Level 3's IRR Database

Sun Jan 30 08:23:39 UTC 2011

Hi All,

I've just noticed that Level 3 is allowing people to register space in its IRR database that A.) is not assigned to the people registering it and B.) is not assigned via/to Level 3.

So, I have two queries

A.) Are only customers of Level 3 allowed to use this database
B.) Can someone from Level 3 please clarify if there are any plans to lock this down slightly

At this point, it would seem that if you are a customer of level 3's, you can register any space you feel like in there, and announce anything you feel like once the filters propagate, which in my opinion completely nullifies the point of IRR in the first place.

Though I think this also raises the question about IRR databases in general.  Would it not be far more sane to have each RIR run a single instance each which talk to each other, which can be verified against IP address assignments, and scrap the distributed IRR systems that allow for issues like this to occur?

(In the mean time I've emailed the relevant people to try and get the entries falsely registered in that database removed, and will wait and see if I get a response).

Andrew Alston
TENET - Chief Technology Officer
Phone: +27 21 763 7181