[6bone] Exchange Point Addresses

[Robert Kiessling]

Pim van Pelt <pim@ipng.nl> writes:

> On Mon, Jun 17, 2002 at 12:45:59PM -0400, ww@GROOVY.NET wrote:
> | At the Toronto Internet Exchange (TORIX) we've been talking about
> | making it possible to peer natively over IPv6. The problem is
> | getting addresses for the exchange -- RIPE seems to have a clear
> | policy (they'll hand out a /64), but ARIN doesn't appear to. It
> | would not be appropriate to use addresses from one of the providers
> | at the exchange since TORIX has been, since its inception, 
> | provider neutral and we'd like to keep it that way.
> They give out a (non-aggregatable) /48, which is IMO almost 100%
> pointless (not a /64 like you mentioned).

It fulfils exactly what it's made for: to provide neutral,
provider-independent IPv6 addresses for the exchange mesh. There was
and is a need for this, so it's far from "100% useless".

> | Any suggestions or pointers to how to go about acquiring some
> | numbers for the exchange would be appreciated.
> 
> As with your collegues at AMS-IX (NL), you will simply be left out in 
> the cold.

No, you're not. You can receive address space for the exchange
mesh. There is no need for these addresses to be routable.

Addresses for other services like web page, NTP etc. is a different
story altogether.

> When you approach a registry with a remark like you just
> made, you will be told that you are no more special than any other
> company that wishes to have their own globally routable space (call it
> PI, call it TLA).

Indeed.

You are implying that the secondary services offered by exchange
points are so important that they justify a different allocation
policy. This in turn implies that you want to introduce PI to IPv6,
which so far does not exist (TLA, sTLA are *not* PI, they clearly are
PA).

There is a clear consencus that this is not desirable.

> At current, at least in the region I am active in (RIPE), IXPs cannot
> obtain address space without becoming dependant on a member. By the
> way, neither can the RIR itself.

They can obtain address space like everone else. They just cannot get
"PI" space, that is globally routable addresses not bound to an
upstream. Of course they are free to fulil the requirements for an
allocation, which is essentially to become a LIR and expect 200
customer assignments.

Robert