The operators are snowflakes. Are the networks really snowflakes?



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Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com

Midwest-IX
http://www.midwest-ix.com


From: "Tom Beecher" <beecher@beecher.cc>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog@ics-il.net>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>, "Douglas Fischer" <fischerdouglas@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 3:36:22 PM
Subject: Re: BGP Community - AS0 is de-facto "no-export-to" marker - Any ASN reserved to "export-only-to"?'

Every network is a snowflake already. Everyone has different needs and operational considerations, which will also change over time. My community structure would not fit your needs, and yours would not fit mine. The current structure of regular and extended allows us to come up with something that works well for each of us, which is good.



On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 4:06 PM Mike Hammett <nanog@ics-il.net> wrote:
Is there more desire to be flexible because people are snowflakes and their idea is the only way it should be or real, document-able reasons?



-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com

Midwest-IX
http://www.midwest-ix.com


From: "Tom Beecher" <beecher@beecher.cc>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog@ics-il.net>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>, "Douglas Fischer" <fischerdouglas@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 3:02:37 PM
Subject: Re: BGP Community - AS0 is de-facto "no-export-to" marker - Any ASN reserved to "export-only-to"?'

I also get that intent from the OP. However I disagree that there should be a 'de facto' standard created for such things. All flavors of BGP community specifications are designed to be flexible so that different networks can design a system that is tailored to their needs. 

Having 'de facto' standards does not simplify in my opinion. I believe it just creates more work for operators trying to navigate around different opinions of what 'de facto' means. 




On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 2:35 PM Mike Hammett <nanog@ics-il.net> wrote:
How I see the OP's intent is to create a BCP of what defined communities have what effect instead of everyone just making up whatever they draw out of a hat, simplifying this process for everyone.



-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com

Midwest-IX
http://www.midwest-ix.com


From: "Tom Beecher via NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>
To: "Douglas Fischer" <fischerdouglas@gmail.com>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 1:30:19 PM
Subject: Re: BGP Community - AS0 is de-facto "no-export-to" marker - Any ASN reserved to "export-only-to"?'

BGP Large Communities ( https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8195 ) already provides for anyone to define the exact handling you wish. 



On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 11:57 AM Douglas Fischer via NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> wrote:
Most of us have already used some BGP community policy to no-export some routes to some where.

On the majority of IXPs, and most of the Transit Providers, the very common community tell to route-servers and routers "Please do no-export these routes to that ASN" is:

 -> 0:<TargetASN>

So we could say that this is a de-facto standard.


But the Policy equivalent to "Please, export these routes only to that ASN" is very varied on all the IXPs or Transit Providers.


With that said, now comes some questions:

1 - Beyond being a de-facto standard, there is any RFC, Public Policy, or something like that, that would define 0:<TargetASN> as "no-export-to" standard?

2 - What about reserving some 16-bits ASN to use <ExpOnlyTo>:<TargetASN> as "export-only-to" standard?
2.1 - Is important to be 16 bits, because with (RT) extended communities, any ASN on the planet could be the target of that policy.
2.2 - Would be interesting some mnemonic number like 1000 / 10000 or so.

--
Douglas Fernando Fischer
Engº de Controle e Automação