AS754

AS754 (MERIT-AS-20) is a legacy autonomous system registered under ARIN to Merit Network, Inc., and it currently announces zero IPv4 and zero IPv6 prefixes — it is dormant on the public routing table today, not the ASN that carries Merit's production traffic.

ARIN RDAP records the autnum's top-level registration event as 1990-10-08, with the record last changed 2012-04-02. Merit Network is an independent nonprofit corporation, founded in 1966 and governed by Michigan's public universities; it is best known as the historical operator of the NSFNET backbone and today runs research-and-education network infrastructure across Michigan.

Two independent BGP lookups (bgp.he.net and bgp.tools) agree AS754 originates no prefixes and has no observed peers or upstreams as of research date. No dedicated PeeringDB network record exists for AS754 — only Merit's other ASN, AS237, has a PeeringDB profile, listing a Selective peering policy and presence at Any2Chicago, DET-iX, Equinix Chicago, and Grand Rapids IX. Whether that policy would apply to AS754 if it were ever activated is unconfirmed.

RPKI posture could not be determined for AS754 in this research pass — no ROA data surfaced for an ASN that isn't currently routing, and it is reported as Unknown rather than inferred. CAIDA AS Rank places AS754 at 79,459 (CAIDA's sentinel rank for unrouted ASNs) with a singleton customer cone (1 ASN, 0 prefixes, 0 addresses).

Operator

Merit Network, Inc. (nonprofit R&E network; ARIN handle MICH-Z; RIR object name MERIT-AS-20) [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/754, https://www.merit.edu/about/

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/754

Allocated

1990-10-08 (ARIN RDAP autnum top-level registration event — first-party RIR fact, not an IEEE/OUI-style date); last changed 2012-04-02 [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/754

Org status

active independent nonprofit corporation (Merit Network), governed by Michigan's public universities; founded 1966; former NSFNET operator [Confirmed] — https://www.merit.edu/about/

Contacts

abuse@merit.edu; registrant org Merit Network Inc., 880 Technology Drive, Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/754

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found for AS754 as of 2026-07-28 — not in NANOG archives, bgp.tools flags, AbuseIPDB, Spamhaus, or GreyNoise

Network & routing

Network type

research-and-education (R&E) network operator; AS754 itself shows zero announced prefixes and appears dormant on the public routing table, while Merit's actively-peering ASN is AS237 [Confirmed] — https://bgp.he.net/AS754, https://www.peeringdb.com/org/31248

Size

dormant — 0 IPv4 prefixes / 0 address estimate and 0 IPv6 prefixes; CAIDA AS rank 79,459 (the standard sentinel rank for unrouted ASNs; not seen, not clique member); customer cone is a singleton — 1 ASN, 0 prefixes, 0 addresses

[Confirmed] — https://bgp.he.net/AS754, https://bgp.tools/as/754, https://api.asrank.caida.org/v2/restful/asns/754

Routing/peering

NOT announced — 0 peers, 0 upstreams observed on two independent BGP sources; no dedicated PeeringDB record for AS754 [Confirmed]. Merit's AS237 PeeringDB profile states a Selective policy with presence at Any2Chicago, DET-iX, Equinix Chicago, and Grand Rapids IX; unconfirmed whether this would apply to AS754

[Likely for AS237, Unknown for AS754] — https://www.peeringdb.com/org/31248, https://www.peeringdb.com/asn/237

RPKI

Unknown — no ROA or RPKI validation-state data surfaced for AS754; not assessable while the ASN originates no prefixes [Unknown] — https://bgp.he.net/AS754

Notable usage

Merit Network is historically known as the operator of the NSFNET backbone (the NSF-funded predecessor to the commercial internet) and today runs R&E network infrastructure across Michigan; AS754 is one of Merit's several registered ASNs but is not the one carrying live traffic [Confirmed for Merit/NSFNET history; Likely for the broader multi-ASN block, sourced from a search snippet not independently confirmed] — https://www.merit.edu/about/, https://www.merit.edu/network/

Related ASNs

AS237 (Merit's actively-peering ASN, own PeeringDB profile) [Confirmed]; broader claim of ~25 Merit-held ASNs (e.g. AS181-185, AS229-238, AS689-690, AS750-759, AS2882-2885) is [Likely], sourced from a search summary rather than a directly fetched authoritative page

Analyst note

AS754 is a registered-but-dormant Merit Network ASN — RDAP confirms an active ARIN registration since 1990, but no current BGP announcements. Merit's production routing runs under AS237, which has its own PeeringDB profile and Selective peering policy; that policy is not confirmed to apply to AS754. CAIDA AS Rank (79459, sentinel for unrouted ASNs) and customer cone (singleton: 1 ASN / 0 prefixes / 0 addresses) are sourced from CAIDA's API rather than left Unknown.