Friends, here is the proposal on how to solve the prtraceroute problem as discussed in the last routing-WG meeting. Could we have comments until May 17th please! I'll circulate new versions as substantive comments are incorporated. The goal is to have the database capable of storing this a.s.a.p. and have some data in there quickly as prtraceroute is released. Note that this is not only useful for prtraceroute but much more generally. It could also be the start of the local inter-AS connection information dicussed in the last routing-wg meeting too. As such this addendum could be extended. Proposals ? Cheers Daniel Description of Inter-AS Networks in the RIPE Routing Registry Tony Bates Daniel Karrenberg Addendum to Representation of IP Routing Policies in the RIPE Database (ripe-81) What is an Inter-AS Network ? Inter-AS IP networks are those networks which connect multi- ple autonomous systems (1). An inter-AS network exists for the purpose of passing traffic and routing information between different autonomous systems. The most simple exam- ple of an inter-AS network is a point-to-point link, con- necting exactly two ASes. Each end of such a link is con- nected to an interface of router living in each of the auto- nomous systems. More complex examples are broadcast type networks with multiple interfaces connecting multiple ASes with the possibility of more than one connection per AS. Which additional information is needed? Consider the following example of three routers 1, 2 and 3 with interfaces a through f connected by two inter-AS net- works X and Y: X Y a1b --- c2d --- e3f _________________________ (1) Inter-AS networks are currently called FIXes, IXFs, DMZs, NAPs, GIX and other names. - 2 - Suppose that network X is registered in the routing registry as part of AS1 and net Y as part of AS3. If traffic passes from left to right prtraceroute will report the following sequence of interfaces and ASes: a in AS1 c in AS1 e in AS3 The traceroute algorithm enumerates only the receiving interfaces on the way to the destination. In the example this leads to the passage of AS2 going unnoticed. This is confusing to the user and will also generate exceptions when the path found is checked against the routing registry. For operational monitoring tools such as prtraceroute it is necessary to know which interface on an inter-AS network belongs to which AS. If AS information is not known about interfaces on an inter-AS network, tools like prtraceroute cannot determine correctly which ASes are being traversed. Proposed Format All interfaces on inter-AS networks will be described in a new ias-int attribute of the corresponding network object in the RIPE database. The ias-int attribute has the following syntax: ias-int: <interface-address> <autonomous-system> The <interface-address> must be an address within the corresponding intenum and <autonomous-system> must be of the form AS<number> refering to an aut-num object in the data- base. - 3 - For example: inetnum: 193.193.193.0 netname: INTER-AS-EXAMPLE descr: This is a hypothetical inter-as network. descr: It might be called a NAP, FIX, GIX, IXF, DMZ, descr: Mehrfachdienstanbieterkommunikationseinrichtung or ... country: DE admin-c: Werner Mueller tech-c: Paul Schmitz tech-c: Hans Meier changed: ripe-dbm@ripe.net 920714 aut-sys: AS4711 ias-int: 193.193.193.1 AS123 ias-int: 193.193.193.3 AS4711 ias-int: 193.193.193.9 AS789 source: RIPE Note that the interface 193.193.193.3 is described although it is in the same AS as the network. This is recommended practice. The update procedure for the ias-int attribute will be the normal update procedure for network objects. The attribute does not need to be guarded because it does not influence routing policy of operational traffic. In which AS does an Inter-AS Network belong? Only one AS announces an inter-AS network externally. The other ASes connected to the inter-AS network will probably carry this network in their internal routing for redundancy but will not announce it to other ASes. In exceptional cases more than one AS may need to originate external routing information about the inter-AS network, This kind of routing setup cannot be described within the framework of ripe-81 and is generally discouraged. Tools using a ripe-81 type registry could take heuristic hints from the ias-int attributes when they encounter such situa- tions.