AS590

AS590 is a legacy autonomous system number originally issued to EASInet (the "EASInet Operations Center"), a pan-European academic and research networking initiative sponsored by IBM in the early 1990s and operated out of Bonn, Germany by GMD (Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung mbH), the former German National Research Center for Information Technology. GMD's role ended when it was absorbed into the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in 2000–2001, but the ASN registration was never renamed and still carries the RIPE as-name "UNSPECIFIED." The AS was originally registered with ARIN under the name EASINET-AS1 in the early 1990s and was later transferred into the RIPE database via the ARIN–RIPE Early Registration Transfer (ERX) process, which is why RDAP's top-level registration event is dated 2002-09-19 rather than the ASN's true 1990s origin. Historically, EASInet was notable for an August 1990 demonstration of international ISO CLNP packet exchange between its Bonn network operations center and the NSFNET NOC in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and by early 1992 the network spanned 18 sites across Europe, sharing lines via NET IDNX time-division multiplexers carrying TCP/IP, SNA, X.25, and DECnet traffic. Today the ASN is entirely dormant: every routing source consulted (RIPEstat, CAIDA AS Rank, bgp.he.net, bgp.tools) shows zero announced IPv4/IPv6 prefixes, zero observed BGP peers, and a singleton customer cone. No notable public abuse signal was found as of 2026-07-17.

Operator

No current legal operating entity — historically EASInet, operated by GMD (Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung mbH), Bonn, Germany, under the IBM-sponsored EASI programme; GMD absorbed into Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft 2000–2001

[Likely] — https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/590, http://www.caster.xhost.de/Sj92str.htm

Country / RIR

Germany (contact addresses in Mannheim and Sankt Augustin, DE); RIPE NCC, originally registered under ARIN (IANA 1-1876 block) and transferred via ERX [Confirmed] — https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/590

Allocated

2002-09-19 (RIPE RDAP autnum top-level registration event — the ERX transfer/re-registration into the RIPE database, a first-party RIR fact); last changed 2017-11-15 [Confirmed]. Note: embedded free-text remarks from the merged legacy ARIN object show ARIN changed dates of 1990-03-02 and 1991-04-16, consistent with the ASN's true original issuance to EASInet circa 1990–1991, but these are historical change-log remarks inside remarks[], not a distinct top-level RDAP event, so they are not recorded as allocated_date [Likely, corroborating context] — https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/590, https://bgp.tools/as/590 (reports a conflicting unverified "1993" registration claim)

Org status

legacy/inactive — RIPE database carries LEGACY status inherited from the ERX-transferred ARIN object; the original operator GMD ceased to exist as an independent entity in 2000–2001 (absorbed into Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft); registrant object is RIPE-NCC-AN-MNT (an ERX-transfer maintainer, not a real organization)

[Confirmed] — https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/590

Contacts

administrative/technical contacts Stefan Fassbender (IBM, Mannheim, DE) and Willi Porten (GMD, Sankt Augustin, DE) — both 1990s-era research-network contacts left over from the original registration; personal e-mail fields are redacted in current RDAP output; no abuse contact found

[Confirmed] — https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/590

Website

none found for the historical operator. IPinfo's enrichment lists "easi.net" as a related site, but that domain now belongs to an unrelated modern Belgian IT services company of the same name with no connection to EASInet — flagged, not attributed

[Likely] — https://ipinfo.io/AS590, https://easi.net/en

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-07-17 — not in Spamhaus ASN-DROP, CleanTalk, the C0nw0nk/ASN-BlackList community list, or NANOG mailing-list archives; several premium/authenticated feeds (full Spamhaus SBL/XBL, AbuseIPDB, Team Cymru) were not queryable in this pass, so this is a sourced null, not an exhaustive clearance

Network & routing

Network type

legacy/dormant pan-European academic and research network (EASInet); currently 0 IPv4/IPv6 prefixes announced, 0 BGP peers, no ICMP-responsive hosts [Confirmed for current dormancy; Likely for historical characterization] — https://stat.ripe.net/AS590, http://www.caster.xhost.de/Sj92str.htm

Size

dormant — 0 IPv4/IPv6 prefixes and 0 IPv4 addresses announced; customer cone = 1 ASN (itself), 0 prefixes, 0 addresses [Confirmed] — https://stat.ripe.net/AS590, https://asrank.caida.org/asns/590

Routing/peering

NOT announced — 0 of 326 RIS peers see it on IPv4, 0 of 322 on IPv6; CAIDA degree total 0 (customer 0, peer 0, provider 0); no current upstreams or peers in any source. Historical (early-1990s) peering with AS690, AS513, AS559, AS697 appears in legacy WHOIS text but is unconfirmed/stale [Confirmed for current state; Likely/unconfirmed for historical peers] — https://stat.ripe.net/AS590, https://bgp.he.net/AS590

RPKI

not assessable — AS590 announces no prefixes, so there are no ROAs to validate against; RIPEstat rpki-validation was skipped (requires a specific prefix) [Unknown] — https://stat.ripe.net/AS590

Notable usage

In August 1990, EASInet's Bonn NOC demonstrated international exchange of ISO CLNP packets with the NSFNET NOC in Ann Arbor, Michigan; by early 1992 the network spanned 18 sites across Europe (Spain and Italy to Stockholm, Amsterdam, Hamburg), managed from GMD, Bonn, using shared IDNX time-division-multiplexed circuits carrying TCP/IP, SNA, X.25, and DECnet — a line-sharing model later adopted by the EBONE pan-European backbone. No current/live usage

[Likely] — http://www.caster.xhost.de/Sj92str.htm, https://museum.media.org/eti/RoundTwo17.html

Related ASNs

none confirmed; historical peers (AS690, AS513, AS559, AS697) are unconfirmed WHOIS-text artifacts, not verified current relationships [Unknown]

Analyst note

Dormant ERX-transferred legacy ASN tied to a defunct 1990s European research network (EASInet/GMD); the 2002-09-19 RDAP registration event reflects the RIPE re-registration, not the ASN's true ~1990–1991 origin, which is preserved only in free-text remarks and an unverified third-party bgp.tools claim of 1993.