AS137

AS137 is the backbone autonomous system of Consortium GARR ("Gruppo per l'Armonizzazione delle Reti della Ricerca"), Italy's national research and education network (NREN). RIPE RDAP carries it as ASGARR, status active, under a legacy maintainer (RIPE-NCC-LEGACY-MNT), with the registrant organisation ORG-GIRa1-RIPE (Consortium GARR, Via dei Tizii 6, 00185 Rome) — the low two-digit number marks it as an early legacy assignment. GARR is a non-profit consortium operating under the auspices of Italy's Ministry of University and Research; its founding members include CNR, ENEA, INFN, and the CRUI Foundation, and it connects universities, research institutes, hospitals, observatories, libraries, and arts/music institutes nationwide, interconnecting internationally through the pan-European GÉANT network. As a research backbone it is not a commercial ISP: access is governed by published rules and an AUP, and eligibility is centered on the Italian academic and scientific community. Routing-wise AS137 originates roughly 152 IPv4 prefixes (~2.77M addresses) and ~10 IPv6 prefixes, takes transit from GÉANT (AS20965), Telia (AS1299), and Cogent (AS174), and is present at the major Italian IXPs (MIX, NaMeX, TOP-IX, TIX, VSIX). RPKI ROA coverage is strong on IPv4 (no invalids observed) but minimal on IPv6. GARR runs an accredited CERT (cert@garr.it); the only notable security-literature mention is a January 2015 BGP study in which GARR was the *victim* of short-lived prefix hijacks by AS198596, not the source. No notable current abuse signal was found as of 2026-06-13.

Operator

Consortium GARR — Gruppo per l'Armonizzazione delle Reti della Ricerca (RIPE org ORG-GIRa1-RIPE, Via dei Tizii 6, 00185 Rome, Italy) [Confirmed] — RIPE RDAP (rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/137) + garr.it/en/who-we-are

Country / RIR

Italy, RIPE NCC (legacy allocation; maintainer RIPE-NCC-LEGACY-MNT) [Confirmed] — RIPE RDAP

Allocated

2002-08-21 (RIPE record registration — the only date the registry exposes; early low-number legacy assignment) [Confirmed] — RIPE RDAP (rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/137)

Org status

active; non-profit consortium under Italy's Ministry of University and Research. Original GARR network built ~1991; Consortium GARR formally incorporated 2001. Ongoing GARR-T backbone modernization (2023) [Confirmed for incorporation/heritage; founding-network year Likely] — garr.it/en/who-we-are, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GARR

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

GARR-CERT (cert@garr.it) is a Trusted Introducer–accredited team with a formal incident-management procedure. Sole notable threat-literature mention: a Jan-2015 CAIDA BGPStream study where AS198596 briefly announced AS137 prefixes — GARR was the victim, not the source; no post-2015 recurrence found. Residual CleanTalk/AbuseIPDB noise is baseline for a large NREN. No ASN-level blocklist hit found as of 2026-06-13

Abuse contact

cert@garr.it (RIPE handles AG16225-RIPE / GL965-RIPE)

Network & routing

Network type

National Research and Education Network (NREN/REN) — Italian academic/research backbone; transit taken from GÉANT (pan-European NREN), Telia, Cogent [Confirmed] — peeringdb.com/net/609, garr.it/en/who-we-are, bgp.he.net/AS137

Size

~152 IPv4 prefixes / ~2,770,944 addresses + ~10 IPv6 (routing table, bgp.he.net 2026-06); GARR/PeeringDB self-report a different order (~200 IPv4, ~50 IPv6) — reported as a range — bgp.he.net/AS137, peeringdb.com/net/609

Routing/peering

open peering policy (no ratio/contract requirement); ~84 BGP peers observed (≈80 IPv4 / ≈56 IPv6; secondary sources ~65–85); upstreams AS20965 (GÉANT), AS1299 (Telia), AS174 (Cogent); as-set RIPE::AS-GARR — bgp.he.net/AS137, peeringdb.com/net/609

RPKI posture

strong on IPv4 (~67–68 ROV-valid originated prefixes, 0 invalid) but minimal on IPv6 (≈1 of 10 prefixes covered) — IPv6 ROA deployment incomplete as of 2026-06-13 [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net/AS137

Notable usage

serves the Italian academic/research community — millions of users across 1,000+ sites and ~120 PoPs; ~24,000 km of optical fiber; ~800 Gbps GÉANT interconnect; also provides federated identity (eduGAIN/IDEM), security, cloud, and videoconferencing services — garr.it

IXP presence

MIX (Milan), NaMeX (Rome), TOP-IX (Turin), TIX (Florence/Tuscany), VSIX (Padova/Veneto) — five Italian IXPs [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net/AS137, garr.it peerings list

Analyst note

AS137 is unambiguously the GARR research backbone, not a commercial ISP — addresses map to Italian universities and research sites. Cross-link GÉANT/Telia/Cogent as transit. RDAP "ASGARR" = Consortium GARR.