Proposal on applying advisory attribute to "aut-num" object

Dear Janos,

> Janos Zsako writes :
> 
> Christian,
> 
> >       The famous "advisory" attribute which seems to be still needed by ANS to
> >       get their routing done is especially cumbersome because it has to be
> >       applied to and maintained for every single "route" object.  If the
> >       "advisory" attribute could be added to the "aut-num" object, entering an
> >       "advisory" there could cover all routes originated by this AS.  Of
> >       course the ANS people will have to slightly modify their software.
> 
> As far as I see David Kessens has already made the necessary changes in the DB
> software. :)

True, I believe that we finally decided to put an action on the RIPE NCC
to do just add it. I did the software change but the documentation is not
ready so I didn't announce it yet.

Note that it doesn't mean that ANS actually uses this attribute ...

> First of all, with respect to the `[single]' qualifier. If we indeed allow only
> one such advisory attribute for the AS (aut-num), then the AS can express its

That should be [multiple], I just changed it.

Kind regards,

David Kessens
RIPE NCC
---
 
> First of all, with respect to the `[single]' qualifier. If we indeed allow only
> one such advisory attribute for the AS (aut-num), then the AS can express its
> advisory recommendations to only one other AS for ALL of it routes. I know
> that this is somewhat theoretical, since only ANS use the advisory...
> Nevertheless ripe-130 says it could be used by any other organisation, although
> *everybody* is discouraged from using it at all.
> 
> An other approach to this problem would not need any change in the DB schema.
> We have the `remarks' attribute which can be used for any additional information
> related to the AS. I think it could also contain something like:
> "advisory:    AS690 1:1800 2:1133 3:1239" which means, the aut-num would have
> the following remarks attribute:
> remarks:     advisory:    AS690 1:1800 2:1133 3:1239
> In this case any AS could add as many remarks as needed for the advisories...
> 
> This is true for the `route' object as well.
> 
> I know it is not a good practice to use the attributes for other purpose than
> they are designed for,  but in this case I feel the advisory is not more than a
> remark (actually an important one if you want to have NSFnet connectivity...).
> Two other arguments are in favour of this second solution: first is that RIPE
> descourages people from using the advisory, second is that ANS should be ready
> with the new software soon, and then nobody would (or at least should) use the
> advisory any more.
> 
> As you said, ANS have to make some (probably minor) changes in their software
> in order to get the advisory from the aut-num for all the routes originating in
> the AS corresponding to the aut-num.
> I do not think these changes are significantly less in the case there is an
> `advisory' attribute in the aut-num object, than in the case they have to parse
> the `remarks' attributes of the aut-num.
> 
> Further comments welcome!
> 
> Best regards,
> Janos
> 
> 
> Janos Zsako		zsako at banknet.net
> BankNet
> Tel: +36 1 160 16 42
> Fax: +36 1 160 14 06
>