RIPE NCC Quarterly Report Q1, 1996
Karrenberg, Orange
____________________________________________________
Reseaux IP Europeens
Network Coordination Centre
Quarterly Report
First Quarter 1996
Daniel Karrenberg
Carol Orange
with contributions from
Naomi de Bruyn
John Crain
Soodabeh Eshghi
Geert Jan de Groot
David Kessens
Hatice Kuey
Mirjam Kuhne
Roderik Muit
Nick Reid
Els Willems
Document: ripe-135
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1. Introduction
RIPE is a collaborative organisation which consists
of European Internet service providers. It has been
functioning since 1989. Today nearly 2.5 million
computers in Europe and surrounding areas are reach-
able via networks coordinated by RIPE. RIPE aims to
provide the necessary administrative and technical
coordination to allow the operation of a seamless
pan-European IP network.
The RIPE NCC
The RIPE Network Coordination Centre started opera-
tions in April 1992. It supports RIPE activities
that cannot be effectively performed by volunteers
from the participating organisations. Key services
performed by the RIPE NCC include:
o Maintenance of the RIPE Network Management
Database
o Regional Internet Registry
o Domain name system (DNS) coordination
o Repository for network operations software
o Maintenance of the RIPE document store
o Interactive Information Services
The TERENA association provides the formal framework
for the NCC. Funding for the operation of the NCC is
provided by the Internet service providers in Europe
and surrounding areas.
General information about the NCC, its funding,
organisation and activities can be found in the fol-
lowing documents:
Doc ID Title
--------------------------------------------------------------
ripe-125 RIPE NCC Activity Plan
ripe-133 RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1996
ripe-134 RIPE NCC Revenue & Charging 1996
ripe-132 RIPE NCC Contributors Committee, Minutes Sept 1995
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Further information can be obtained by sending mail
to <ncc@ripe.net> or contact us at:
RIPE Network Coordination Centre
Kruislaan 409
NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 20 592 5065
Fax: +31 20 592 5090
E-Mail: <ncc@ripe.net>
http://www.ripe.net
The Q1-1996 Quarterly
In this report, we aim to inform the RIPE community
in general and the RIPE NCC Contributors Committee
in particular of our activities during the first
quarter of 1996 and our plans for the next one.
Due to the severe resource shortage we experienced
in the last couple of years the series of quarterly
reports had to be interrupted for two years. This
report represents a new start at the series with a
revised and improved format. We welcome any com-
ments and suggestions to further improve the useful-
less of these reports.
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2. Management Summary
The European Internet keeps growing. 66 new local
Internet registries started operations during
Q1-1996. This is more than one per working day and
again more than foreseen. During Q1-1996 alone, we
manually handled 9,173 messages and automatically
handled 21,653 messages that were sent to the RIPE
NCC role mailboxes.
Registration services continued to operate normally,
albeit with an increasing backlog due to factors
including increased demand and some hostmaster staff
leaving unexpectedly. We have successfully hired
very promising replacements for the hostmasters who
left us. We continued gathering hostcounts, provid-
ing local registry courses and information services
on the Internet.
Significant activities during the quarter were the
beta release of an improved RIPE database software
package, implementation and initial deployment of
the new request tracking system for part of the man-
ually handled messages, continuing work on the a new
WWW site as well as analysis and reduction of redun-
dant routing information originated by European
autonomous systems. Also the long expected business
manager has started.
The financial situation is very healthy with 60% of
this year's planned expenditure already received in
revenue.
During Q1-1996 we have further consolidated current
activities. We also consider it significant that
after a long time we succeeded to start a new tech-
nical activity, reacting quickly to a requirement
from the RIPE community. We made plans for re-
structuring of the systems and software area within
the NCC and obtained authorisation from TERENA to
hire staff to strengthen this area as well as one
additional hostmaster in registration services.
During Q2-1996 significant activities will include
training of new hostmaster staff, more training
courses for local Internet registries, development
and deployment of hierarchical authorisation for the
RIPE database, completion of the ripe-104++ document
on local IR policies, launching of the new WWW site
and the (re)start of more technical activities.
Strategically we observe that the Internet is cur-
rently changing too quickly for stringent 12 month
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planning cycles. We will make efforts to adapt more
quickly to these changes. We expect to propose
changes to the 1996 NCC budget during the next quar-
ter.
