ARIN, was Re: 72/8 friendly reminder

Edward Lewis Ed.Lewis at neustar.biz
Thu Mar 24 21:32:56 UTC 2005


At 12:53 -0800 3/24/05, Owen DeLong wrote:

>NO.  Operational specifications and routing are the domain of the IETF
>and _NOT_ ARIN.  ARIN is responsible for the stewardship of assigned
>numbers within the ARIN region.  This includes IP addresses, Autonomous
>System Numbers, and, DNS delegations for reverses on IP addresses.
>While ARIN should consider routing issues and the operational impact
>of ARIN stewardship policies, and, ARIN also has an educational role
>in helping the community to understand BCP including operational
>BCP as it relates to IP Addresses, ASNs, and DNS, ARIN has no role
>in dictating or driving operational practices.

My question is not related to specification development but 
operational requirements of ARIN itself providing a service based on 
specifications.

E.g., picking something a bit more concrete that secure routing, 
should ARIN deploy DNSSEC support, once it is published (again), in 6 
months?  12 months? 10 years?  This will tell the staff what level of 
staffing is needed to accomplish the work.  The policy discussion 
will let membership know whether it is willing to pay for this. 
(Open to the public or not, the membership determines what it pays.)

Discretionary funding for supporting research within the IETF should 
exist too, to cover participation in development of specifications at 
an appropriate level of effort.

Let's say DNSSEC is ready for deployment.  Does the impetus come from 
the ARIN staff or from the membership?  (Maybe it comes from outside, 
but does it need to be made into a policy before the staff implements 
it?)

>I'm not sure ARIN has a change or innovation role.  It is not unlikely
>that responsible stewardship includes a minimum of change and a
>preservation of stability and consistency.

ARIN has two definite roles when it comes to innovation.  1) Don't 
get in the way of innovation by the community and 2) provide expert 
advice when it comes to the development of specifications related to 
RIR functions.  And ARIN ought to be wary of trends in the 
improvement of its internal operations.

An example of role number 1 is providing DNS services over IPv6 
transport.  An example of role number 2 is contributing to the 
discussion of the IRIS definitions for address registries.  In 
neither case is ARIN leading the charge, but is playing a part in 
innovation.

To come back to secure routing, the reason ARIN would be involved is 
that ARIN would be asked to publish information on who is allocated 
number resources.  Although this is done in WhoIs now, there is a 
need to do this via whatever format is required by "secure routing." 
I'm sure the specification of secure routing will describe how to 
operate the protocol, but not address the server capacity nor 
topology needed.

Perhaps policies aren't the vehicle, but then how does the 
operational community get ARIN to supply services?


-- 
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Edward Lewis                                                +1-571-434-5468
NeuStar

Achieving total enlightenment has taught me that ignorance is bliss.



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