AS49

AS49 is a legacy allocation registered under ARIN to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (OrgId NIST-Z, Gaithersburg, MD), the federal standards and research agency. It is associated with the 129.6.0.0/16 Class B block (network RegDate 1987-06-12, updated 2024-09-11). The ASN appears lightly active around that block: IPinfo reports four peers, four upstreams, and 15 domains across six IPs, and NIST's own routing-research materials list "NIST (MD) AS49" as the origin for 129.6.*. Confidence is medium because an exact live prefix list was not captured. Beyond being a network operator, NIST is itself a major contributor to Internet-routing-security research — the BGP-SRx reference implementation, the NCCoE Secure Inter-Domain Routing / RPKI-ROV project documented in NIST SP 1800-14, and the NIST RPKI Monitor. The ARIN ASN RegDate is 1985-09-04 (updated 2024-09-11). A sibling, AS2648, serves NIST's Boulder, Colorado site. For triage this is a benign federal-agency ASN tied to NIST's Gaithersburg campus, whose registrant is a recognized authority on BGP/RPKI security. No notable public abuse signal was found as of June 2026.

Operator

National Institute of Standards and Technology (ARIN OrgId NIST-Z, Gaithersburg, MD 20899) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed]

Allocated

ARIN ASN RegDate 1985-09-04 (updated 2024-09-11; 129.6.0.0/16 network RegDate 1987-06-12) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP (echoed by ipgeolocation.io)

Org status

active (registry refreshed 2024)

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-09; clean government/research network — ipinfo.io

Network & routing

Network type

government (federal standards/research agency) [Confirmed]

Size

lightly active around 129.6.0.0/16; exact live prefix count not captured — IPinfo (2026-06)

Routing/peering

lightly active; IPinfo reports 4 peers, 4 upstreams, 15 domains/6 IPs; NIST slides list "NIST (MD) AS49" originating 129.6.* — IPinfo, nist.gov

Notable usage

NIST's Gaithersburg network on 129.6.0.0/16. NIST is a major Internet-routing-security research contributor (BGP-SRx, NIST SP 1800-14, RPKI Monitor) — nist.gov

Related ASNs

AS2648 (NIST Boulder, Colorado) [Confirmed]

Analyst note

A federal-agency ASN tied to NIST's Gaithersburg campus; benign. The registrant is a recognized authority on BGP/RPKI security.