AS11703 MARS-DISCOVERY-DISTRICT

MARS-DISCOVERY-DISTRICT is the network of the MaRS Discovery District, the innovation

hub and research-tenant complex in downtown Toronto (the MaRS Centre, adjacent to the

University of Toronto and the city's hospital district). It runs a building network for its

tenants, which are startups, research groups and health-innovation organisations.

What it's used for

• Serving the MaRS Centre itself. RIS sees 2 IPv4 prefixes / 768 addresses, 2 IPv6 /48s (2602:f609:1::/48, 2602:f609:2::/48) and 2 observed neighbours. Two upstreams, a few hundred addresses, dual-stacked: a well-run campus/building edge, and far too small to be anyone's provider.

Notable

• Both prefixes register to org MaRS Discovery District, and the network handles carry the organisation's own history: MARS-PHASE-1-INVESTMENT-TRUST-CGNT-NET-1 for the Cogent space at 38.116.198.0/23, and MARS-INNOVATION-HUBS-V4-NET-1 for 198.102.109.0/24. The -CGNT- fragment marks provider-assigned Cogent space reassigned to the customer — a normal SWIP reassignment, not a third-party registrant, and not the leased-address pattern.
• "Phase 1 Investment Trust" in a netname reflects the real-estate vehicle that owns the building, which is exactly the kind of internal legal-entity name that makes registry handles look stranger than the operator is.
• The sampled PTR 38.116.198.5 -> legacy.edge.marscentre.ca is first-party rDNS naming an edge device on the MaRS Centre's own domain, and the word legacy suggests this block is the older half of a network that has been renumbered around it.

Interesting

• MaRS is a landlord and a convener rather than a technology company, so the addresses here carry a rotating cast of tenant organisations rather than a single business.