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prop-143-v002: ASN to Customer

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Proposer: Jordi Palet Martínez (jordi.palet@theipv6company.com)
          Anupam Agrawal (anupamagrawal.in@gmail.com)


1. Problem statement
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Section 12.4 allows a LIR to provide an ASN to a customer, but doesn’t 
allow that ASN to be used by the customer if ceases to receive 
connectivity, even if the customer gets connectivity from another LIR 
or becomes a direct APNIC/NIR customer. It also contradicts the 
options for a transfer.

This generates problems in many situations, such as, for example:
•	Bankruptcy of the LIR that originally provided the ASN, even if other upstream providers where that ASN was being used still provide the connectivity.
•	The customer becomes a direct APNIC/NIR member.
•	The LIR change providers (including the one that provided the ASN) but the customer network is the same.

The ASNs aren’t a resource that it is subjected to exhaustion in the 
medium-long term, but it is also understandable that ASNs not used 
should be returned.

However, it doesn’t make sense that an ASN that has been assigned to a 
customer needs to be returned if business situations change, but the 
network using that ASN is still connected to Internet and willing to 
use the same ASN.

It should be noticed that the criteria for obtaining the ASN was 
already initially fulfilled by that customer, not the LIR, so that’s 
granted.

This is especially relevant when organizations do the transition to 
IPv6, as they may have been customers from several upstream providers 
and not have IPv4 allocations, but they need those for IPv6 PI, which 
will be directly assigned by APNIC (or the relevant NIR), and 
consequently they need to keep an ASN.

This should not be considered a transfer in the sense that the ASN was 
already used by that organization, so there is no actually being 
transferred from one customer to another.



2. Objective of policy change
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Simplify the process and avoid a ASN change in certain cases, 
recognize a new use case for transfer and most importantly, record the 
transfer criteria in the policy document.

3. Situation in other regions
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Other RIRs don’t have explicit rules or restrictions on those cases, 
at least not clearly stated in policies, but the transfer of ASN is 
much simpler, so it fulfills what this proposal is trying to achieve.

4. Proposed policy solution
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Proposed text:
12.4. Providing ASN to customer
Assignments to organizations that will provide the ASN to one of its 
customers are subject to the following additional terms:
1.	The customer that will actually use the ASN must meet the 
criteria in Section 12.0.
2.	The requesting organization is responsible for maintaining the 
registration described in Section 5.3.3. on behalf of the customer.
3.	If the customer ceases to receive connectivity from the 
requesting organization it must return the ASN. The requesting 
organization is expected to enter into an agreement with the customer 
to this effect.
4.	Any ASNs returned to the requesting organization must then be 
returned to APNIC or the relevant NIR.
5.	Alternatively, the same ASN could be registered:
•	via another transfer to another APNIC/NIR member (upstream 
provider connecting that customer), or
•	directly by the customer in cases when they become an 
APNIC/NIR member and receives the ASN via transfer.

5. Advantages / Disadvantages
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Advantages:
Fulfilling the objective above indicated. Avoids the original ASN user 
to reconfigure devices and provides “stability” of the stats for that 
ASN (the traffic is from the same customer).

Disadvantages:
It may be perceived as a transfer, but actually is not, because the 
user of the ASN is the same as the one that was originally assigned to.

6. Impact on resource holders
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None.

7. References
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None.