AS7497 CSTNET-AS-AP Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences CNIC-CAS

CSTNET-AS-AP is CSTNET, the China Science and Technology Network, run by the

Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

(CNIC-CAS). It is one of China's national research and education networks.

What it's used for

• Connecting the institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, national research institutes, scientific data centres and a large share of China's national research infrastructure. It is an academic, non-profit network, not a commercial ISP.
• Carrying research traffic internationally: CSTNET maintains open exchange points in China and the United States and links to peer research networks in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Notable

• By far the largest network in its numeric neighbourhood — roughly 860,000 IPv4 addresses across several hundred prefixes, plus a substantial IPv6 footprint. Every prefix checked registers back to CSTNET-CN under CNIC-CAS, so the space really is all one institution's.
• The classic block is 159.226.0.0/16, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Class B, alongside ranges in 124.16/15, 210.72, 210.77 and 202.127.
• Its footprint is institutional rather than residential: universities, institutes and data centres, not subscriber pools.

Interesting

• CSTNET is generally credited as the birthplace of the Internet in China — the Chinese Academy of Sciences ran the country's first full TCP/IP connection to the global Internet. The network still carries the research community it was built for.