* "Sascha Luck [ml]" <apwg@c4inet.net>
On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 03:36:41PM +0000, Nick Hilliard wrote:
and without knowing the background it seems peculiar that APNIC feels it necessary to consult ARIN about APNIC->RIPE NCC resource transfers.
I reckon APNIC is afraid they will not get transfers from ARIN if there is a possibility that those may subsequently be transferred to RIPE.
Indeed, that's how I understood Paul Wilson's mic comments after Andrea's APRICOT 2015 presentation, i.e., even though ARIN and APNIC transfer policies are compatible to begin with, the worry is that if transfers between the APNIC and RIPE regions commence without demonstrated need, than this fact would somehow «infect» the APNIC policy such that ARIN would no longer consider it to be sufficiently «needs based» and thus incompatible (even though the APNIC policy text would not change at all). As I understand it, transfers between the APNIC and RIPE regions without demonstrated need is exactly what would happen with the current APNIC policy + 2015-05, since current APNIC policy doesn't «require the receiving region to have needs-based policies». However, the transcript quotes Andrea as saying «Both RIRs that have an inter-RIR transfer policy in place, meaning ARIN and APNIC, confirmed that their policy requires a needs base in order to do inter-RIR transfers». After reading APNIC's policy document, I do not think this is accurate. I wonder how this understanding of APNIC's inter-RIR transfer policy requiring needs basis came to be. In any case, ARIN staff has confirmed on multiple occasions now that 1) 2014-05 is compatible with ARIN's transfer policy, and even if it wasn't 2) that any policy adopted by a third-party RIR community cannot alter the compatibility state between the ARIN and APNIC policies. Thus it seems very clear that there is absolutely no cause for concern; after the passage of 2014-05, all three RIRs in question will be compatible with the other two. I guess that the APNIC EC meeting might have happened before these assurances from ARIN staff was made public, and that would help explain why they decided to temporarily override their own community policies. Now that it is known that their worries were unfounded, I'd expect the them to lift the freeze at the next EC meeting. Tore