Considering the rapidly changing environment it sup-
ports and operates in, the RIPE NCC is healthy and
functioning well.
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3. Core services
In this section, we describe the activities in NCC
core services which were carried out during Q1-1996.
3.1. Role Mailbox Traffic
The NCC handles requests and queries almost exclu-
sively by electronic mail. A number of role mail-
boxes are used for this purpose. These mailboxes
are regularly serviced by the appropriate NCC per-
sonnel or automated procedures. Personal mailboxes
are rarely used for request handling. While
<ncc@ripe.net> serves as a catch-all for all sorts
of queries and requests, the other mailboxes are
intended for specific types of requests:
<ncc@ripe.net>
handles all general queries and redirects
requests to other role mailboxes or specific
staff members as necessary. This mailbox also
handles some internal procedures such as disk
backups and absence logging. Consequently not
all messages received originate outside the
NCC.
<billing@ripe.net>
deals with all aspects of the formal relation-
ship with NCC customers, such as invoicing,
execution of service agreements and general
information for new customers.
<hostmaster@ripe.net>
deals with the allocation and assignment of IP
address space and other Internet numbers such
as autonomous system numbers. This is the main
mailbox of registration services and our pri-
mary interface with local Internet registries.
Note that this is a service supporting local
IRs in the most complicated assignments as well
as providing them with allocations of address
space. Simple assignments are being handled
autonomously by local IRs.
<auto-inaddr@ripe.net>
receives requests for DNS delegations in the
in-addr.arpa domain which is used to reverse
map from IP addresses to domain names. This is
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an automatic mailbox which analyses the
requests and checks whether the DNS servers to
which delegation is requested are set up prop-
erly. Once a request passes the checks it is
forwarded to <inaddr@ripe.net>.
<inaddr@ripe.net>
performs manual checks on delegation requests
passing the automated tool and configures the
NCC DNS server according to the requests. This
mailbox also handles unusual requests and gen-
eral questions about reverse delegations.
<auto-dbm@ripe.net>
receives requests for updates to the RIPE net-
work management database. This is an automatic
mailbox which analyses the requests, performs
authorisation checks and then does the actual
updates requested.
<ripe-dbm@ripe.net>
receives questions and requests regarding the
RIPE network management database which cannot
be handled by <auto-dbm@ripe.net>.
In addition to those listed above we have a number
of role mailboxes dealing with meeting and course
registrations.
In the table below you find counts of the number of
messages being received by the various role mail-
boxes during Q1-1996.
+-----------------------------------------------+
|Messages received by role mailboxes in Q1-1996 |
+-----------------------------------------------+
|ncc 3152 |
|billing 1022 |
|hostmaster 2639 |
|auto-inaddr 1957 |
|inaddr 1292 |
|auto-dbm 19696 |
|ripe-dbm 1068 |
+-----------------------------------------------+
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The busiest manual mailbox is <ncc@ripe.net> receiv-
ing more than 50 messages per working day on aver-
age. The recently established <auto-
inaddr@ripe.net> now receives more than 50% more
messages than its manual equivalent, reducing the
load here considerably. The manual role mailboxes
receive 152 messages per working day on average,
most of which originating from NCC customers. The
automatic mailboxes handle another 360 messages per
working day.
3.2. Registration services
During Q1-1996, five staff members were involved in
Registration Services, namely: John Crain, Soodabeh
Eshghi, Mirjam Kuhne, Hatice Kuey, Nick Reid and Els
Willems.
Unfortunately, during Q1-1996, both Soodabeh Eshghi
and Hatice Kuey left their posts at the RIPE NCC.
However, we have been able to hire Paula Caslav and
Lee Wilmot to replace them, both of whom we are cer-
tain will be good additions to the registration ser-
vices team. They both will start in April.
More details on the state of affairs in Registration
Services at the end of January, 1996 can in be found
in:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/presentations/ripe-
m23-mir-RS-REPORT.ps.gz
Following the same tradition, a report on the situa-
tion in mid-April, 1996 will be published in:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/presentations/ripe-
m24-mir-RS-REPORT.ps.gz
3.2.1. Hostcount
One of the popular services provided by the RIPE NCC
is the regular hostcount reports which track the
growth of the Internet in Europe. Here we present a
brief summary of our recent findings. In the fol-
lowing graph, we demonstrate the exponential growth
in the number of hosts connected to the Internet in
Europe over the last five years.
