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APNIC Document identity
Title: APNIC Autonomous System Number Request Form
Short title: asn-request
Document ref: APNIC-058
Version: 001
Date of original publication: 20 July 1997
Date of this version: 20 July 1997
Review scheduled: n/a
Obsoletes: APNIC-048
Status: Obsolete
Comments: Obsoleted by APNIC-066
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APNIC Autonomous System Number Request Form
Issued: July 20, 1997
Expires: December 31, 1997*
*) This form is valid until superseded by another form. After the
date specified, please check the APNIC document store located at
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs for a later version of this form.
This form is intended to be used to request an "autonomous system (AS)
number" useful in facilitating routing in multi-homed environments.
In nearly all cases, unless you are multi-homed to more than one
Internet service provider, you will not need an autonomous system
number. Please see RFC 1930 to determine whether you should request
an AS number.
Please see comments at the bottom of this form regarding how to
complete this application. Note that this form is parsed by machine
and modification of lines starting with #[ or the field names will
likely result in strange errors being returned to you and your request
not being processed.
After completing this form, please submit it via email to:
as-request@rs.apnic.net
or in type written English via fax (discouraged) to:
+81-3-5500-0481
or in type written English via postal mail (as a last resort) to:
Asia Pacific Network Information Center
Tokyo Central Post Office Box 351
Tokyo, 100-91, Japan
If you have any questions regarding this form, you may contact us via
email at hostmaster@apnic.net (preferred), fax at the above number,
postal mail at the above address or via telephone at +81-3-5500-0480.
Note that we do not accept autonomous system number requests via
telephone.
Please allow up to one week for processing electronic mail requests
and up to one month for other forms of submission.
NOTE: IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO INCLUDE THIS HEADER NOR THE INSTRUCTIONS
AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS FORM WITH YOUR APPLICATION.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - CUT HERE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
#[AUT-NUM TEMPLATE V:3.0]#
acct-name:
aut-num:
as-name:
descr:
descr:
country:
admin-c:
tech-c:
as-in:
as-in:
as-out:
as-out:
default:
mnt-by:
remarks:
changed:
source: APNIC
#[PERSON TEMPLATE V:4.0]#
person:
address:
address:
address:
country:
phone:
fax-no:
e-mail:
nic-hdl:
mnt-by:
remarks:
changed:
source: APNIC
#[PERSON TEMPLATE V:3.0]#
person:
address:
address:
address:
country:
phone:
fax-no:
e-mail:
nic-hdl:
mnt-by:
remarks:
changed:
source: APNIC
#[TEMPLATES END]#
Additional Comments:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - CUT HERE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1.0 Instructions For Completing This Form
-----------------------------------------
Below are the instructnions for filling in an APNIC Autonomous System
Number Request Form. It is *EXTREMELY* important you provide
attributes for the tags listed below correctly. Failure to do so WILL
result in delays in service and thus may delay when you will receive
the AS number you require. NOTE: Experience has shown the AS-IN,
AS-OUT, and DEFAULT fields are prone to errors. *THESE FIELDS ARE NOT
OPTIONAL*. If you have any questions on how to fill in these fields,
please contact hostmaster@apnic.net.
Before attempting to complete the AUT-NUM template provided above,
APNIC *strongly* recommends you read the supporting notes provided
below. Each autonomous system (AS) is represented in the APNIC
database by an AUT-NUM object. The AUT-NUM object stores descriptive,
administrative and contact information about the AS as well as the
technical information relating to the routing policies of the AS in
relation to all neighboring ASes. With an AUT-NUM object you must
also supply completed PERSON templates which gives the full contact
details for the administrative and technical contacts. All
information provided with the templates in this form (with the
exception of the account name) will be provided to the Internet
community to aid in diagnosing and resolving issues related to the
operation of the Internet. Any use outside of this context is
expressly prohibited without written permission from APNIC, Ltd.
