AS853

AS853 is a registered-but-unrouted ASN: ARIN records it under the name "MADISON-IXP" for registrant Richmond-IX Corporation, and it functions as the route-server ASN for the Ninja-IX Bay Area internet exchange rather than as an ISP, transit, or content network — as of 2026-08-08 it announces zero IPv4 and zero IPv6 prefixes across every routing source checked.

ARIN's RDAP autnum record puts the ASN's own top-level registration event at 2022-06-16 and its last-changed event at 2023-04-24; both are corroborated by bgp.tools' independent "Registered June 16, 2022 with ARIN" statement. Registry status is active. The registrant, Richmond-IX Corporation (ARIN org handle RC-983, Phoenix, AZ), shares its address, phone, and point of contact (Paul Emmons) with the public-facing brand Ninja-IX Corporation, but no operator-official page states outright that the two names are the same legal entity — that link is inferred from shared contact detail, not confirmed.

Routing data is unanimous and clean: RIPEstat, CAIDA AS Rank, bgp.he.net, and bgp.tools all agree on zero announced prefixes, zero observed BGP peers, and zero RIS-peer visibility (0 of 327 v4 peers, 0 of 322 v6 peers). CAIDA ranks it 79,459 with a singleton customer cone (1 ASN, 0 prefixes, 0 addresses) and all-zero degree metrics. PeeringDB and bgp.tools show it as a participant at "Ninja-IX Bay Area" (Fremont, CA, Hurricane Electric FMT2) with two 10 Gbps ports and peering-LAN addresses — exchange-fabric membership, not an announced route.

One naming discrepancy is unresolved: the RDAP ASName "MADISON-IXP" does not correspond to any of Ninja-IX's ten published exchange markets (Auburn, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Norfolk, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento). No source found explains it, and this entry does not guess at one.

Org status per RDAP is active. Ninja-IX Corporation's own site describes itself as an Arizona not-for-profit operating since 2014, with a separate IRS 501(c)(3) Foundation entity incorporated March 2022 that the operator's own page said was "anticipated" to eventually take over exchange operations — whether that migration has completed is unconfirmed by any source consulted.

Operator

Richmond-IX Corporation (ARIN registrant, org handle RC-983, Phoenix, AZ) [Confirmed]; publicly operates as "Ninja-IX Corporation" — same address/phone/POC (Paul Emmons) but not confirmed as the same legal entity by any operator-official statement

[Likely] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/853, https://ninja-ix.net/Foundation.html

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/853

Allocated

2022-06-16 (ARIN RDAP autnum top-level "registration" event, eventDate 2022-06-16T07:19:55-04:00); last changed 2023-04-24 [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/853, corroborated by https://bgp.tools/as/853

Org status

active per ARIN RDAP [Confirmed]. Public brand Ninja-IX Corporation self-describes as an Arizona not-for-profit operating since 2014, with a separate IRS 501(c)3 Foundation entity incorporated March 2022 that the operator's page said was "anticipated" to eventually take over exchange operations from the Corporation — migration completion unconfirmed [Likely for the corporate-history claims; Unknown for migration completion] — https://ninja-ix.net/Foundation.html

Contacts

No publishable contact: the sole ARIN POC (EMMON3-ARIN) is an individual-kind vCard, withheld per policy; no group/role mailbox exists on the record. Registrant address 530 E McDowell Road, Suite 107-605, Phoenix, AZ 85004 [Confirmed via ARIN RDAP] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/853

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-08-08 in a NANOG mailing-list archive mirror search (zero matches) [Confirmed]; Spamhaus (HTTP 403), AbuseIPDB, Cisco Talos Intelligence, and VirusTotal could not be independently verified this search and are Unknown, not clean

Network & routing

Network type

Internet Exchange Point (IXP) infrastructure — route-server ASN for the Ninja-IX Bay Area exchange (Fremont, CA, Hurricane Electric FMT2); operator states it does not sell transit, run a CDN, operate data centers, or broker IPv4 space

[Confirmed] — https://www.peeringdb.com/asn/853, https://ninja-ix.net/Foundation.html

Size

unrouted — 0 IPv4 prefixes / 0 IPv4 addresses and 0 IPv6 prefixes; customer cone = 1 ASN (itself), 0 prefixes, 0 addresses [Confirmed] — RIPEstat routing-status / CAIDA AS Rank / bgp.he.net / bgp.tools (2026-08-08)

Routing/peering

NOT announced — 0 RIS peers seeing it (0/327 v4, 0/322 v6); CAIDA degree total 0 (customer 0, peer 0, provider 0); seen=false in CAIDA's AS-graph [Confirmed]. Ninja-IX's own published exchange-participant policy is Open — requires an announced /24 IPv4 and/or /56 IPv6 via BGP4, RIR-issued space and ASN, matching IRR, looking-glass connectivity, and a PeeringDB entry; "peering is not transit" [Confirmed for the exchange's policy text, not for AS853 itself announcing anything] — https://ninja-ix.net/Services.html, https://www.peeringdb.com/asn/853

RPKI

not assessable — AS853 announces no prefixes, so there are no ROAs to validate [Confirmed] — https://stat.ripe.net

Notable usage

route-server ASN for the "Ninja-IX Bay Area" exchange per PeeringDB/bgp.tools, with 2x10Gbps ports and peering-LAN addresses 149.112.34.5/149.112.34.6 (v4) and 2001:504:119::5/::6 (v6) [Confirmed]. RDAP ASName "MADISON-IXP" does not match any of Ninja-IX's 10 published markets — unresolved discrepancy, not explained by any source found

[Confirmed as an open discrepancy] — https://www.peeringdb.com/asn/853, https://bgp.tools/as/853

Related ASNs

none identified in this research [Unknown]

Analyst note

Encountered as a non-routing IXP-infrastructure ASN. Registry facts (allocation date, status, zero routing) are Confirmed and consistent across four independent sources. Two items remain open rather than resolved: whether ARIN registrant "Richmond-IX Corporation" and public brand "Ninja-IX Corporation" are the same legal entity, and why RDAP's ASName "MADISON-IXP" matches none of Ninja-IX's ten published markets.