PI space and colocation

Thu Jan 19 20:16:37 UTC 2006

On Jan 19, 2006, at 3:02 PM, Pete Templin wrote:

> Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
>
>>> Is it a reasonable alternative to establish a BGP connection with  
>>> the
>>> provider over ethernet?
>> It is technical feasible, but I don't think 'reasonable'.  Stub  
>> ASes  are pollution on the 'Net.
>
> OK, let's try a similar but different scenario.  Customer has ISP  
> A, adds ISP B ("you").  Customer intends to disconnect from ISP A.  
> Assuming the customer told you, do you require the customer to  
> start their connection with you as a private AS, do you require the  
> customer to re-AS-number later, or do you assume the customer will  
> re-multihome, etc.?

First: Customer is probably not already doing BGP, since they are  
single homed to ISP A.  When they connect to me, if they honestly  
plan to dump ISP B ("you" :), then they probably won't want to go  
through the hassle of setting up BGP.  Of the literally millions of  
"customers" in the world, there are only a few thousands (say, on the  
order of 0.1%) who want or do BGP.

Assuming they tell you their plans, why wouldn't you rather just  
originate their prefixes and static route to them?  They can be multi- 
originated for a while, doesn't hurt anything.  Certainly better than  
adding superfluous info into the global table permanently.

Easier for you, easier for them, and better for the Internet.  Why  
wouldn't you do it?

> And what if the customer doesn't tell you that they're intending to  
> leave ISP A?  Do you police this, and if so how regularly?

Of course you should police it, but it ain't the end of the world.   
How often?  How about when you get around to it, or maybe when  
someone notifies you?

I'm not suggesting stub ASes should be disallowed by law.  It's just  
when someone asks, why wouldn't you suggest not doing it?  If they  
customer screams, well, they're paying you (or someone else if you  
don't do it), so I guess you kinda have to do it.

I'm confused at the few (three, if I include you) people who are  
questioning this.  Are any of you honestly advocating stub ASNs and  
other completely useless info should be encouraged in the global table?

> (And yes, Patrick, IKYNAI.  We'll pretend for the moment.)

Doesn't stop me from commenting. :-)

-- 
TTFN,
patrick