As APNIC applications are machine processed, application forms *MUST*
be submitted in plain ASCII, do not use MIME encoding unless that MIME
encoding can be viewed without any form of decoding. In particular,
do NOT encode your application using BASE64 encoding techniques. In
addition, do not attempt to format your application in any fashion,
e.g., do not justify text or insert extra blank lines between lines in
a template. Failure to observe these restrictions will likely result
in syntax errors being returned to you as the automated parsing system
is not prepared to handle large deviations from the format presented
in the form above. An example of a completed form is provided below.
As always, if you have any questions or comments regarding this form,
please contact hostmaster@apnic.net at your convenience.
2.0 Autonomous System Number Request Technical Details
------------------------------------------------------
ACCT-NAME:
Please provide your APNIC account name. If you do not have an account
name but wish to become an APNIC member, please see the "APNIC
Membership Application" form available at
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/membership-application
If you do not wish to become a member, please leave this field blank
and a non-member account will be assigned to you and returned along
with an invoice and payment instructions. For more details on
non-member applications, see:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/non-member-fees
Note that applications will not be processed until APNIC has received
payment in either the member or non-member cases.
Example:
acct-name: APNIC-AP
AUT-NUM:
Please provide a count of how many AS numbers you will require. If
you will require more than one, please provide justifying
documentation in the ADDITIONAL COMMENTS section. Note that APNIC
only allocates AS numbers for imminent demonstrated need, e.g., you
will be multi-homing to two different service providers within one or
two weeks. There should be exactly one AUT-NUM tag per AUT-NUM
template.
Example:
aut-num: 1
AS-NAME:
Please indicate the name of this autonomous system. The AS-NAME is
used mainly for administrative purposes such as consistency checking
of the Internet Registry. The network name should be written as a
SINGLE word of less than 25 capital alphanumeric characters or a hypen
('-') ONLY. Please do NOT use punctuation (other than '-'), special
characters or a prefix or suffix of 'NET', 'LAN', etc (unless they are
part of your company name). Please do NOT use domain names, such as
FOO.COM, as the network autonomous system name has no relation with
the domain name system. There should be exactly one AS-NAME tag per
AUT-NUM template.
Example:
as-name: TERABIT-AS
DESCR:
Please complete with a short description of the organization,
including the location providing sufficient detail as to distinguish
your organization from others in the APNIC database, i.e., "descr:
Computer Center" is not sufficient. Do NOT put advertising
information such as "The best internet provider in Foo" in your
description and please limit the number of DESCR lines to 5. This tag
is required for all AUT-NUM templates.
Example:
descr: Terabit Labs Inc.
descr: Border AS
descr: Network Bugs Feeding Facility, Northtown
COUNTRY:
Please give the two letter country code (ISO 3166) which is
appropriate for the organisation requesting address space. Do NOT
provide the country name or the three letter ISO 3166 country code.
Please see the table of ISO 3166 codes maintained on APNIC at
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/iso-3166.txt
if you do not know the appropriate ISO 3166 code for your country. We
are aware listing a country may be ambiguous for networks crossing
national boundaries, so choose the most appropriate country based on
the location of the administrative contact. This tag is required for
all AUT-NUM templates, with only one COUNTRY tag permited.
Example:
country: JP
ADMIN-C:
Please provide the NIC handle of the person who is the administrative
contact for the autonomous system number or the name of the person
matching *EXACTLY* the name to be provided in a subsequent PERSON
template if you do not have a NIC handle. The NIC handle (if known)
is greatly preferred and will result in minimal delays when processing
your request. The administrative contact must be someone who is
physically located at the site of the network. If you specify a name
instead of a NIC Handle, please do NOT use titles like `Dr' or `Prof.'
or `Sir' as the words which comprise a name are indexed and there are
many people with the same titles. Further, please provide full given
names, not initials as single characters are not indexed within the
database. Please list the name as you would be addressed in a letter
salutation (e.g., given name followed by family name or family name
followed by given name depending on the custom in your country). At
least one ADMIN-C tag is required for all AUT-NUM templates.
