Re: requirements draft revision

[Joe Abley <jabley-ietf@automagic.org>]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2001 at 12:20:03PM -0700, Tony Hain wrote:
> Joe Abley wrote:
> > An "enterprise" is an entity autonomously operating a
> > network using TCP/IP and, in particular, determining the
> > addressing plan and address assignments within that network.
> >
> > Consider:
> >
> >
> >   A --- B --- C
> >         |     |
> >         D     E
> >
> > A, B, C, D are all enterprises. B, E are transit providers of C.
> > A, D are transit providers of B. Both C and B are multi-homed.
> >
> > If C has customers, then C is a transit provider for
> > those customers.
> 
> Is C a transit provider if the customer is receiving a /27, but simply
> defaulting to C's routing policies?

Yes. If a customer of C can reach the rest of the internet through C,
then C is a transit provider of that customer. Here's the updated
diagram:

   A --- B --- C --- F
         |     |
         D     E

F is the customer of C.

> What is the difference between that and
> using a dial-in NAT to map 10/8 through a single address received from C?

I don't understand the question. It's the fact that C is providing
connectivity to the internet beyond C that makes it a transit provider.
I don't understand what addressing and/or the presence of NAT has to
do with it in the general case.

> They both fit the definition of Enterprise here.

Yes. A, B, C, D, E and F are all enterprises, according to what I meant
to convey in the text. If we can make things clearer by introducing a
new term for "an enterprise which has a transit provider", as Randy
seemed to be saying, then that's cool. We can do that.

> In both cases the address
> space and routing policies presented to B & E belong to C, so what makes C a
> 'transit' provider?

The fact that C provides internet connectivity for F.


Joe