AS11655 YXEIX-SRV

YXEIX-SRV is the services autonomous system of the Saskatoon Internet Exchange (YXEIX), the not-for-profit internet exchange point that has interconnected Saskatchewan networks since 2017. RIS sees 2 IPv4 prefixes (512 addresses), one IPv6 prefix (2602:f979::/40), and 5 observed BGP neighbours.

What it's used for

Not the exchange fabric itself — an IXP's peering LAN is not routed — but the services the exchange runs alongside it. That is what the -SRV in the handle means, and it is why this AS announces anything at all. Both /24s (23.128.92.0/24 and 207.89.50.0/24) register to Saskatoon Internet Exchange Inc itself, and the one sampled reverse-DNS record, windowsupdate.yxeix.ca, is characteristic of the workload: content and update caches parked at the exchange so member ISPs can pull large, repetitive downloads locally instead of over expensive long-haul transit. Route servers, looking glasses, measurement probes and member-facing infrastructure live in the same space. Five neighbours is consistent with a handful of participants and upstreams, not a transit business.

Notable

A low AS number here is not an old network. ARIN registered AS11655 to the Saskatoon Internet Exchange on 2 February 2024 — the number is recycled, returned from a previous holder and reissued, decades after four-digit ASNs were first handed out. The exchange itself only dates to 2017. This AS is a clean worked example of why an AS number cannot be read as a date of birth.

Getting local traffic to stay local is the entire point of a regional IXP: without one, two Saskatoon networks may only meet each other in Toronto or Chicago.