Example:
admin-c: JD1-AP
admin-c: Jon Q Doe
TECH-C:
Please provide the NIC handle of the person who is the technical
contact for the network or the name of the person matching *EXACTLY*
the name to be provided in a subsequent PERSON template if you do not
have a NIC handle. The NIC handle (if known) is greatly preferred and
will result in minimal delays when processing your request. The
technical contact need not be physically located at the site of the
network, but rather is the person who is responsible for the
day-to-day operation of the network. If you specify a name instead of
a NIC Handle, please do NOT use titles like `Dr' or `Prof.' or `Sir'
as the words which comprise a name are indexed and there are many
people with the same titles. Further, please provide full given
names, not initials as single characters are not indexed within the
database. Please list the name as you would be addressed in a letter
salutation (e.g., given name followed by family name or family name
followed by given name depending on the custom in your country). At
least one TECH-C tag is required for all NETWORK templates.
Example:
tech-c: MS4-AP
tech-c: Mark A Smith
AS-IN:
Please provide a description of routing information your AS will
accept from neighboring ASes. The format for this field is:
as-in: <aut-num> <cost> <routing policy expression>
which can be read as:
"receive routing information from AS <aut-num> tagging
it with weight <cost> if it passes the expression specified in
<routing policy expression>"
where:
<aut-num> is the neighboring AS from which you will
be receiving routing information.
<cost> is a positive integer used to express a relative cost
of routes learned from the neighboring AS. The lower
the cost the more preferred the route.
<routing policy expression> is a description of the routing
policy taking the following formats:
1. A list of one or more ASes, AS Macros and Communities.
Example:
as-in: AS1103 100 AS1103
as-in: AS786 105 AS1103
as-in: AS786 10 AS786 HEPNET
as-in: AS1755 110 AS1103 AS786
2. A set of KEYWORDS. The following keywords are currently
defined:
ANY - anything the neighbor AS knows.
THIS-AS - a special keyword which will be translated
to the assigned autonomous system number
when the AS is allocated ONLY. Subsequently,
you should use the AS assigned to you instead
of THIS-AS. The use of THIS-AS primarily
makes sense in the context of as-out: (see
below)
Example:
as-in: AS1103 10 ANY
3. A logical expression of either 1 or 2 above. The current
logical operators are defined as:
AND
OR
NOT
NOTE: if no logical operator is given between ASes, AS-macros,
Communities and KEYWORDS an implicit OR operation is
assumed, thus OR can generally be left out for
conciseness. Rules may also be grouped together using
parenthesis i.e "(" and ")".
Example:
as-in: AS1755 100 AS102 AND NOT (AS1234 OR AS513)
as-in: AS1755 150 ANY AND NOT AS1234
A rule can be wrapped over lines providing the associated
<aut-num> and <cost> values are repeated and occur on
consecutive lines. For example:
as-in: AS1755 100 AS102 AND NOT (AS1234 AS513)
and
as-in: AS1755 100 AS102 AND NOT
as-in: AS1755 100 (AS1234 AS513)
are evaluated to the same result.
You may provide as many AS-IN statements as necessary to accurately
describe the routing information you accept from your peers, but at
least two AS-IN tags are required.
Example:
As above.
AS-OUT:
Please provide a description of generated routing information sent to
other AS peers. The format for this field is:
as-out: <aut-num> <routing policy expression>
which can be read as:
"send to AS <aut-num> our routing information if such
information passes the expression specified in <routing
policy expression>"
where:
<aut-num> refers to your AS of your peer to which you will be
supplying routing information
<routing policy expression> is the routing policy expression
as described in the AS-IN tag.
You may provide as many AS-OUT statements as necessary to accurately
describe the routing information you provide to your peers, but at
least two AS-OUT tags are required.
Example:
as-out: AS786 AS701 AND NOT (AS978 AS65535)
DEFAULT:
If you will be using a peer as a default for your network, please
provide an indication of how default routing will be done. The format
of this field is:
default: <aut-num> <relative cost>
where:
<aut-num> is the AS peer you will default route to.
<relative cost> is the relative cost used to express a
preference for default. There is no relationship to
the cost used in the AS-IN tag. The lower cost
indicates which AS peer is more preferred for default.
You may provide as many DEFAULT statements as necessary to accurately
describe your choice of autonomous systems you default to (including
none if you do not use default routing).
