Policy Proposal: Extend 16 bit ASN Assignments

[Member Services]

ARIN received the following policy proposal and is posting it to the
Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) in accordance with Policy Development
Process.

This proposal is in the first stage of the Policy Development Process.
ARIN staff will perform the Clarity and Understanding step. Staff does
not evaluate the proposal at this time, their goal is to make sure that
they understand the proposal and believe the community will as well.
Staff will report their results to the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) within
10 days.

The AC will review the proposal at their next regularly scheduled
meeting (if the period before the next regularly scheduled meeting is
less than 10 days, then the period may be extended to the subsequent
regularly scheduled meeting). The AC will decide how to utilize the
proposal and announce the decision to the PPML.

In the meantime, the AC invites everyone to comment on the proposal on
the PPML, particularly their support or non-support and the reasoning
behind their opinion. Such participation contributes to a thorough
vetting and provides important guidance to the AC in their deliberations.

The ARIN Policy Development Process can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html

Mailing list subscription information can be found
at:https://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal Name: Extend 16 bit ASN Assignments

Proposal Originator: Marla Azinger

Proposal Version: 1

Submission Date: 6 May 2009

Proposal type: Modify

Policy term: Permanent

Policy statement: This proposal is to modify section 5.1 in the NRPM to
extend the 16-bit ASN assignment timeframe for one more year further
than the current text. The expiration requiring removal of section 5.1
is also being removed.

Rationale:

Currently users of 32-bit ASN’s are encountering technical issues that
they can’t immediately overcome and therefore require 16-bit ASN’s to
operate. As a result in the ARIN region to date, 204 of the 216 32-bit
ASN’s that have been assigned have been returned and exchanged for a 16
bit ASN. On 1 JAN 2010 ARIN policy declares zero distinction between
32-bit and 16-bit ASN’s. This proposal is to change the date on the
third line of NRPM 5.1 and extend the timeframe for 16 bit ASN’s to be
assigned. If these changes are made then ARIN RIR ASN policy will read
clearly and remove any misconceptions of 16-bit cutoff post run out and
enable technology to catch up to the ASN bit change. The expiration date
that requires removal of section 5.1 after zero distinction occurs is to
be removed. Instead section 5.1 will be left in place in the NRPM for
value added historical purposes.

The revision of 5.1 would read as follows:

5.1 16-bit and 32-bit AS Numbers

• Commencing 1 January 2007, ARIN will process applications that
specifically request 32-bit only AS Numbers and assign such AS numbers
as requested by the applicant. In the absence of any specific request
for a 32-bit only AS Number, a 16-bit only AS Number will be assigned.

• Commencing 1 January 2009, ARIN will process applications that
specifically request 16-bit only AS Numbers and assign such AS Numbers
as requested by the applicant. In the absence of any specific request
for a 16-bit only AS Number, a 32-bit only AS Number will be assigned.

• Commencing 1 January 2011, ARIN will cease to make any distinction
between 16-bit only AS Numbers and 32-bit only AS Numbers, and will
operate AS number assignments from an undifferentiated 32-bit AS Number
pool.

Terminology

• "16-bit only AS Numbers" refers to AS numbers in the range 0 - 65535

• "32-bit only AS Numbers" refers to AS Numbers in the range 65,536 -
4,294,967,295

• "32-bit AS Numbers" refers to AS Numbers in the range 0 - 4,294,967,295

Timetable for implementation: Immediate