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The number of hosts connected to the Internet in
Europe continues to grow Q1-1996, as illustrated in
the graph below.
Some of the anomalies in the hostcount statistics
are caused by connectivity problems. Others are
caused by neglect of DNS zone maintenance. In both
cases, the data is usually corrected in later months
with the growth following its general exponential
behaviour.
The hostcount is based on the number of hosts
counted in 51 DNS Top Level Domains (TLD's). In
Q1-1996, two new TLDs were added to the set con-
tributing to the hostcount produced by the RIPE NCC,
namely:
VA: Vatican City State (Holy See)
SM: San Marino
The complete set of TLDs contributing to the statis-
tics shown here are listed in Appendix A.
Historically, the majority of the hostcount statis-
tics have been gathered remotely by the RIPE NCC.
Due to the network overhead, and the anomalies which
occur due to connectivity problems, an effort is
underway to have hostcounts performed locally and
compile the results at the NCC. At the end of
Q1-1996, local counts are performed for 21 TLDs,
four more than at the start of the quarter. The
RIPE NCC still performs 30 hostcounts remotely, so
this effort will continue for the foreseeable
future.
3.2.2. Number of Local IRs
In the first quarter of 1996, there has been a sud-
den and substantial increase in the number of new
local IRs. Throughout 1995, approximately 15 new
registries started operations each month. In Jan-
uary 1996, the growth in the number of new reg-
istries increased by more than 30 percent, and
throughout Q1-1996, we have had more than 20 new
registries each month.
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In the table below, we show the number of registries
of varying types and sizes for each quarter in 1995
and for Q1-1996, along with the projected numbers
for the remaining quarters in 1996. Our projection
assumes the growth rate will slow down and stabilise
to about 18 new registries a month. If however the
number of new registries continues to grow at the
current rate, we will have about 550 registries at
the close of 1996, nearly twice as many as at the
close of 1995.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Number of Local IRs |
+------------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
|Type | OBSERVED | PROJECTED |
| | Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 | Q2 Q3 Q4 |
| | 1995 1995 1995 1995 1996 | 1996 1996 1996 |
+------------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
|Large | 17 19 25 28 32 | 36 40 44 |
|Medium | 31 35 36 40 49 | 56 64 72 |
|Small | 84 119 159 196 246 | 290 337 382 |
|Enterprise | 15 17 15 16 19 | 21 24 26 |
|Last Resort | 32 32 30 28 22 | 18 13 8 |
+------------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
|TOTAL | 179 222 265 308 368 | 421 478 532 |
+------------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
As can be seen in the table, closure of the last
resort registries is proceeding, but taking somewhat
longer than originally expected.
The following graph illustrates the growth in the
total number of local Internet registries:
3.2.3. Registration Services Usage Statistics
Hostmaster Workload
To give an indication of the workload in the host-
master arena throughout the quarter, one can view
the following graph in which we show the number of
incoming messages to <hostmaster@ripe.net> per day
during Q1-1996.
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In the next graph we show the number of new requests
opened per day in the hostmaster mailbox. Note that
this is lower than the number of messages as many
messages may be sent back and forth regarding a sin-
gle request.
Finally, we show the level of the hostmaster wait
queue during Q1-1996. This is a daily count of the
of requests which are opened but not yet assigned to
a specific hostmaster for processing.
The wait queue is a good measure of the responsive-
ness of the service. The shortage of hostmasters in
Q1-1996 is clearly reflected in the slow but steady
increase in the wait queue. This is aggravated by
additional hostmaster resources spent on the automa-
tion of request tracking. It is clear that current
staffing in Registration Services is just sufficient
to handle the load, but insufficient to provide pre-
dictable service in the face of unexpected shortages
and increasing demand.
In the course of Q2-1996, we will continue to track
the the Registration Services workload, and start
collecting information about the nature and fre-
quency of different types of requests being submit-
ted. By doing so, we hope to increasingly quantify
how much work we perform in different areas, both in
order to develop a usage based charging model and
to identify the most effective task areas for fur-
ther automation.