Example:
default: AS1755 10
default: AS786 5
REMARKS:
The remarks attribute contains any remarks about this address space
that cannot be expressed in any of the other attributes. Although
multiple lines are allowed, it should be only be used if it provides
extra information to users of the database, and usage should be kept
to a minimum.
Example:
remarks: will be returned to NIC 950101
CHANGED:
Please indicate the e-mail address of the person who is completing the
template followed by the current date in the format of YYMMDD (YY is
the current year, MM is the month and DD is the day, all values 0
filled). If you do not have e-mail connectivity please leave blank
and it will be filled in for you. Do not put "Please Assign" or
similar for this field. If you have an e-mail address, you should
supply exactly one CHANGED tag per NETWORK template if this is an
application for a new provider block.
Example:
changed: johndoe@terabit.na 950225
MNT-BY:
Please provide the APNIC allocated maintainer ID. The maintainer ID
provides some level of authorization control over who can update an
object protected by a MNT-BY field. If you do not have a maintainer
ID, you may either leave this field blank and a default maintainer ID
will be created for you (one without any authentication protection) or
you may apply for one using the APNIC Maintainer Object Request form
found at:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/maintainer-request
There can be zero or more MNT-BY tags per NETWORK template, however
each maintainer object specified must already exist in the APNIC
Registration database.
Example:
mnt-by: MAINT-FOO-AP
SOURCE:
Source of the information. For the purposes of APNIC forms, it will
always be APNIC. This is information which is always required in the
database, so it has been added to the forms already.
Example:
source: APNIC
3.0 Autonomous System Number Request Person Template Details
------------------------------------------------------------
PERSON:
Please give the full name of the person this template will represent.
If you have provided the person's name in the ADMIN-C or TECH-C fields
of the AUT-NUM template (i.e., the person does not yet have a NIC
handle), the names MUST be written identically to those provided in
the fields. Please do not use formal titles like `Dr' or `Prof.' or
`Sir' as the words which comprise a name is indexed and there are many
people with the same titles and list the name as you would be
addressed in a letter salutation (e.g., given name followed by family
name or family name followed by given name depending on the custom in
your country). Further, as single characters are not indexed, please
provide the full given name. There can be exactly one PERSON field in
a PERSON template.
Example:
person: John E Doe
ADDRESS:
Please complete with the full postal address written as you would for
international postal mail using one line for each part of the address
as shown below.
Example:
address: Terabit Labs Inc.
address: Industrial Estate North
address: North Perpendicular Road 12
address: NL-1234 Northtown
COUNTRY:
Please give the two letter country code (ISO 3166) which is
appropriate for the contact person. Do NOT provide the country name
or the three letter ISO 3166 country code. Please see the table of
ISO 3166 codes maintained on APNIC at
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/iso-3166.txt
if you do not know the appropriate ISO 3166 code for this person's
address. This tag is required for all PERSON templates, with only one
COUNTRY tag permited.
Example:
country: JP
PHONE:
Please provide the work telephone number of the person specified above
as it would be dialed internationally in your country (WITHOUT the
prefix necessary to reach an international line). Please do not
include the leading zero when specifying their area/city code unless
it is required to correctly dial the number internationally. The
format for the telephone number is:
+<country code>-<area/city code>-<exchange>-<subscriber>
If an extension is necessary, please add "ext <extension>". Please do
not put 'x' or other abbreviations for "extension". More than one
telephone number is fine; each telephone number should be put on a
separate line and written in order of the most appropriate number for
the person to the least.
Example:
phone: +81-20-1233-4676
phone: +81-20-1233-4677 ext 4711
FAX-NO:
Please complete with the facsimile number of the person as it would be
dialed internationally (WITHOUT the prefix necessary to reach an
international line) in your country. Please do not include the
leading zero when specifying their area/city code unless it is
required to correctly dial the number internationally. The format for
the facsimile number is:
+<country code>-<area/city code>-<exchange>-<subscriber>
More than one facsimile number is fine. Each facsimile number should
be put on a separate line and written in order of the most appropriate
to the least. If the person does not have a facsimile number, please
leave blank.
