Skip to main content

The IAB’s response to Geoff Huston’s request concerning 32-bit AS numbers, 16 August 2008
statement-iab-2008-08-16-32bit-as-huston-00

Document Type IAB Statement
Title The IAB’s response to Geoff Huston’s request concerning 32-bit AS numbers, 16 August 2008
Published 2008-08-16
Metadata last updated 2023-08-09
State Active
Send notices to (None)
statement-iab-2008-08-16-32bit-as-huston-00

From: oran@cisco.com

Subject: Response to Geoff Huston’s request concerning 32-bit AS numbers

Date: August 16, 2008 5:45:11 AM PDT

To: gih@apnic.net

Cc: rcallon@juniper.net, wardd@cisco.com, iab@iab.org

Geoff,

Thanks for bringing the question of the textual representation of 32-bit AS numbers to the attention of the IAB. We had an email discussion of your request that the IAB take on work to standardize this. We assume that something along the lines of http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-michaelson-as-representation-00.txt is the direction you would like to see the IETF adopt.

We agree that with the imminent exhaustion of the 16-bit AS number space, settling on a standard (possibly BCP) textual representation of 32-bit AS numbers is an urgent matter.

We note that this issue has already had some exposure in the IDR working group and the correct technical approach is not completely obvious. There are usability problems with a simple integer representation, and parsing and tooling problems with a 16-16 style representation (since plain regexp’s, commonly used to express policy, would not be usable – see http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/idr/current/msg02220.html).

We discussed a number of options for how the IAB might assist. Our consensus was that this is work that needs to occur in the normal scope of IETF standardization, either though an Area Director sponsored individual contribution, or through a charter/milestone item of one of the Routing Area Working groups, possibly IDR (where it has been discussed before), or GROW. The IETF chair participated in the discussion and concurs with this view.

We have copied the IETF Chair and the Routing AD’s on this response so they may assist in moving this work forward.

For the IAB, Dave Oran