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DRAFT: Autonomous System (AS) Number Assignment Policies

01 Feb 2011 —

How to read this draft document:

This document relates to a project to improve the readability of RIPE policy documents. If approved, it will replace ripe-463. To show you how the new document would be different to the current one, we made a summary of the changes made. This draft document shows only the proposed text.

Another version of this draft document is available that contains both the current and the proposed text side by side.
If you want to print out the document, we recommend downloading this PDF.

Summary of changes:

  • Wording throughout the document has been improved.
  • Renumbering of paragraphs

Specifics:

  • Abstracts – Reworded and added details
  • Section 1.0 - Renamed “Definition” and text related to criteria moved to next paragraph “Assignment Criteria”
  • Section 1.1 - Renamed “Assignment Criteria” and text moved to “Definition”
  • Section 1.2 - 1.5 - All grouped under “Assignments for Internet Experiments”
  • Section 1.3 - Moved to "Defining the Experiment"
  • Section 1.6 - Moved to the end of the document.
  • Section 1.7 - Partly moved to “Assignment Criteria” and parts referring to procedures removed because this is not relevant to policy.
  • Section 1.8 - Renamed to Unused AS numbers. 'can' was changed to 'must' to better reflect the intention of the policy and to be consistent with other policy documents.

Added in new draft document:

  • Section 7.0 – References
  • Section 8.0 - Attribution

Abstract

This document describes the policies for the assignment of globally unique Autonomous System (AS) Numbers within the RIPE NCC service region. These policies are developed by the RIPE Community following the RIPE Policy Development Process.

Contents

1.0 Definition

2.0 Assignment Criteria

3.0 Assignments for Internet Experiments

3.1 Defining the Experiment

3.2 Non-commercial Basis

3.3 Period of the Resource Registration

4.0 Returning AS Numbers

5.0 32-bit AS Numbers

6.0 Registration

7.0 References

8.0 Attribution

1.0 Definition

An Autonomous System (AS) is a group of IP networks run by one or more network operators with a single clearly defined routing policy. When exchanging exterior routing information, each AS is identified by a unique number. Exterior routing protocols such as BGP, described in RFC 1771, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", are used to exchange routing information between Autonomous Systems. An AS will normally use some interior gateway protocol to exchange routing information on its internal networks.

2.0 Assignment Criteria

In order to help decrease global routing complexity, a new AS Number should be used only if a new external routing policy is required, see RFC 1930.

A network must be multihomed in order to qualify for an AS Number.

When requesting an AS Number the routing policy of the Autonomous System must be provided. The new unique routing policy should be defined in RPSL language, as used in the RIPE Database.

The RIPE NCC will assign the AS Number directly to the End User upon a request properly submitted to the RIPE NCC either directly or through a sponsoring LIR. AS Number assignments are subject to the policies described in the RIPE NCC document entitled "<