AS number inconsistencies

Mon Jul 8 13:55:37 UTC 2002

Hi All,

This is my first post to this list so please forgive me if it's in any way
inappropriate, and as I know everyone has work to do, I'll try to be
brief.

I am a CS PhD student trying to track ASes (for reasons I'm happy to
discuss offline). There is a grave inconsistency I have come across and
can't explain. Simply, there seems to be many AS numbers in the
non-private range that come into use at some point in time and advertise a
range of IPs, but these AS numbers are not allocated until much later.

More specifically, archived BGP tables show many AS numbers which ARIN
shows not to have allocated (in their allocation history tables) until
many months, sometimes a year/two, later. The number of such ASes has
shrunk over time (from about 100 in 1999/2000 to 20-30 in 2002) but still
exists. I don't want to "name ASes" <grin>.

Does any one have any explanations? Are network operators "notified" of
their new AS number well in advance of the actual receipt of that number
on paper, for example? Any help is appreciated (and hopefully this
occurence is of interest to nanog).

Thanks, 
--marwan

ps. If one wishes to refer to a cluster of members of nanog, are they
referred to as "NANOs"? (Not to be confused with the salutation made
famous by tv's Mork & Mindy, of course) :-)

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