If a large network with large amounts of nonportable space, like UUNET,
were to fail entirely (financially, or system-wide, e.g.), what would
happen to the address space that that network had assigned to its
customers?
When those customers go elsewhere for access, would the routing tables
be flooded with /24's?
Alternately, would that space be reclaimed by the registries, and all of
those customers be forced to renumber? How long would that take?
In a similar vein, how would the DNS act with millions more lame
delegations? (And what if all of the root servers were smurfed under at
the same time? ;^)
If this has been discussed elsewhere, I apologize for the bother, and
would appreciate a pointer to that discussion.
Nothing. First the courts would appoint someone to run the company on
behalf of the creditors. Then someone would buy the assets and customers
for 10 cents on the dollar. Operational impact will be minimal to
nonexistent.
Now if an asteroid were to hit Dallas, that would shake things up a little
bit more but not dramatically so.
But...what would happen if some hypothetical national or international
backbone provider (call it hypo.net) were to litterally run out of funds.
If they fall far enough behind that the utility companies kill power to
all their POPs, you could see a few days of loss of service before some
other backbone buys the pieces and gets things back online. Sure, this
would require monumental mismanagement, and is probably about as likely as
natural disasters simultaneously destroying all a backbones POPs.
BTW....while poking around just a bit at UUNet's web site, I found this:
UUNET Technologies, headquartered in Fairfax, VA in the United States,
was founded in May 1987. Now a WorldCom, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ: WCOM),
UUNET is recognized as the largest Internet Service Provider in the
world.
Weren't they majorly downplaying the size of UUNet and MCI when the two
were going to be owned by Worldcomm??
Nothing. First the courts would appoint someone to run the company on
behalf of the creditors. Then someone would buy the assets and customers
for 10 cents on the dollar. Operational impact will be minimal to
nonexistent.
Effectively this argument is "UUNET are way to big for the market to ever
let this happen". Almost certainly true - but this is a real danger sign.
It is that sort of situation that actually begs for a crash (as much as
anything does) and the more "it just can't happen" it is then the bigger
the crash will be. Holds a lot in common with how the dynamics of stock
market crashes.
Besides - if it won't happen to UUNET it may still happen to someone
smaller but still big enough to be of concern ...
Sorry. There is a difference. If some company fail out of the funds, it
should be selled to someone who can cover this loss of funds. For
example, BIGO.net should buy the values of the hypo.net. It buy the
links, the fibers, the buildings. But should it buy the address space?
Who can answer it?
But I can't buy ISP withouth local registry, domain names, etc etc... And
I am not sure if any attorney in the world understand what's is this -
domain names, address space, local registry AS numbers. May be it's 90%
of hypo.net cost? Who can ever estimate it. And who can allow or disallow
it's sale?
Sorry. There is a difference. If some company fail out of the funds, it
should be selled to someone who can cover this loss of funds. For
example, BIGO.net should buy the values of the hypo.net. It buy the
links, the fibers, the buildings. But should it buy the address space?
Who can answer it?
When I said "buy the assets" I meant that they would buy the operating
network which includes all the equipment, circuit contracts, buildings and
building leases, office furniture, employees, etc. Since the network is
still operating, i.e. it is moving packets, they would need to continue
using the same IP addresses in order to continue operating the network
without disruption.
But I can't buy ISP withouth local registry, domain names, etc etc... And
I am not sure if any attorney in the world understand what's is this -
domain names, address space, local registry AS numbers.
They will understand enough if the buyer tells them that without the
domain names, IP addresses, etc, they cannot sell an operational network
but only some used equipment. The added value comes from the fact that it
is a complete package.
When a company gets into financial trouble, the court appoints a trustee
who sells of everything for the best price they can get. The end result is
that they want the company to have nothing but debts and money. Then they
can divide up the money to the creditors in proportion to how much money
is owed and pay out all the debts for some number of cents on the dollar.
The trustee is responsible for getting the best price when they sell the
assets and I'm sure that lots of the employees and customers of the
company will point out that if they keep the network operating without
interruption then they will get more money for the assets.
One would kind of expect that a large publicly traded company wouldn't just
close up; that it would be sold to someone else who would take over
operations without interruption. But I suppose it could happen.
In which case, I presume the same that happens when little ISP's collapse,
only more customers are impacted. I had some clients with BlueSky(?) (I
think that was the name) in Boston. That company went belly up, shut down
the routers, and closed the doors with no advance notice. They just turned
it all off and went home. Nameservice, *everything*. For many of their
customers, they were the only contacts in whois, too, so changing things
was somewhat hard (faxes on company letterhead), though I think Internic
was very responsive getting updates processed quickly. Their customers
scrambled to get service from someone else as quickly as possible. It
wasn't pretty.
I would presume, that in the event of a real closure, the IP space could be
reclaimed by the registry that assigned it, and reassigned. Domain names
would presumably go away, as soon as their payment expired.