It seems to me that everyone has some sort of an internal policy database. Perhaps some providers actually get a call from their customers and login to their routers and update the config files to reflect that new policy. But my impression is most providers have a database (in ASCII file format, ripe-181, NACRs, mainframes, etc) and generate config files from this. The way I look at a routing registry is that a routing registry is a way of accessing each other's internal database or bringing them together in a common place accessible by everyone. For it to be useful it must have a common format, currently Ripe-181. Ripe-181 lacks certain features which are often used by US providers to describe their policies. Hence we are developing a new language, called RPSL (Routing Policy Specification Language). Please contribute to its development so that this common format is adequate for all of us. Your internal format may still be different (ANS uses a superset of Ripe-181) as long as it is converted to the common format before making it public. Now that we have common place, a repository, is this information useful? As long as there are lots of tools to access this information in useful ways, I think it is. Currently, one can configure its routers from this registry (RtConfig tool), or do diagnosis (prtraceroute) or do policy analysis (prpath, prcheck). More tools are coming. Why trust the registry, as opposed to your internal database? This is a very good point. Hence, we are also in the process of defining a hierarchical registry organization for IRR (Internet Routing Registry). Some providers (like MCI) may maintain a part of this global registry, and some may prefer to have their internal database and convert it to the common format and make it available somewhere else (say RADB or Ripe). If you wish to join rps wg and contribute or at least provide feedback, please send mail to rps-request@isi.edu. Cengiz -- Cengiz Alaettinoglu Information Sciences Institute (310) 822-1511 University of Southern California http://www.isi.edu/div7/people/cengiz.home