BGP multihoming

Wed Jan 29 21:09:10 UTC 2014

* Baldur Norddahl

> Apologies for a RIPE question on NANOG, although I believe this issue
> will soon enough to be relevant for the ARIN region as well.

Relevant perhaps, but as the policies differ, so may the correct answers...

> I had a customer ask if we could provide him with BGP such that he
> could be multihomed. He already has 128 IP addresses from another
> ISP. Obviously a /25 is a non go for multihoming as everyone are
> going to ignore his route.
> 
> I would then need to help him with acquiring a /24 PI. Which appears
> to be impossible as RIPE does no longer assign PI space and PI can
> not be reassigned and thus be bought.

There is another option, namely if your customer becomes a RIPE NCC
member (i.e., an LIR), he'll get a PA /22. (Of course, you could offer
to perform all the administrative work is to start and operate an LIR on
your customer's behalf, for a reasonable fee.)

> Is assigning a /24 from my own PA space for the purpose of BGP
> multihoming considered sufficient "need"?

Not with current policies, no, as the multihoming clause only applied
specifically to PI assignments, not pA. However, if you customer can
show that he'll be using at least 128 addresses (i.e., 50% of a /24)
within a year, he does qualify for an assignment of a /24. Plans to
renumber out of his current /25 would count towards that.

Tore