On Wed, 2023-11-29 at 12:28 +0100, Peter Hessler wrote:
I mentioned this during the WG session but want to bring it up on the mailing list, what is the definition of assignment-size.
In the IPv6 implementation of AGGREGATED-BY-LIR there is an assignment-size attribute, which is proposed to be optional for the IPv4 version.
From the inet6num documentation: "assignment-size:" - This specifies the common size of all individual assignments aggregated into one block with the status 'AGGREGATED-BY-LIR'. This attribute is required to be present if the inet6num object has this status. The individual assignments do not need to be represented in the RIPE Database. But one or more assignments may be included if the member wishes to specify them for any reason.
While there is no definition of what "size" means, my understanding is that the technical implementation follows the implemention requirements of inet6num objects, which is the CIDR size.
However, in IPv4 it is allowed to do CIDR _or_ an arbitrary range of addresses. So if one were to create this inetnum object:
inetnum: 192.0.2.0 - 192.0.2.255 netname: customers of example status: AGGREGATED-BY-LIR assignment-size: 32 ...
Here the assignment size is ambiguous. Is it 32 addresses aka a /27, or is it a /32 aka 1 address.
I propose that we define this to be a CIDR assignment and they put in the number of bits of the netmask, so the above example would be assignment-size of /32.
Hi Peter, Agreed 100%, that is the intuitive understanding, especially considering that it is already in use like that for inet6num. I propose that we simply ask the RIPE NCC (hello Angela!) to confirm that their intended implementation of assignment-size for IPv4 inetnum is a CIDR prefix length. If it is, and there are no opposing voices against defining it in that way, I believe there should be no need to do a v3 of the proposal just to state this explicitly. (I also suggest that while the NCC is at it, they should document assignment-size as being a CIDR prefix length for inet6num as well. As you point the formal definition is not crystal clear there either, which was a bit of a surprise to me, honestly. But all current inet6num objects have an assignment-size within the range 31-128, so I guess LIRs simply get it - unless the database software enforces it by rejecting updates with values above 128.) Tore