Hi Kevin, (comments to follow) "Kevin Oberman" writes:
While there is a great deal of old data that is obsolete, we use the RADB to configure our routers and also for peering via the route servers and find few problems that impact operations.
Well, we hope that the amount of obsolete/incorrect/bad data is small. I don't think anyone really knows from a quantitative standpoint as the problem is complex. The notion that the IRR represents current routing policy is not held by everyone, so of course there will be incorrect data. For example I've known people to pre-register policy based on changes that are to occur sometime in the future. Also, people make mistakes and what they register does not always align with reality. We (merit) have been working on a tool called PAIR which is designed to help people identify obsolete/incorrect routing information. PAIR basically compares route announcements as seen at the route servers to registered policy. Users can check their AS and see what they are actually announcing, to whom and what they have configured in the IRR. The routes are colorized, green being good and red (ie, not announced but registered) and grey (ie, announced but not registerd) probably indicating a problem. We have been working on quantitative indicators for incorrect data and hope to have something soon. (www.rsng.net/rs-views)
I do suspect that a "sunset" clause will be needed some day to clear out old cruft.
The idea of time-stamping and removing old objects has come up in the past but has not gotten public support. The other registeries are leery of crossing the line and taking a measure of resposibility for the db correctness. The public is leery of giving any third party the power to delete/update their objects. What if an ISP lost connectivity because of so called "obsolete data" and then pointed the finger at the registry administrator? A sunset clause would have to take into consideration other factors in order to work. For example, just because an object is old does not mean it is obsolete or stale. Good data can remain good for an indefinite period of time. And just because an object is new does not mean it is good data or up to date (ie, there is no safeguard in place that dissallows the registering of incorrect data.) I do agree with you that it would be nice to implement a system that would allow the registry administator some power to take corrective action to remove/update obsolete/incorrect db objects. I really believe that if the user community really wants to do something about obsolete information (and I do believe this is true) then the registries need to have limited power to fix the situation. The question is what should the power be and under what situation? --Gerald -- Gerald A. Winters, Ph.d gerald@merit.edu Merit Network, Inc. (313) 647-3522 (office) 4251 Plymouth Road, Suite C. (313) 647-3185 (fax) Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2785