The future of ISP confederations
Problem definition
The future of ISP confederations - a proposal to permanently suspend the formation of new ISP confederations
This proposal in this paper is twofold. First, that new procedures are applied to the management framework for existing ISP confederations; and second, that no new ISP confederations be created (in other words, this paper proposes that the suspension of new confederations memberships should be extended indefinitely for ISP confederations).
1. Background
The ISP confederation structure arose in response to the globalisation of ISP networks through mergers and acquisitions - where an ISP network may span many countries. The resulting very large ISPs demonstrated a need to maintain independent network address allocation pools, and they were allowed to do this through the adoption of confederation memberships (which were originally designed to serve National NICs, now known as NIRs). ISP confederations have operated along the same administrative lines as NIR confederations, even though the specific characteristics of the NIR and ISP confederations are actually very different.
Multiple independent allocations within a single APNIC membership are not ordinarily permitted due to significant additional administrative complexity which they impose. Normal APNIC members are therefore required to manage their allocated address space as a single pool, and only request more addresses when 80% of their allocation has been consumed. If independent allocations are required, the organisation is now advised to take out multiple memberships, which clearly delineates the separate allocations.
2. Motivation
In practice, the current ISP confederation framework does not consistently apply APNIC policies across the APNIC membership, resulting in a lack of accountability by the ISP confederations. Moreover there are also different implementations of the model across the ISP confederation membership which significantly increase the complexity of management.
In December 1998 the APNIC Executive Council supported the decision to suspend the formation of any new confederations. Almost two years has elapsed from the time of that decision and APNIC is now seeking feedback from the community on a specific proposal to resolve this issue.
Note: At the time of the EC decision, the term 'confederation' applied both to the National Internet Registries (organisations that serve the ISP community within a particular country), and to ISP Confederations (whose 'membership' is defined by the structure of the ISP itself). This document is concerned only with the case of the ISP confederations.
3. Current status (including other RIRs)
The following summary analysis compares the procedural framework applied to ordinary LIR APNIC members and members of ISP confederations and highlights the significant differences.
Other RIRs (RIPE NCC and ARIN) have no confederation category within their membership structures, so their policies are not detailed here.
3.1 ISP Address Request Form
Each direct LIR APNIC member must complete an 'ISP Address Request' form (APNIC-065) in detail when requesting an address allocation. This is evaluated carefully by the APNIC hostmasters.
Under the current model for ISP confederations, the head office of the confederation is intended to assume the role of the registry, similar to that of APNIC. However there is no formal requirement for the confederation members to complete APNIC-065 when requesting address space, and moreover infrastructure descriptions are not required on the current APNIC Confederation request form. As a result infrastructure requirements go largely undocumented throughout the entire allocation process.
3.2 Assignment and Allocation Windows
APNIC applies an 'assignment window' mechanism and second-opinion process to LIR members, in order to objectively measure the understanding and application of assignment policies and procedures by the member. For new members the assignment window starts at zero (and therefore applies to all customer assignments), and it is increased progressively as experience is gained.
APNIC is also currently developing a corresponding "allocation window" mechanism by which NIR allocations to NIR members may also be subject to second-opinion approval by APNIC. This has been agreed by all NIR members, and is being progressively introduced.
The ISP confederation model today does not involve a second-opinion process of any kind, which allows no objective measure or verification of policy adherance by the confederation. In any case this process by its nature assumes that the requestor is independent from the registry, and that the registry is neutral and impartial. Neither is the case for ISP confederations.
3.3 Establishing new memberships
ISP confederations are currently able to establish new memberships as they please, and with each membership the ability to create an additional independently managed address pool.
New memberships of the ISP confederations should be established under the same criteria as those applied to APNIC LIR members.
3.4 Initial allocations to members
Initial allocations to new members should be consistent with policies decided by the APNIC community. APNIC applies the 'slow start' policy whereby new members receive the minimum practical allocation. Currently this is a /20.
4. Discussion
APNIC is currently discussing the above policy issues with ISP confederation members, with a view to implementing changes. However, there are currently five ISP confederations, each with different topological considerations, which make the consistent and equitable application of policies and procedures a complex management task.
While the ISP confederation model allows each ISP confederation to obtain independent address allocations for each member, this can also be easily achieved by establishing separate memberships with APNIC.
5. Recommendations
APNIC recommends that the ISP confederation membership category be suspended, but that the existing ISP confederations be given the choice to either convert to multiple memberships or to remain as they are.
If they choose to remain as ISP confederations, they will be asked to work with APNIC to modify their procedures to implement the assignment and allocation window systems with the objective of ensuring a more consistent and fair application of APNIC policies. This will be done on a case by case basis, but with an eventual aim to bring all confederations into line with a consistent policy framework.
 Back to Documents Index |
Back to SIG Index  |