/filtering of IP space.

Other facility providers (such as Equinix, see https://docs.equinix.com/en-us/Content/Interconnection/DiLOA/xc-Loa.htm) have already started looking into the realm of digital LOAs for services such as cross-connects. While they are not the same as traditional LOAs, in my belief they are designed to reduce the timeframes in issuing them, having them sent across and completed.

Regards,
Christopher Hawker

________________________________
From: Christopher Morrow <morrowc.lists at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2023 3:18 AM
To: Tom Beecher <beecher at beecher.cc>
Cc: Christopher Hawker <chris at thesysadmin.au>; nanog at nanog.org <nanog at nanog.org>
Subject: Re: Your Input Needed: Can ROA Replace LOA? – Short Survey (7 mins)

On Thu, Nov 16, 2023 at 10:22 AM Tom Beecher <beecher at beecher.cc> wrote:
>>
>> In the service provider industry, its primary use is for advertising address resources (IPv4/v6 and ASN)
>
>
> Not really.

<citation required>

I would think there are a few uses of LOA in the telco/SP world, at least:

  1) 'can I make this cross-connect happen?'
  2) 'can I do some work on this link/path/fiber/conduit on behalf of
<customerX> where the entity to be worked on is <providerY>
infrastructure'
  3) 'Please accept this internet number resource from <customerX>
when the number resource is authorized for use by <entityA>'

I would love to see ROA take over the 3rd of those, since it's a clear
indicator that:
  "RIR authorizes LIR to use <number resource>, LIR authorizes
AS-OWNER to originate <number resource>"

and by 'clear indicator' I mean: "has some cryptographic/PKI backing
you can follow to the RIR in an automated fashion"
Where 'LOA' generally is a xerox of a photocopy of a fax of a
dot-matrix printed MS-Word templated document which perhaps has an X
on the 'signature' line...

-chris
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