economic value of low AS numbers

Dave Hart davehart at gmail.com
Thu Nov 17 17:22:44 UTC 2011


On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 15:22, Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> wrote:
> In a message written on Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 02:53:26PM +0000, Dave Hart wrote:
>> I recognize there's no practical shortage of AS numbers.  BGP's
>> preference for low AS numbers doesn't come into play much.  On the
>> other hand, a low AS number can't hurt at the human level when
>> negotiating peering or attracting customers.
>
> I think you are confusing a "low ASN" with a "low router ID", or
> maybe "low neighbor IP address".
>
> For a refresher, see:
> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094431.shtml
>
> A low ASN has no technical value, as far as I know.

I am exposed!  I have never connected to a router that wasn't a
looking glass.  I am not worthy...  I did try to hide that fact by
doing a little research.  I was fooled by:

"Prefer the route learned from the BGP speaker with the numerically
lowest BGP identifier"

and (mis)interpreted BGP identifier as ASN.

>  Socially perhaps
> some folks give additional respect/envy to those with low ASN's.
> There's an old joke in the peering community, ASN < 3 digits, peer
> with them.  ASN with 4 digits, think about peering with them.  ASN
> with 5 digits, forget it.  However, I do believe it's just a joke,
> I'm sure more folks peer with Akamai (20940) than with NASA (24).

That's both funny and helpful, thanks.

Dave Hart




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