The IESG Approved the Expansion of the AS Number Registry

Fri Dec 1 17:33:25 UTC 2006

>>> 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.
>>
> 
> agreed, let's NOT do the v6 thing... do the 32-bit asn's give us more than
> just 'more bits' ? :) (Sorry, I couldn't resist). So, yes, let's get
> someone to start testing, I'd just caution on assigning the 32-bit asn's
> for real-users, since much of the net might not be able to use them,
> partial reachability will/could-be a problem.
> 
> 

Wouldn't this just mean (Since Jan 1 2007 hasn't come to pass yet) 
setting up a Quagga router and plugging it into your existing network? 
Seems to me that without real support for the existing operating 
systems... um, the old
neighbor xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx remote-as [32bit ASN notation]
would pretty much end the experiment.

I can easily imagine setting up some test beds with multi-hop so people 
can test their implementation with real "talkers" -- lol, which is a lot 
like the way IPV6 is/was set up.

If anyone wants to play with this, we'll do our part and set up an AS in 
the development space of 32bit-AS land and peer with anyone who wants to 
bang on it...

DJ