autonomous system (AS)
InIP networks, autonomous systems(AS) are a federation of routers and networks that report to a single administrative entity, an organization or a company. This means that they all belong to one organization or enterprise.
The autonomous systems are connected to each other via interior routers and core gateways. For routing, the Interior Routing Protocol( IRP) is used in autonomous systems. To promote reachability and routing information within autonomous systems, they use an internal gateway protocol of their choice, which is often the Interior Gateway Protocol( IGP).
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An autonomous system is identified by a uniquely occurring 16-bit number, the Autonomous System Number (ASN), which is assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority( IANA).