3.2.4. Policies and Procedures Documentation
At the end of 1995, and the start of Q1-1996, sub-
stantial progress was made on the ripe-104++ docu-
ment on "policies and procedures for local IRs".
The first half of the document was approved by the
Local IR working group at the 23rd RIPE meeting held
in late January 1996. A draft version of the docu-
ment is available in postscript and in ASCII:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/drafts/ripe-104++.ps
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/drafts/ripe-104++.txt
Due to other demands on the staff members involved
in writing this document, progress has slowed in the
latter half of Q1-1996. However, because of the
heavy demands for it, we will put in substantial
effort to finish it up in Q2-1996.
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Simultaneously, efforts have been started to replace
the forms (ripe-129) and procedures (ripe-128) docu-
ments which will be obsolete when the new policies
and procedures document is finalised. The replace-
ments for these documents will be published together
with the new policy document ripe-104++.
3.2.5. New Request Tracking System
The first stage of the RIPE NCC Request Tracking and
Ticketing System (RTT) was completed in Q1-1996.
The system is used to redirect and track requests
sent to <hostmaster@ripe.net>, handled in the Regis-
tration Services Department. At the end of March
deployment of this system in parallel with current
procedures has begun. Local IRs are not affected by
the change in request tracking system, because RTT
is compatible with current procedures and uses the
current ticketing methods.
In addition to improving work-flow management, RTT
will allow us to systematically record the activi-
ties performed by NCC hostmasters. This information
will be used in the development of a usage based
charging model in the second and third quarters of
1996.
3.2.6. In_addr Services
Because requests for reverse delegations are closely
related to IP address space assignment and alloca-
tion requests, they are now processed by the Regis-
tration Services staff.
This has no influence on the way requests are han-
dled nor the procedures to follow in submitting
them. It is, however, a substantial addition to the
workload in the Registration Services department,
that is not reflected in the statistics about the
hostmaster workload reported above.
As always, requests for a reverse delegation should
be submitted to <auto-inaddr@ripe.net>. Questions to
<inaddr@ripe.net>.
3.2.7. 195 from IANA
During the last four years, the RIPE NCC has dis-
tributed address space mainly from the range
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193.0.0.0 to 194.255.255.255. Since most addresses
in this range have now been assigned or allocated,
IANA has now allocated additional address space to
the RIPE NCC for distribution in its service area.
The new address space ranges from 195.0.0.0 to
195.255.255.255.
In March, we began allocating addresses from the
195/8 address range. Because we have had one new
local IR starting operations per working day since
the start of this year, and taking into account the
rate at which existing registries request new allo-
cations, we expect to need still more address space
from IANA near the end of 1996.
3.3. Services for New Registries
As detailed in Section 3.1.2, 60 new local IRs
started operations during Q1-1996. To assure these
new local IRs understand and operate according to
the policies agreed to by the RIPE community, we
provide them with extra support in the startup
phase.
Our support for new registries falls into two pri-
mary categories, namely individual help in opening
the registry, and the local IR training courses.
3.3.1. Help with Local IR Startup
The process of setting up new registries is handled
by the RIPE NCC billing department. It involves some
administrative steps including the signing of a for-
mal agreement. In this phase, we try to assure each
new registry gains access to basic information on IP
address space allocation and assignment procedures.
Organisations that consider becoming a local IR usu-
ally send questions concerning the usefulness of
setting up a registry and the consequences it has
for them. Questions are received on the kind of ser-
vice the RIPE NCC offers, formal agreements, IP
address space allocation policies and Internet rout-
ing issues.
Whenever these organisations come to the RIPE NCC,
the billing department tries to address their ques-
tions and to introduce those asking to the standard
documentation that new registries should be aware
of.
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3.3.2. Local IR Training Program
During Q1-1996, we delivered 3 Training Courses for
Local IRs, namely:
Q1-1996 Trainings
--------------------------------
February 1, 1996 Amsterdam
February 26, 1996 Paris
March 25, 1996 Lisbon
We allow a maximum of 15 persons to attend each
course, and all three of the above were filled. To
measure the effectiveness of our training course, we
ask all persons attending to fill in an evaluation
form. The results show our courses to be perceived
well and considered useful.
