[ixpmanager] One Port, Multiple ASNs

[Rob Lister]

Hmmmm. We have them too, but they present on separate ports.

The ASN is tied in to so many things administratively (NOC details,
member details etc.) and the model most IXPs use is that an
ASN means the same NOC and usually the same legal entity.

Many exchanges permit members to have multiple ASNs (e.g. where they
have acquired another network) but the NOC/billing details must be the
same, and indeed the ports are usually separate.

(When the port goes down, which ASN to you contact? Who is responsible
for the billing and NOC? Do you want separate graphing for each ASN?)

As Nick said, this is enforced by port security and policy, not least to
prevent members from just extending the VLAN to another switch and
connecting other networks 'by proxy' etc.

It would be non-trivial to change the database to have a member record with
multiple ASNs, multiple NOCs, possibly multiple billing for different
ASNs. etc. and it would potentially break a lot of things to try to
implement it at the VLAN or port level. (All scripts that assume that
1 ASN = 1 member = 1 NOC, for example would have to be fixed, e.g. when
enabling route server sessions. which ASN do we use for which IPs etc.)

That said, there is one (sort-of) exception which is implemented, which
is the case for resold/reseller ports, although even these have
physically separate break-out ports to the peering LAN.

Say for example you use the reseller feature and made PCH AS3856 a
"resold" customer of PCH AS42. AS42 having the physical port - it would
give you a record for each ASN's contact/NOC details etc. in the
database, and a way to programmatically find a relationship
between the two ASNs and one port. It wouldn't give you one member with
two ASNs though, but two member records with way to associate the two.

If you searched for one, you'd be able to find in the database, the ID
of the other and hence the port details in a way supported by the database.

Depends which problem you are trying to solve though, and if it's worth
it for this one odd case, or just have two member records, one with
no port (or some dummy port perhaps?)


Rob


On Mon, Aug 24 at 1:38:07 PM, Mike Hammett wrote:
> Is there any ability to setup multiple ASNs on a single port?  I see
> that you guys have Packet Clearing House on two separate ports.
> They're on one port for us, but presenting both ASNs. I'd like to figure out how to handle that.


-- 
Rob Lister
rob at lonap.net
LONAP Ltd
+44 20 3137 8330