Example:
fax-no: +81-20-1233-4678
E-MAIL:
Please supply the electronic mail address for the person. The
electronic mail address MUST be an Internet reachable valid RFC-822
address with a fully qualified domain name. If you do not have
Internet reachable e-mail connectivity, please leave this field blank.
Multiple e-mail addresses may be specified, with each on a separate
line and written in order of the most appropriate to the least.
Example:
e-mail: johndoe@terabit.na
NIC-HDL:
A NIC Handle is a unique identifer used within the Internet registry
database to differentiate between people with the same names. NIC
handles are assigned by registries -- if you do not have one, please
do not make one up. APNIC will provide you with one or you can
reserve one for yourself using the procedures described in
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/docs/dbase-update-info. If you have an APNIC NIC
handle, but do not remember it, please make a note of this in the
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS section of the application form. If you have a
NIC handle assigned by another registry, e.g., InterNIC, please
provide a full person template anyway and leave the NIC-HDL field
blank -- the regional registries are currently investigating ways in
which information such as this can be shared, but no solution has yet
been implemented. If you do not have a NIC handle, please leave the
field blank -- do NOT put 'Please Assign' or similar for this field.
Example:
nic-hdl: JD401-AP
REMARKS:
The remarks attribute contains any remarks about this address space
that cannot be expressed in any of the other attributes. Although
multiple lines are allowed, it should be only be used if it provides
extra information to users of the database, and usage should be kept
to a minimum.
Example:
remarks: <e-mail>-pager can be used for paging.
CHANGED:
Please indicate the e-mail address of the person who is completing the
template followed by the current date in the format of YYMMDD (YY is
the current year, MM is the month and DD is the day, all values 0
filled). If you do not have e-mail connectivity please leave blank
and it will be filled in for you. Do not put "Please Assign" or
similar for this field. If you have an e-mail address, you should
supply exactly one CHANGED tag per PERSON template if this is a new
person object.
Example:
changed: johndoe@terabit.na 950225
MNT-BY:
Please provide the APNIC allocated maintainer ID. The maintainer ID
provides some level of authorization control over who can update an
object protected by a MNT-BY field. If you do not have a maintainer
ID, you may either leave this field blank and a default maintainer ID
will be created for you (one without any authentication protection) or
you may apply for one using the APNIC Maintainer Object Request Form
found at:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/maintainer-request
There can be zero or more MNT-BY tags per request template, however
each maintainer object specified must already exist in the APNIC
Registration Database.
Example:
mnt-by: MAINT-FOO-AP
SOURCE:
Source of the information. For the purposes of APNIC forms, it will
always be APNIC. This is information which is always required in the
database, so it has been added to the forms already.
Example:
source: APNIC
4.0 Supporting Notes
--------------------
4.1 What is an Autonomous System?
An Autonomous System (AS) is a group of IP networks run by one or more
network operators having a single and clearly defined routing policy.
An AS will normally use one or more interior gateway protocols when
exchanging routing information internally within its own autonomous
system.
An AS has a unique number associated with it which is used in both the
exchange of exterior routing information (i.e. network reachability
information between ASes) and as an identifier of the AS itself.
Exterior routing protocols such as BGP are used to exchange routing
information between ASes.
The term AS is often confused and/or misused as a convenient way of
grouping together a set of networks which belong under the same
administrative umbrella even if within that group of networks there
are various different routing policies. An AS can strictly have
exactly one routing policy. APNIC will not allocate an AS number to
organizations unless the organization will have a different routing
policy than its service provider(s) in the immediate future (e.g.,
within one to two weeks).
The creation of an AS should be done in a conscious and well
coordinated manner to avoid creating ASes unnecessarily, perhaps
resulting in the worst case scenario of one AS per IP network number.
This may mean that by applying the general rules for the creation and
allocation of an AS below, some re-engineering may be needed.
However, this may be the only way to actually implement a desired
routing policy anyway.
As a general rule one should always try to populate an AS with as many
IP networks as possible, providing all IP networks conform to the same
routing policy.