Simultaneously, it has come to our attention that
the people attending our courses come from increas-
ingly diverse backgrounds. Some are network experts,
while others have very little technical background.
It may therefore be necessary to develop two differ-
ent courses so that each of these groups can gain
the information they need to operate a local IR as
easily as possible.
Moreover, because of the rapid increase in the num-
ber of local IRs, our courses fill up very quickly
upon being announced. We thus recognise the need to
increase the frequency of these courses (see Section
6 for planned courses).
3.4. The RIPE Network Management Database
The RIPE database plays a key role in the European
Internet. In this section we report on our recent
progress and plans as well as on the current size of
the database.
3.4.1. Recent Progress
During Q1-1996, a beta version of the RIPE database
was released. Beta testing has shown it to be sta-
ble, and it will be put in production when the new
machine for the RIPE database goes on line.
The main features of the new version are:
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o nearly real-time mirroring;
o support for the BSD DB package;
o reduced memory consumption;
o a password controlled mechanism to overrule
normal security mechanisms (e.g. for adding
maintainers, etc.); and
o full support for network (non e-mail)
updates.
Because network updates provide a powerful mechanism
with which the majority of the RIPE database can be
quickly modified and thus destroyed, only staff mem-
bers of the RIPE NCC are currently permitted to per-
form them on the master database. Better security
mechanisms must be implemented before they can be
permitted for members of the community at large.
3.4.2. Current efforts
As agreed to at the Database Working Group meeting
held at the 23rd RIPE meeting (January, 1996), the
implementation of a hierarchical authorisation
scheme to preserve the integrity of the RIPE
database is currently receiving our full attention.
The scheme is being implementing for the domain,
inetnum, and route objects.
3.4.3. Usage statistics
In the following table we show the number of entries
for the different objects maintained in the RIPE
database.
RIPE Database Object Number
----------------------------------------
as-macro 54
aut-num 716
community 7
domain 30192
dom-prefix 6
inetnum 46268
inet-rtr 93
mntner 552
person 63075
route 12669
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During Q1-1996 the NCC whois server has received
2,240,377 queries. 19,696 e-mail update messages
were processed.
3.5. Information Services
One of the key roles the RIPE NCC plays in the Euro-
pean Internet is that of publishing documents and
making information readily available. The NCC pro-
duces numerous documents important to Internet coor-
dination. Moreover it makes an extensive set of
Internet related documents available via ftp.
3.5.1. The RIPE ftp Site
At our ftp site ( ftp://ftp.ripe.net ), one can pick
up the key Internet documents. Specifically, we
make available a total of 574 MB of useful documents
and tools most of which fall in the in the cate-
gories described in the following table.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ftp://ftp.ripe.net |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|name Contents MB |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|cidr CIDR related tools and documents 36.4 |
|current-ietf-docs IETF announcements 3.0 |
|earn the EARN tool-guide and newsletter 1.1 |
|fyi Internet For Your Information memos 2.2 |
|iab Internet Architecture Board minutes 6.8 |
|iesg IETF Steering Group minutes 16.6 |
|ietf IETF document set 10.5 |
|internet-drafts Drafts submitted for RFC's 33.9 |
|iso3166-countrycodes ISO 3166 country codes 0.2 |
|isoc Internet Society related information 119.0 |
|nsf National Science Foundation reports 18.3 |
|pride Pride project tools and documents 2.5 |
|rare The RARE document store 5.1 |
|rfc Internet Request for Comment document store 74.6 |
|ripe RIPE documents, minutes, presentations, etc. 249.3 |
|tools Lots of useful Internet tools 11.3 |
|ww-connectivity World Wide Connectivity Maps 4.8 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Total The complete ftp store 574.4 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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During Q1-1996 the NCC ftp server transferred
949,700 files totaling 74,621 MBytes to 13,122 dif-
ferent clients. The most popular areas are the RIPE
hostcount followed by the RIPE database files, the
RIPE documents and the RFCs.
3.5.2. The RIPE WWW Site
The NCC http server answered 81,333 queries by
17,552 different clients during Q1-1996. The most
popular areas are general information about RIPE and
the NCC, forms and procedures documents followed by
information about projects such as PRIDE.
The NCC took a pioneering position by operating one
of the first WWW sites. At present, however, the
presentation has become outdated, and maintainabil-
ity has become a problem. In the latter half of
1995, and in the first quarter of 1996, major effort
has been put into the development of a new WWW site.
