[arin-ppml] 4-Byte ASN's in the ARIN region...

[Jeff Wheeler]

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 4:48 PM, Jo Rhett <jrhett at netconsonance.com> wrote:
> Jeff, I would like to point out that due to operator stupidity, this would
> have a direct cost to customers.  If only two providers can provide transit
> for a location, and neither one is willing to accept 4-byte ASNs then my

You can be AS23456.  Also, it really is not an "operator stupidity"
problem.  Anyone who didn't think we needed to expand the ASN space in
the 90s must not have been in this field in the 90s.  Yet it took
vendors 10+ years, depending on how you look at it, to get this done.
This is par for the course in our industry.

> In short, I don't think you can put pressure on the end customer. You have
> to put pressure on the providers, and I'm not sure what mechanism ARIN has
> to do that.  The only place it can be applied would be to require anyone

If new networks are no longer able to get 2-byte ASNs, two things will
happen pretty quickly.  Most remaining SPs will support 4-byte ASNs
very rapidly, because they will lose out on new customers if they
don't.  Second, folks in your position will be more willing to do ugly
work-arounds (because they won't have another choice.)

None of this is good.  I'm just answering John's question that the
reason adoption is so poor in the ARIN region is because there is
still no urgency.  As long as customers can go back to ARIN and swap a
4-byte ASN for a 2-byte ASN they will continue to do so, thus ISPs
will not accelerate their adoption efforts.

-- 
Jeff S Wheeler <jsw at inconcepts.biz>
Sr Network Operator  /  Innovative Network Concepts