Re: How long AS-PATH policies have you used

[Job Snijders via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 11:53:09AM +0200, Saku Ytti wrote:
> Only thing you are offering for this, is ASPA in future or peerlock
> today.

Both efforts represent multiple years of work, you are welcome :)

> But peerlock is anticompetitive, why bigtech gets preferential
> treatment and someone else who doesn't pass the bar, doesn't get
> peerlock treatment from us? Why should we reward monopolies with
> better products that we don't offer everyone? I think peerlock may be
> literally illegal under some jurisdiction antitrust law, unless
> everyone can contact us and demand to be in peer lock. And this
> mechanism doesn't exist.
>
> Yes we are doing it, and yes we wouldn't stop doing it. But we are in
> addition offering prefix-list filtering today, to offer some cover to
> those, who are not worthy of peerlock. And can I stop doing that?
>
> So are you saying, I shouldn't do b+c, despite the fact that I am
> retaining AS-SET compliance as I am today. I am not _removing_ any
> posture, I am adding posture.

I think you may be holding some of this upside down: by locking a select
few ASNs in such that they can only appear behind specific BGP sessions,
your autonomous system helps protect the global Internet routing system.
Save the cheerleader, save the world. ;-)

For example, by locking in a large peer you not only help your own
customers, but also their customers, and as a result also everyone's
customers' customers. Global IP networks are a shared substrate.

Another angle: by locking in a large content provider, when leaks are
occuring elsewhere, it'll will help improve the chances of
congestion-free access to not just that content but also other content
for everyone using the network!

Because peerlocking is a sharp tool, I'd strongly recommend
to-be-locked-in networks to interconnect in multiple separate
geographies in order to prevent network partitions following failure of
individual links or routers. Obviously it is exceedingly hard to
operationalize without direct relationship or direct interconnection, so
that's why not every AS is a suitable candidate for being locked in;
quite some ASes prefer flexibility over security. In this sense ASPA is
far more attractive than peerlock because ASPA offers AS holders timely
distribution of new routing intentions in standardized & automated
fashion. ASPA certainly is a more accessible facility than peerlock.

I myself consider attempts to reduce the blast radius and impact of
routing incidents to be part of responsible corporate citizenship and
most likely easily defendable.

Kind regards,

Job
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