Does this mean that if ANS or Merit announces the FixW FDDI, Barrnet and NASA can't add a pair of routers only peering with each other on the ring?
No! Any peering across the inter-AS network ispossible. It means that the ripe-81 model can only describe one AS announcng the inter-AS network *itself* to twhe world. ripe-81 allows only one originating AS (in bgp terms) per net.
Daniel, I knew that the peering relationship was possible, but Barrnet and NASA then have to ask ANS to change the database entry (to insure that ptraceroute will still work) even if the two routers did not peer with and ANS router. I was suggesting that we might want to have each AS announce it's own routers or have a way for them to explicitly delagate that authority to someone else. Otherwise you could get caught up in squabbles between competing network providers over "proper" ownership of this authority. Curtis