4 Byte ASN with

Cisco IOS Software

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

 4 Byte AS

ƒ RFC 4271 defines an AS number as 2-bytes

ƒ Private AS Numbers = 64512 through 65535
ƒ Public AS Numbers = 1 through 64511
39000+ have already been allocated
We will eventually run out of AS numbers

ƒ Need to expand AS size from 2-bytes to 4-bytes

4,294,967,295 AS numbers
Cannot have a “flag day” solution
On Jan 1, 2010 - all BGP speakers must support feature
FOO
Solution must support a gradual deployment

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

 4 Byte AS
• RFC4893 – “BGP Support for Four-octet AS Number Space”
Provides 4-byte AS support without a flag day
ƒ RFC5396 – “Textual Representation of Autonomous System (AS)
Numbers “

• Representation is based upon the existing 2-Byte AS representation

• The full binary 4-byte AS number is split two words of 16 bits each
• Notation:
<higher2bytes in decimal>.<lower2bytes in decimal>
ASDOT For example: AS 65546 is represented as “1.10”
• Easy to read, however hard for regular expressions
Note: If the higher order 16 bits represent the value of a decimal zero, then the 4-
Byte AS can be represented in as the traditionally well known 2-Byte AS format

• IETF preferred notation

• Continuation on how a 2-Byte AS number has been represented
ASPLAIN historically
• Notation: The 32 bit binary AS number is translated into a Single
decimal value
Example: AS 65546
Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 3
 4-byte AS

• 4-byte AS support is advertised via BGP capability

negotiation
Speakers who support 4-byte AS are known as NEW BGP
speakers
Those who do not are known as OLD BGP speakers

• New Reserved AS#

AS_TRANS = AS #23456
2-byte placeholder for a 4-byte AS number
Used for backward compatibility between OLD and NEW BGP
speakers

• Two new attributes, both are “optional transitive”

AS4_AGGREGATOR
AS4_PATH
Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 4
 UPDATE Message
0 7 15
Bits

Unfeasible Routes Length (2 bytes)

Unreachable
Routes Information
Withdrawn Routes (variable)
Attribute can contain 4-byte AS
entries: AS_PATH,
Total Path Attribute Length (2 bytes) AS_AGGREGATOR, RT, SoO
Path Attribute
Information
Path Attributes (variable)

Length (1 byte) Prefix (1 byte)

<Length, Prefix> NLRI Information

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 5

 4 Byte AS

ƒ Formatting UPDATEs for a NEW speaker

Encode each AS number within the AS_PATH in 4-bytes
AS_PATH and AGGREGATOR attributes are affected
For VPN Route-Target (RT) and Site-of-Origin (SoO) are
affected also

ƒ Formatting UPDATEs for an OLD speaker

If the AGGREGATOR/ASPATH does not contain a non-2-byte
mappable 4-byte AS we are fine
If it does, substitute AS_TRANS (AS #23456) for each 4-byte AS
AS4_AGGREGATOR and/or AS4_ASPATH will contain a 4-byte
encoded copy of the attribute if needed
OLD speaker will blindly pass along NEW_AGGREGATOR and
NEW_ASPATH attributes

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 6

 4 Byte AS

• Receiving UPDATEs from a NEW speaker

Decode each AS number as 4-bytes
AS_PATH and AGGREGATOR are effected

• Receiving UPDATEs from an OLD speaker

AS4_AGGREGATOR will override AGGREGATOR
AS4_PATH and ASPATH must be merged to form the correct as-path

• Merging NEW_ASPATH and ASPATH

ASPATH – 275 250 225 23456 23456 200 23456 175
NEW_ASPATH – 100.1 100.2 200 100.3 175
Merged as-path – 275 250 225 100.1 100.2 200 100.3 175

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 7

 Mappable Autonomous
System Numbers
2 Byte Autonomous System 4 Byte Autonomous System
Mappable AS

Autonomous System # 200 All “ZERO”

Translate in Binary

8 bits 16 bits 16 bits

11001000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1100 1000

32 bits
00000000 11001000

16 bits

Autonomous System # 50000

Translate in Binary 16 bits 16 bits

16 bits
0000 0000 0000 0000 1100 0011 0101 0000

11000011 01010000
32 bits
Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 8
 Backward Compatibility
Mappable AS Numbers

NEW BGP Speaker – AS: 0.123 OLD BGP Speaker – AS: 100
200.1.1.0/24 200.1.1.0/24
4-byte AS Path 2-byte AS Path
Peers with
AS_PATH: 0.200, 0.2222, 0.300 AS_PATH: 123, 200, 2222, 300

4-byte AGGREGATOR Attribute 2-byte AGGREGATOR Attribute

AGGREGATOR: 0.200 AGGREGATOR: 200

Normal AS Path
Pre-pending

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 9

 Backward Compatibility
Non-mappable AS Numbers

NEW BGP Speaker – AS: 123.200 OLD BGP Speaker – AS: 100

100.1.1.0/24 100.1.1.0/24
4-byte AS Path
Peers with 2-byte AS Path

AS_PATH: 0.200, 100.200, 200.300 AS_PATH: 23456, 200, 23456, 23456

Normal AS Path
Pre-pending

Each full non-Mappable AS entry will be swapped

with well known AS_TRANS (23456) Autonomous Number

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 10

 Backward Compatibility
Non-mappable AS Numbers (Cont.)

