aren't there still plenty (+20k or so) 16-bit ASN's out there for assignment? (perhaps I'm missing something on the need to allocate the new asn's?) By all means let's wait until the last possible second to upgrade ASN support. The waiting approach has worked so well for IPV6 :) Seriously though- why not let people start registering now. The only way we'll know if 32 bit ASN's will work is if we start using them.
agreed, let's NOT do the v6 thing... do the 32-bit asn's give us more than just 'more bits' ? :) (Sorry, I couldn't resist). So, yes, let's get someone to start testing, I'd just caution on assigning the 32-bit asn's for real-users, since much of the net might not be able to use them, partial reachability will/could-be a problem.
Wouldn't this just mean (Since Jan 1 2007 hasn't come to pass yet) setting up a Quagga router and plugging it into your existing network? Seems to me that without real support for the existing operating systems... um, the old neighbor xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx remote-as [32bit ASN notation] would pretty much end the experiment. I can easily imagine setting up some test beds with multi-hop so people can test their implementation with real "talkers" -- lol, which is a lot like the way IPV6 is/was set up. If anyone wants to play with this, we'll do our part and set up an AS in the development space of 32bit-AS land and peer with anyone who wants to bang on it... DJ