Our new site is primarily being produced by external
contractors, more specifically by a number of
experts from the "School voor Communicatiesystemen"
in Utrecht specialising in interactive communication
systems. Throughout this quarter, we have been in
close contact with those working on the site to
assure it will meet the needs of the European Inter-
net providers.
The new site (to be launched in Q2-1996) was devel-
oped to provide a good interface to the RIPE docu-
ment store and information resources. As such, the
effort has been to
A) provide an excellent user interface
B) introduce a long term and robust structure
on the set of documents and the links between
them.
While the latter will not be directly visible to
those visiting our WWW site, it will assure that we
are able to provide an up-to-date hyperlink inter-
face to the current RIPE documents with a minimum of
effort.
In the 23rd RIPE meeting in January 1996, a number
of requests were made that new interactive services
be made available on our WWW site. We have modified
the structure of the new site to include these ser-
vices. Development of the new services will receive
our attention after the new site is launched in
Q2-1996.
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3.6. RIPE Meetings
RIPE meetings are held three times a year. Tradi-
tionally two are held in Amsterdam and one is hosted
by an organisation elsewhere in Europe. The meeting
consists of working group sessions that focus on
specific topics, and a plenary session with general
presentations. RIPE meetings are open to everyone
interested in them.
3.6.1. RIPE-23
The 23rd RIPE meeting was held January 29th-31st
1996 in Amsterdam. There were 120 attendees. The
minutes of the meeting are available from
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/minutes/ripe-m-23.txt
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/minutes/ripe-m-23.ps
A number of RIPE NCC staff members made presenta-
tions at the meeting. The transparencies used in
the presentations can be found in:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/presentations/ripe-
m23-david-DB-REPORT.ps.gz
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/presentations/ripe-
m23-david-DNS-INADDRCHECK.ps.gz
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/presentations/ripe-
m23-mir-RS-REPORT.ps.gz
3.6.2. RIPE-24
Preparations are underway for the 24th RIPE meeting
to be held April 22nd-24th 1996 in Berlin. Up-to-
date information can be found at the URL
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/Next-Meeting/
3.7. Computing Systems
In order to support the core services described
above, a robust computing infrastructure is essen-
tial. During 1995 and at the start of 1996, much
effort has been put into modifying the RIPE NCC
infrastructure. Our primary goals in the upgrade
process are to provide reliable network services to
the RIPE community; to replace old equipment; and to
expand our infrastructure to accommodate the recent
growth in personnel.
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The old Sun workstations are slowly being replaced
due to aging (most date back to 1992), and new work-
stations are being purchased to accommodate the new
NCC staff. Moreover disk space has been expanded for
the new staff. The effort to phase in new equipment
based on the BSD/OS operating system and x86 proces-
sors was started in 1995 and continues at present.
In the area of servers emphasis is placed on
increased reliability and serviceability with redun-
dancy where feasible. To minimise the effects of
external factors, the servers used in the new
infrastructure are based on industrial PC chassis
and housed in 19 inch cabinets.
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4. Other Activities
4.1. Reducing Redundant Routing Information
During RIPE23 the NCC was asked to address the prob-
lem of unnecessary redundant routing information
originated by European ASes. To this end we have
analysed BGP routing tables of the NCC external
router Amsterdam.ripe.net in order to find redundant
routes. Redundant routes are those that can either
be aggregated with other equivalent routes or are
covered by less specific equivalent routes. We have
found equivalent routes by looking separately at
each set of routes which reach Amsterdam.ripe.net
through a unique set of BGP paths. We believe that
no routing information will be lost by eliminating
redundant routes in each set. Note that this is
different from considering just all routes origi-
nated by the same AS; such routes could still be
propagated along different paths in which case com-
bining them would loose routing information.
This is an extremely simple model which can easily
be refined to find more redundancy. Starting with a
simple model has the benefit of expediency and
avoids errors which may reduce the credibility of
the whole effort.
Initial Results
Looking at the routing tables of the whole Internet
we found initially that as much as 22% of the routes
reaching us were redundant. This was reported to
the RIPE community and presented at an IETF BOF. We
then looked only at routes within 193/8 and 194/8,
i.e. routes to address space assigned via the RIPE
NCC. Initially we found that the level of redundancy
was about the same as that of the Internet at large.
