The IESG Approved the Expansion of the AS Number Registry

Fri Dec 1 16:52:37 UTC 2006

> So, all of the current devices need to get upgraded before 'day one' of
> 32-bit ASN use... that'll be fun :) Why is RIPE passing out the 32-bit
> ASN's now?
ARIN will begin passing out 32 bit ASN's to anyone who asks as of January 
1, 2007. This is the same policy as RIPE so I don't see what the big deal 
is.

> aren't there still plenty (+20k or so) 16-bit ASN's out there
> for assignment? (perhaps I'm missing something on the need to allocate the
> new asn's?)
By all means let's wait until the last possible second to upgrade ASN 
support. The waiting approach has worked so well for IPV6 :) Seriously 
though- why not let people start registering now. The only way we'll know 
if 32 bit ASN's will work is if we start using them.

-Don