4.2 How can I be sure I need an AS number?
The creation of an AS is only required when exchanging routing
information with other ASes. Some routing protocol implementations
make use of an AS number as a form of tagging to identify the routing
process. However, it should be noted that this tag does not need to
be unique unless routing information is indeed exchanged with other
ASes.
An IP network number can and must belong to exactly one AS. This is a
direct consequence of the fact that at each point in the Internet
there can be exactly one routing policy for traffic destined to a
specific network. In the case of a network which is used in peering
between two ASes, say at the border between two ASes, a conscious
decision must be made as to which AS this IP network number actually
resides in.
For a simple case of customer networks connected to a single service
provider, the customer's IP network(s) should be a member of the
service provider's AS. In terms of routing policy the customer IP
network has exactly the same policy as the service provider thus there
is no need to make any distinction in routing information. This idea
may at first seem slightly alien to some, but it highlights the clear
distinction in the use of the AS number as a representation of routing
policy as opposed to some form of administrative use.
If a network connects to more than one AS with different routing
policies then they need to create their own AS. In the case of
multi-homed customer networks connected to two service providers there
are at least two different routing policies to a given customer
network. At this point the customer networks should be part of a
single AS and this AS would be distinct from either of the service
providers ASes. This allows the customer the ability of having a
different representation of policy and preference to the different
service providers. This is the ONLY case where a network operator
should create its own AS number.
5.0 Recommended Reading
-----------------------
RFC 1771 Y. Rekhter, T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)",
03/21/1995. (Pages=57) (Format=.txt)
URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1771.txt
RFC 1772 Y. Rekhter, P. Gross, "Application of the Border Gateway Protocol
in the Internet", 03/21/1995. (Pages=19) (Format=.txt)
URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1772.txt
RFC 1773 P. Traina, "Experience with the BGP-4 protocol", 03/21/1995.
(Pages=9) (Format=.txt)
URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1773.txt
RFC 1774 P. Traina, "BGP-4 Protocol Analysis", 03/21/1995. (Pages=10)
(Format=.txt) URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1774.txt
RFC 1786 T. Bates, E. Gerich, L. Joncheray, J. Jouanigot, and others,
"Representation of IP Routing Policies in a Routing Registry
(ripe-81++)", 03/28/1995. (Pages=83) (Format=.txt)
URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1786.txt
RFC 1930 J. Hawkinson, T. Bates, "Guidelines for creation, selection, and
registration of an Autonomous System (AS)", 04/03/1996. (Pages=10)
(Format=.txt) URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1930.txt
RFC 1998 E. Chen, T. Bates, "An Application of the BGP Community Attribute
in Multi-home Routing", 08/30/1996. (Pages=9) (Format=.txt)
URL: ftp://ftp.apnic.net/ietf/rfc/rfc1998.txt
These documents are all available from the APNIC document store in the
directories mentioned in the URLs. The APNIC document store can be
accessed in a number of ways:
1. via anonymous FTP from host ftp.apnic.net
Using your ftp application (usally called simply 'ftp'), connect to
host ftp.apnic.net using your email address as the password.
For RFCs, use the "change directory" command (typically 'cd') to
'/ietf/rfc'. For APNIC documents, 'cd' to '/apnic/docs'. You
may then use the "get" command (typically 'get') to retrieve the
file.
2. via electronic mail through the APNIC FTP Email gateway
You may send mail to 'ftpmail@postoffice.apnic.net' with the body
of the message being standard Unix 'ftp' commands. For more help,
send an email message to 'ftpmail@postoffice.apnic.net' with a
message body consisting of 'help'. Results will be mailed back to
you.
Organizations without connectivity wishing to obtain copies of the
"Recommended Reading" documents should contact the APNIC or their
local or national registry or Internet Service Provider to arrange
postal delivery of one or more of the above documents. Note that some
fee may be associated with the delivery of hardcopy versions of
documents.
6.0 Acknowledgements
--------------------
This document in derived in large part from documents written by the
staff of the European Registry, RIPE-NCC <ncc@ripe.net>, particularly
RIPE-109.