[ppml] Fw: ":" - Re: Proposed Policy: 4-Byte AS Number Policy Proposal
Robert Bonomi
bonomi at mail.r-bonomi.com
Wed Dec 14 14:34:11 UTC 2005
> From ppml-bounces at arin.net Wed Dec 14 04:30:07 2005
> To: ppml at arin.net
> From: Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com
> Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:32:06 +0000
> Subject: [ppml] Fw: ":" - Re: Proposed Policy: 4-Byte AS Number
> Policy Proposal
>
> > I'm also not thrilled with "2-byte only" and "4-byte only" ASN; there's
> too
> > much chance of confusion with "2-byte" and "4-byte" ASNs which have a
> > different enough meaning to warrant a better distinction. I'd prefer
> > something like "legacy" vs. "expanded", "low" vs. "high", etc.
>
> That's an example of the lack of plain English in the
> proposal. Why don't we just talk about AS numbers greater
> than 65535 or AS numbers less than 65536?
Because there is more to it than just that. :)
there is the matter of whether they are represented by 2 bytes, or 4 bytes
_in_transmission_. '0x00004F4F' is a '4-byte' AS number that has a value
less than 65,536. It _should_ be treated identically with the 2-byte AS
number '0x4F4F', as I understand the currently-proposed methodoloty, but
there is no intrinsic reason why that _must _be the case. A two-byte AS
number, and a 4-byte AS number with the SAME numeric value, _are_
distinguishable as =different= entities.
>
> 1. ARIN begin allocating AS numbers greater than 65535
> to those who specifically request them starting on $date.
>
> 2. On $date ARIN will not allocate AS numbers less than
> 65536 unless a small number is specifically requested.
>
> 3. On $date, ARIN will no longer make a distinction
> between AS numbers less than 65536 and larger ones.
>
> Guess what? I said it in plain English so I don't have to
> define what is an "AS number less than 65536" or an "AS number
> greater than 65535". I also don't have to invent silly new
> notations so that AS2 looks different after the change.
> A number is a number is a number.
Is it? <grin>
Do you represent AS 17 in two bytes, or four?
if you use 2 bytes, do you, "somewhere down the road", change to representing
it with 4 bytes? or do you deal with 'mixed-length' codes "in perpetuity"?
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