Re: Last Call: 'RPSLng' to Proposed Standard

[Engin Gunduz <engin@ripe.net>]

Dear colleagues,

We'd like to present the view of the RIPE NCC on the discussions
on the RPSLng draft.

Although it is not explicitly discussed in the draft, the
transition issue was thought on.  It was decided to use
mp-* attributes to ease the transition.  That way, the old
clients that use the routing registry that supports RPSLng
can simply ignore the new attributes and new object classes
and continue to work  (this is the expected behaviour of
clients, RFC2622 sections 10.2 and 10.3).

Thus, it is not really necessary to equip the whois server
with the capability of detecting if the client is RPSLng
capable or not.

Perhaps what we need to do is to document these in
the draft.

At any rate, we think it is useful to change the protocol
to allow negotiation of object format, but this is out of
scope of RPSLng effort.  The relevant effort to change
(or, re-design) the protocol is the CRISP effort, please see
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/crisp-charter.html .

On the subprotocol issue: IPv4 address family has defaulted to 
ipv4.unicast generally (in Cisco IOS software, for instance, 
which is widely used).  Therefore the change of the meaning to 
ipv4.unicast+ipv4.multicast may cause confusion.

We have been trying to come up with a solution so that the
users of whois database can start using it to publish their
IPv6 and multicast policies.  The effort started more than
a year ago and our users are getting more and more impatient
to see a solution.  Actually, long ago they started to
"document" their IPv6 and multicast policies using alternative
methods, please see

aut-num:      AS12702
as-name:      UUNET-EMEA-IPV6
descr:        WorldCom EMEA
descr:        IPv6 only Autonomous System
remarks:      detailed routingpolicy is documented at
remarks:      whois.6bone.net due to missing IPv6 support
remarks:      in the RIPE database:
remarks:      http://whois.6bone.net/cgi-bin/whois?UUNET-DE
remarks:      http://whois.6bone.net/cgi-bin/whois?UUNET-FR
remarks:      http://whois.6bone.net/cgi-bin/whois?UUNET-NL
remarks:      http://whois.6bone.net/cgi-bin/whois?UUNET-UK
admin-c:      ABN-RIPE
tech-c:       ABN-RIPE
mnt-by:       UUNET-MNT
changed:      hostmaster@ripe.net 19991004
changed:      ehofmann@uu.net 20021122
source:       RIPE

or 

aut-num:      AS1122
as-name:      UNSPECIFIED
descr:        UK-AS
admin-c:      UK6107-RIPE
tech-c:       UK3
import:       from AS760
              action pref=100;
              accept ANY
export:       to AS760
              announce AS1122
remarks:      -------------------------
remarks:      as-in-v6:  from AS760   100 accept ANY
remarks:      as-in-v6:  from AS10566  90 accept ANY
remarks:      -------------------------
remarks:      as-out-v6: to   AS760   announce   AS1122
remarks:      as-out-v6: to   AS10566 announce   AS1122
remarks:      -------------------------
mnt-by:       UK-MNT
mnt-by:       AS1853-MNT
changed:      Erik-Jan.Bos@surfnet.nl 19940314
changed:      ripe-dbm@ripe.net 19990701
changed:      woeber@cc.univie.ac.at 19990809
changed:      woeber@cc.univie.ac.at 19990912
changed:      ulrich.kiermayr@univie.ac.at 20020819
source:       RIPE

or

aut-num:      AS1938
as-name:      FR-RENATER-IRISA
descr:        Irisa/Inria Rennes
remarks:      BEGIN IPv4 unicast routing policy
import:       from AS13019   action pref=1;  accept ANY
import:       from AS20603   action pref=2;  accept ANY
export:       to AS13019 announce AS1938
export:       to AS20603 announce AS1938
remarks:      END IPv4 unicast routing policy
remarks:      BEGIN IPv4 multicast routing policy
import:       from AS2200 accept ANY
export:       to AS2200 announce AS1938
remarks:      END  IPv4 multicast routing policy
remarks:      BEGIN IPv6 routing policy
import:       from AS2200  action pref=1;  accept ANY
import:       from AS20603  action pref=2;  accept ANY
export:       to AS2200    announce AS1938
export:       to AS20603   announce AS1938
remarks:      END IPv6 routing policy
admin-c:      GR1378-RIPE
admin-c:      CL4104-RIPE
tech-c:       DL169-RIPE
tech-c:       RT199-RIPE
mnt-by:       RENATER-MNT
changed:      rensvp@renater.fr 19991014
changed:      er-transfer@ripe.net 20020919
changed:      rensvp@renater.fr 20030620
source:       RIPE

so it seems like it's time come up with a solution and implement it.
We think the current draft meets the needs.

Best regards,

--
RIPE NCC RPSLng Team
Katie, Shane & Engin