[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Extend 16 bit ASN Assignments

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net 
> [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On Behalf Of michael.dillon at bt.com
> Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 5:42 AM
> To: arin-ppml at arin.net
> Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Extend 16 bit ASN 
> Assignments
> 
> 
> Sorry, but the world of IP network engineering is far bigger 
> than the in-crowd that hangs out on NANOG or ARIN lists.
> The fact is that many IP network engineering folks maybe only 
> read Light Reading once a month, or look through the 
> Networkers program once a year when their budget request to 
> attend the conference is denied.

And this is a Good Thing?

> > And the problem is that if ARIN asks everyone requesting an 
> AS if they 
> > really, really, really, really!!! are sure they can use a 4 
> byte ASN, 
> > because it MIGHT NOT WORK with their gear, why then requestors are 
> > simply going to say "fine, then gimmie a 2 byte ASN" and they won't 
> > even bother learning anything more about it.
> 
> It would help ARIN if they had a wiki page, even one on the
> IPv6 wiki, that documented the first software release 
> supporting 4-byte ASNs for every known hardware platform 
> including stuff like Alcatel 7750, Huwaei, etc.
>

I'd agree with that as long as at the very top of it was a large red
warning that anyone running BGP and their own AS number, whether
2 byte or 4 byte, MUST be running current firmware, since there
are other bugs besides the lack of 4-byte AS support that have
been closed by many router vendors.

Ted