[ppml] Proposed Policy: 4-Byte AS Number Policy Proposal

[Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com]

> >Is there something wrong with using 78934526:1234 to refer to
> >community 1234 in AS number 78934526?
> 
> This notation is not formally part of the policy proposal - it is a
> convenience in the same way that the dotted quad notation for
> IPv4 addresses is a convenience. Use it or not as you want.

The dotted quad representation was developped as a 
convenient way to deal with the subnet boundaries between
class A, class B, and class C addresses. As far as I
can see there is no significance of the 16 bit boundary
and, in fact, this discussion of . versus : has led some
people on the list to assume that this boundary does
have some meaning.

This whole issue is silly. AS numbers are 32 bit numbers
with no internal structure whatsoever and there is nothing
wrong with writing an AS number as 78934526. If people are
worried that they are too ordinary they can always write 
them as 0x4B471FE. 

--Michael Dillon