AS9199 RENAM

AS9199 (RENAM) is held by the RENAM Public Association — the Research and Educational Networking Association of Moldova, the country's national research and education network (NREN). It is a non-commercial association whose job is to connect Moldova's universities, research institutes and other public institutions to each other and to the European research networks.

What it's used for

The routing evidence is a small NREN, and it reads cleanly. RIS sees 8 IPv4 prefixes covering 4,096 addresses, one IPv6 /29 (2a04:7580::/29, a large allocation), and 17 observed BGP neighbours. Seventeen neighbours on only 4,096 addresses is the interesting ratio: this AS peers far more widely than its address count would suggest. That is exactly what an NREN does — it is a connector, aggregating a modest set of member institutions but maintaining relationships with local ISPs, the national exchange and the pan-European research backbone.

The reverse DNS makes the membership visible. Most addresses carry generic ip-81.180.x.y.renam.md PTRs, but the sub-domains name the institutions behind them: asm.renam.md (the Academy of Sciences of Moldova), usm.renam.md (Moldova State University), plus ns.ase.md and host5.ase.md on 81.180.68.0/23 — the Academy of Economic Studies running its own nameserver inside RENAM space. Numbering each member under its own label is a very NREN way to organise an address plan.

Notable

• RENAM connects the Academy of Sciences institutes, the leading universities and colleges, and some hospitals and government bodies.
• It represents Moldova in the pan-European research networking community.
• The IPv6 /29 is far larger than the IPv4 footprint, typical of an NREN that took IPv6 seriously early and allocates generously to members.