[address-policy-wg] New Draft Document: Autonomous System (AS) Number Assignment Policies

Dear Colleagues,

At the RIPE 59 Meeting in Lisbon last October, the RIPE NCC announced  
that it would undertake a project to improve the language of various  
RIPE policy documents, without changing their substance or meaning.  
This project is aimed at improving the clarity and readability of RIPE  
Documents. For more information, see:

http://www.ripe.net/ripe/updated-documents/

A draft of the first RIPE Document to be revised is now available:  
"Autonomous System (AS) Number Assignment Policies and Procedures".

We have published the draft document in two layouts. The first layout  
contains only the proposed text, in full, and is available at:

http://www.ripe.net/ripe/updated-documents/ASN-v1.html

The second layout contains both the current text and the proposed text  
side by side, and is available at:

http://www.ripe.net/ripe/updated-documents/ASN-v2.html

At the top of both draft documents there is a summary of the proposed  
changes. There are two changes we would like to highlight because they  
constitute a slightly larger change.

Paragraph 4.0 - Returning AS Numbers

Excerpt from current version:
"If an organisation has an AS Number that is no longer in use, it can  
be returned to the public pool of AS Numbers..."

Excerpt from proposed draft:
"If an organisation no longer uses the AS Number, it must be returned  
to the public pool of AS Numbers."

The main difference is that the current version says the AS Number  
"can" be returned, while the draft version says the AS Number "must"  
be returned.

The change was made to better reflect the intention of the policy and  
to be consistent. In other policy documents, for other Internet  
resources, the wording of the policy states "must".

The other larger change is the addition of the following paragraph:

Paragraph 5.0 - Validity of an Assignment

This paragraph is copied from the IPv4 policy document ("IPv4 Address  
Allocation and Assignment Policies for the RIPE NCC Service Region").  
As this seems to be a shared policy principle, applicable to all  
Internet resources, we
feel it is appropriate to add this text to the AS policy document,  
both for clarity and consistency.

Other smaller changes are listed at the top of document.

Please review the text and send your feedback to the Address Policy  
Working Group mailing list.

The period for review is four weeks and lasts until 26 February 2010.

After the review period, the Address Policy WG chairs will conclude  
whether or not there is consensus on the draft document.

Kind regards,

Filiz Yilmaz
Policy Development Manager
RIPE NCC