North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: [ppml] Fw: ":" - Re: Proposed Policy: 4-Byte AS Number Policy Proposal
> From [email protected] Wed Dec 14 04:30:07 2005 > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > 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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