In the process of reviewing RIPE-181-represented policies, I've noticed an opportunity for what I think would be a useful modification of the as-in/as-out attributes of the aut-num object. Currently, the syntax for these attributes is given as: as-in: from <aut-num> <cost> accept <routing policy expression> as-out: to <aut-num> announce <routing policy expression> I see policies which would be usefully condensed via allowing the <aut-num> to be an AS *macro*, too. E.g.: aut-num: 99999 as-name: SOMEAS ... as-in: from AS10 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS20 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS30 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS40 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS50 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS60 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS70 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS110 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS120 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS130 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS140 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS150 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS160 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS170 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} could be equivalent to: aut-num: 99999 ... as-in: from AS-SOMEAS-100-NO-DEFAULT 100 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} as-in: from AS-SOMEAS-150-NO-DEFAULT 150 accept ANY AND NOT {0.0.0.0/0} with the macro definitions: as-macro: AS-SOMEAS-100-NO-DEFAULT descr: ASs which AS-99999 accepts at pref. 100 (any but descr: the default route) as-list: AS110 AS120 AS130 AS140 AS150 AS160 AS170 ... as-macro: AS-SOMEAS-150-NO-DEFAULT descr: ASs which AS-99999 accepts at pref. 150 (any but descr: the default route) as-list: AS10 AS20 AS30 AS40 AS50 AS60 AS70 ... (The same could be said of as-out lines.) What do you think? Steve Richardson/Merit