NEW BGP Speaker – AS: 123.200 OLD BGP Speaker – AS: 100

100.1.1.0/24 100.1.1.0/24
4-byte AS Path
Peers with 2-byte AS Path

AS_PATH: 0.200, 100.200, 200.300 AS_PATH: 23456, 200, 23456, 23456

4-byte AGGREGATOR Attribute 4-byte AS Path

AGGREGATOR: 100.200 AS4_PATH: 123.200, 0.200, 100.200,
200.300
2-byte AGGREGATOR Attribute
Newly created AGGREGATOR: 23456
Attributes
4-byte AGGREGATOR Attribute
AS4_AGGREGATOR: 100.200

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 11

 4 Byte AS
Operation Example
AS_PATH: {100.1} AS 100.1

AS_PATH: {700,100.1}
10.0.0.0/8
AS 700

AS 100.2

AS_PATH: {900,800,100.2,700,100.1}

AS_PATH: {23456,700,23456} AS 1000

AS4_PATH: {100.2,700,100.1}

AS 800 AS 900 AS 100.3

Merge AS-PATH
AS_PATH: {800,23456,700,23456}
AS4_PATH: {100.2,700,100.1} AS_PATH: {900,800,23456,700,23456}
AS4_PATH: {700,100.1}

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 12

 4 Byte AS
Aggregation Example

AS 100.1 AS 200 AS 100.2

10.1.1.1/32 10.1.1.2/32 10.1.1.3/32

10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.0/24
AS_PATH: {23456,[23456,200]} AS_PATH: {100.3,[100.1,200,100.2]}
AS4_PATH: {100.3,[100.1,200,100.2]} AGGREGATOR: 100.3 1.1.1.1
AGGREGATOR: 23456 1.1.1.1
AS4_AGGREGATOR: 100.3 1.1.1.1 AS 100.3

AS 300 AS 400

ƒ AS 100.3 creates 10.1.1.0/24 aggregate

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 13

 Considerations When My BGP Autonomous
System Does Not Support 4-byte AS

ƒ Filtering based on 4-byte AS Numbers is impossible on a OLD BGP

speaker
ƒ It is illegal to use the well known AS_TRANS as a BGP Autonomous
System Number
ƒ 4-byte AS Numbers can experience additional BGP memory utilization on
OLD BGP speakers due to usage of AS4_PATH and AS4_AGGREGATOR
attributes
ƒ Due to AS_TRANS usage, the NetFlow v9 created traffic matrix may be
gradually more and more incorrect when 4-byte AS numbers are really
allocated to users on an OLD BGP speaker
ƒ BGP route aggregation on an OLD BGP speaker may create routing BGP
loops under certain conditions (ref. RFC4893)
ƒ Upgrading an OLD BGP speaker peering with a non-mappable 4-byte
neighbor AS will need a new neighbor configuration when being upgraded
from an OLD BGP speaker to a NEW BGP speaker (swap AS “23456” with
the real 4-byte ASN within the BGP neighbor statement)
ƒ Due to the usage of AS_TRANS, this could result in the wrong usage of the
MED metrics during BGP path selection (see next slides)
Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 14
 For your
MED - With 2-byte AS Transit reference

192.1/8
Rid=2.2.2.2
MED 200 192.1/8

AS 65002
bgp deterministic‐med Enabled
no bgp always‐compare‐med

AS 65001
192.1/8
Entry 1: AS 65002, MED 200, RID=2.2.2.2
Entry 2: AS 65003, MED 100, RID=3.3.3.3
AS 65004

Best path is (65002 65004)

since it has lowest RID. 192.1/8
AS 65003
MED 100 192.1/8

Rid=3.3.3.3

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 15

 MED - Old Speaker with 4b AS
For your
Transit reference

192.1/8
Rid=2.2.2.2
MED 200 192.1/8

AS 1.2
bgp deterministic‐med Enabled
no bgp always‐compare‐med
OLD
AS 65001
192.1/8 Best BGP Path
Entry 1: AS 23456, MED 100, RID=3.3.3.3 AS 65004
Entry 2: AS 23456, MED 200, RID=2.2.2.2

Neighbor AS is seen as “23456” on the old 192.1/8

speaker. Hence, best path is (1.3 65004) AS 1.3
instead since it has lowest MED MED 100 192.1/8

