proposed extensions for as-macro, community names

Hello all,

I've enclosed below a document which proposes changes to the
syntax for the as-macro and community names.  I invite your
comments.

-Brian

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        Proposed Modifications to AS Macro and Community
                        Attribute Syntax

                            ABSTRACT

          This document describes proposed modifications to
     the syntax of the as-macro and community attributes.
     This amends the as-macro syntax described in RIPE-181,
     Appendix C and the community syntax described in RIPE-
     181, Appendix B.

1.  Introduction

Some ISPs would like to use longer names or structured names  for
their  as-macro  and community attribute values.  They find these
names difficult to read when they use  only  monocase  alphabetic
letters. (The syntax specified for these attributes in RIPE-181.)

The following extensions to the RIPE-181 syntax provide a  richer
character set for these attributes.

2.  AS-Macro Attribute

2.1.  Syntax for as-macro Attribute

The revised description and syntax for the as-macro is:

as-macro:
     The name of a macro containing at least two Autonomous  Sys-
     tems grouped together for ease of administration.

     Format:
          AS-<string>

          The <string> must satisfy the following constraints:

          +    It must be at least one character long.

          +    It must contain only  upper  case  letters,  lower
               case  letters,  digits,  underscores (_) or dashes
               (-).

          +    It must start with an upper case letter or a lower
               case letter.

          Note that all comparisons will be case insensitive,  so
          that  the  database software will consider the as-macro
          "AS-EBONE" to be the same as the as-macro "as-ebone"

2.2.  Examples:

     as-macro: AS-EBONE
     as-macro: as-ebone
     as-macro: AS-ISP-Backbone
     as-macro: AS-WEST_COAST_POP_1

2.3.  Discussion Points

Some issues which seem to require further discussion:

<string> length
     Should we require the <string> to be more than one character
     long?   That  is,  should  as-macro  names such as "AS-A" be
     illegal?  If we  require  more  characters,  how  many  more
     should  we require?  Alternatively, we could rely on commun-
     ity pressure to discourage meaningless names.

ending characters
     Should we require as-macro names to  end  in  an  alphabetic
     letter  or digit? That is, should names such as "AS-ISP_" be
     illegal?  Alternatively, we could rely on community pressure
     to discourage such apparently badly formed names.

case sensitivity
     Should the comparisons of as-macro names  be  case  insensi-
     tive?   That  is,  should the database software consider the
     as-macro name AS-EBONE to be the same as the  as-macro  name
     as-ebone?

3.  Community Attribute

3.1.  Syntax for community Attribute

The revised description and syntax for the community is:

community:
     The name of the community. The name of the community  should
     be descriptive of the community it describes.

     Format:
          <community-name>

          The <community-name> must satisfy  the  following  con-
          straints:

          +    It must be at least one character long.

          +    It must contain only  upper  case  letters,  lower
               case  letters,  digits,  underscores (_) or dashes
               (-).

          +    It must start with an upper case letter or a lower
               case letter.

          +    It must not start with the any upper or lower case
               permutations  of the character "A" followed by the
               character "S".  That is, the pattern "[Aa][Ss]" is
               not legal at the start of a community name.

          +    It must not be the same as any of the routing pol-
               icy expression keywords. (See RIPE-181, Appendix A
               for a complete list of these keywords.)

               The keywords that the IETF Routing  Policy  System
               (RPS) working group defines for RPSL will be added
               to this list of keywords.

          Note that all comparisons will be case insensitive,  so
          that  the database software will consider the community
          WCW to be the same as the community wcw.

3.2.  Examples:

     community: WCW
     community: ISP-Transit-1

3.3.  Discussion Points

Some issues which seem to require further discussion:

community name length
     Should we require the community names to be to be more  than
     one character long?  That is, should community names such as
     "x" be illegal?  If we require  more  characters,  how  many
     more  should  we  require?   Alternatively, we could rely on
     community pressure to discourage meaningless names.

ending characters
     Should we require community names to end  in  an  alphabetic
     letter  or  digit?  That  is,  should  names  such  as "ISP-
     Backbone_" be illegal?  Alternatively, we could rely on com-
     munity  pressure  to discourage such apparently badly formed
     names.

case sensitivity
     Should the comparisons of community names be  case  insensi-
     tive?   That  is,  should the database software consider the
     community name WCW to be the same as the community name wcw?