[sdnog] How does RIR un-allocate IP resources

[Nishal Goburdhan]

> On 23 Jan 2015, at 21:24, Hiba Eltigani <higba6 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Samir
>    RIRs usually have differenet policies to reach the stage where they have to un-allocate resources. I think in Afrinic case, member will have to be overdue for around 2 years and he will be notified by different means including e-mail, post and sometimes phone before the process start.

from the afrinic website:  http://www.afrinic.net/faq/billing
What is the due date for fees invoices?
All fee invoices are due upon receipt of the invoice from AFRINIC or within 30 days from the date of the invoice.
and:  
When are the annual fee renewal invoices issued?
The Annual membership renewal fee invoices for LIR are issued and sent to members on or before 1st December. A copy shall at the same time be posted on the individual members account on the MyAFRINIC portal. The invoice shall cover membership fees for the next calendar year; unless a shorter period has been requested and approved.

and from the RSA (the legal agreement that a member signs with AfriNIC):   http://www.afrinic.net/en/services/rs/rsa
(c) Setup & membership fees: The Applicant shall pay AFRINIC the applicable Setup and membership fees as set forth in the Fee schedule, prior to AFRINIC providing The Applicant with its requested allocation/ assignment of numbering resources. The Applicant shall also pay the applicable renewal Membership fees, if any, as set forth in the Fee schedule, within thirty (30) days after AFRINIC has invoiced the Applicant on regular billing period as set in the Fee schedule. If, for any reason, The Applicant does not pay any applicable renewal Membership fee, AFRINIC shall have the right to: (1) revoke the numbering resources previously allocated and/or previously assigned, or (2) terminate this Agreement.

so, technically, you should be paying your afrinic bill before the new year starts, and technically, they could revoke your resources for non-payment in february of the next year...

i could not find a reference as to "when" they would revoke your resources;  from an earlier life, i know that there are internal AfriNIC policies to this effect, but i would doubt that this is applied only after two years.  (a mail to hostmaster at afrinic.net could clear this up for you, if it's important)

i did find a list of "closures"  here:  http://www.afrinic.net/en/component/content/article/57-registration-services/1207-closure-list


> RIRs use their publicaly accessed whois databases as a proof of allocation and based on that some providers cross-check routes received to make sure that related resources are actually allocated and not hijacked. So, as part of un-allocation RIR will make the resources free in the database and this might result in providers stopping advertising the routes automatically, that is not the common case.

sadly, this is not true.  RIRs are, indeed, obliged to register their allocations, but providers do *not* operate in this manner.  at least, the vast majority of them don't.
and, honestly, that's not a bad thing.  imagine if there was a billing error, and a provider had "somehow" got his BGP to auto-config according to a RIR allocate list....    *shudder*     *everyone* makes mistakes.  

(this is one of the perceived problems that folks have with RPKI, but that's getting off-topic ;-))


> Most of the RIRs usually make checks to insure reclaimed resources are not visible in Internet nor have associated objects in any Internet Routing Registry. If it is, then they contact the providers which in most of cases withdraw the routes.

^^ this is what you're looking for, samir.  an RIR can *not* shutdown BGP on a provider's router.  what they -can- do is write to upstream providers and let them know that they are accepting prefixes that are no longer in use.  sometimes, that's enough for a provider to act.  but that's not a 100% success rate.  
another thing that the RIR usually does is, it would remove the rDNS delegation.  without rDNS delegations in place, things like SMTP delivery gets affected, and that's often a first indicator that something has gone wrong.  (lots of organisations have disconnects between technical and billing ... :-))



>    In addition there are some entities provide reports on such hijacked resources to the public, i just can't recall the report name.


team cymru - http://www.team-cymru.com
the CIDR report:  http://www.cidr-report.org
...are two good resources.

--n.