Rid=3.3.3.3

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 16

 MED - New Speaker with 4b AS For your
Transit reference

192.1/8
Rid=2.2.2.2
MED 200 192.1/8

bgp deterministic‐med Enabled

AS 1.2
no bgp always‐compare‐med Best BGP Path
NEW
AS 65001
192.1/8
Entry 1: AS 1.2, MED 200, RID=2.2.2.2 AS 65004
Entry 2: AS 1.3, MED 100, RID=3.3.3.3

Neighbor AS is seen as 1.2 and 1.3 on the 192.1/8

new speaker. Hence, best path is (1.2 AS 1.3
65004) instead since it has lowest RID. MED 100 192.1/8

Rid=3.3.3.3

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 17

 For your
Configuration reference

router bgp 4.4

bgp log-neighbor-changes Neighbor Configuration
neighbor 134.0.0.3 remote-as 3.3

R4#sh ip bgp 1.1.1.0

BGP routing table entry for 1.1.1.0/24, version 2
Paths: (1 available, best #1, table default)
BGP Show Command
Flag: 0x820
Not advertised to any peer
3.3 2 1.1
134.0.0.3 from 134.0.0.3 (134.0.0.3)
Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, external, best
R4#sh ip bgp sum
BGP router identifier 134.0.0.4, local AS number 4.4
BGP table version is 2, main routing table version 2
1 network entries using 124 bytes of memory
1 path entries using 52 bytes of memory
2/1 BGP path/bestpath attribute entries using 184 bytes of memory
1 BGP AS-PATH entries using 40 bytes of memory
0 BGP route-map cache entries using 0 bytes of memory
0 BGP filter-list cache entries using 0 bytes of memory
BGP using 400 total bytes of memory
BGP activity 1/0 prefixes, 1/0 paths, scan interval 60 secs
Neighbor V AS MsgRcvd MsgSent TblVer InQ OutQ Up/Down State/PfxRcd
134.0.0.3
Presentation_ID 4Inc. 3.3
© 2006 Cisco Systems, 28
All rights reserved. 27 2 0 0 00:25:33 1 18
 For your
Configuration reference

R3#sh ip rout | include B

Codes: L - local, C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
B 2.2.2.0 [20/0] via 123.0.0.2, 00:11:01
B 192.0.0.0/24 [20/0] via 123.0.0.2, 00:11:01 Routing Show Commands
R3#sh ip route 192.0.0.0
Routing entry for 192.0.0.0/24
Known via "bgp 3.3", distance 20, metric 0
Tag 2, type external
Redistributing via ospf 1
Advertised by ospf 1
Last update from 123.0.0.2 00:12:14 ago
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* 123.0.0.2, from 123.0.0.2, 00:11:09 ago
Route metric is 0, traffic share count is 1
AS Hops 1
Route tag 2

ip as-path access-list 1 permit ^1\.4$

router bgp 1 Note that the “.” must be
neighbor 4.4.4.4 remote-as 1.4 escaped from the
neighbor 4.4.4.4 route-map foo in regular expression with a “\”
route-map foo permit 10
match as-path 1
AS-PATH Filter for ASDOT notation
Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 19
 References
ƒ RFC4893 – “BGP Support for Four-octet AS Number Space”
ƒ RFC5396 – “Textual Representation of Autonomous System (AS)
Numbers “
ƒ RFC2842 – “Capabilities Advertisement with BGP-4 ”
ƒ 16-bit AS Number Report
http://www.potaroo.net/tools/asn16/
ƒ ARIN, AS Number Change on 1 January 2009
http://www.arin.net/announcements/07242008.html
ƒ RIPE NCC, AS Number change could affect Internet routing from 1
January 2009
http://www.ripe.net/news/asn-32-pr2008.html
ƒ APNIC, AS number change could affect Internet routing from 1
January 2009
http://www.apnic.net/news/2008/0725.html

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 20

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 21
 RFC4360: BGP Extended Communities Attribute For your
0 7 15 23 reference 31
bit
Type High Type Low

Value

RFC4360: Route-Target Extended Communities Attribute – 2 Byte AS

0 7 15 23 31
bit
00 02

2-Byte Autonomous System Number

RFC4360: SOO Extended Communities Attribute - 2 Byte AS

0 7 15 23 31
bit
00 03

2-Byte Autonomous System Number

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 22
 Four-octet AS Specific BGP Extended Community
(ietf-l3vpn-as4octet-ext-community-02.txt) For your
reference

Route-Target Extended Communities Attribute – 4 Byte AS

0 7 15 23 31
bit
02 02

4-Byte Autonomous System Number

SOO Extended Communities Attribute - 4 Byte AS

0 7 15 23 31
bit
02 03

4-Byte Autonomous System Number

Presentation_ID © 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 23