We then made tools to generate warning messages to
ASes originating redundant routes within 193/8 and
194/8 as well as their immediate neighbor transit AS
as seen from Amsterdam.ripe.net. The same tools
also generate lists showing those originators and
transit ASes. These lists were sent to the relevant
RIPE WGs.
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Alert the Originators
On March 12th we sent out the first messages and
published the first lists. As you can see on the
graph below this resulted almost immediately in a
sharp decrease of redundant routing information. We
must conclude that there are ISPs willing to act on
these warnings. Because full automation of the pro-
cess is still in progress the tools were run at
irregular intervals.
On a number of occasions analysis of the informa-
tion produced by the tools revealed significant
increases in the number of redundant routes for par-
ticular ASes which turned out to be caused by con-
figuration errors. These were fixed quickly after
the ASes in question had been notified by the NCC.
The information generated by the tools is available
at ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/less-routes/. Note that
currently the tools are run irregularly and the out-
put is still being refined.
Positive Effects
It appears that small ASes are more responsive than
big ones and that some major sources of redundant
information have not yet been eliminated. Nonethe-
less the percentage of redundant information has
decreased from 22% initially to 14% at the end of
the quarter.
When looking at the total number of routes to 193/8
and 194/8 we can see that reducing redundant routes
has a definite effect.
More importantly the total number of routes
announced has shown a definite structural decrease
while the number of hosts addressable by all routes
is still structurally increasing as usual.
The effort has definitely been useful so far and
will be continued.
Further Plans
Analysis of the information will be further auto-
mated and scheduled regularly. The dissemination of
warning messages and 'hit-lists' will also be auto-
mated as much as possible. Data will be analysed to
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____________________________________________________
detect excursions caused by configuration errors to
provide near-real-time warnings to the AS contacts
concerned. The model will be refined to find more
redundancy.
The analysis should be based on more comprehensive
data. There are two ways to achieve this. Data
sets could be imported from other well connected
routers, merged and then analysed. The tools could
be moved from Amsterdam.ripe.net to another machine
dedicated for the purpose. ISPs could then peer
with this machine to provide their routing views.
The latter approach appears more practicable and
will be pursued.
It is also possible to apply the tools to routing
information for address space assigned via other
regional registries. This is currently not planned
due to resource shortages.
4.2. Back Burner
Due to the growing workload in the core services
area, little progress has been made on some of our
technical projects during Q1-1996.
4.2.1. IPv6 Tracking
The work to be performed by the RIPE NCC in tracking
the IPv6 development efforts has been postponed.
This is because of the extensive work involved in
the deployment of a new computing infrastructure and
a shortage of technical personnel.
Unfortunately, we do not foresee any improvement in
this situation during Q2-1996, but do hope we can
restart these efforts in the latter half of 1996.
4.2.2. Restart Routing Registry project
No progress has been made in the RR project during
Q1-1996. However some of the changes in the organi-
sation are being made with the intention of making
it possible to restart activities in this area. We
expect to do so in the latter half of 1996.
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5. RIPE NCC Staffing
Q1-1996 was a dynamic quarter for the NCC staff. Two
people started, two left, two were hired, and plans
were made to hire three more. In this section, we
briefly discuss these changes and how they effect
operations at the RIPE NCC.
5.1. Staffing - End Q1-1996
At the end of Q1-1996, there were 12 positions (11.6
FTE) at the RIPE NCC, with the staff members per-
forming a variety of tasks. The core activities
performed by NCC staff are registration and informa-
tion services. Some staff members perform adminis-
trative and technical duties to support the core
activities. The organisational structure of the RIPE
NCC is depicted in the figure below.
Figure not available in ASCII.
Due to a shortage of staff, there are a number of
activities in the RIPE NCC Activity Plan that we are
unable to perform satisfactorily at this time. Exam-
ples include PRIDE tool and Routing Registry mainte-
nance. Meanwhile, we frequently receive requests
for new services which we are unable to perform due
to the concentrated effort on registration services.
During the 23rd RIPE meeting, for example, many
requests were made for new services on our WWW site.
Finally, there are a number of single points of
failure, that is critical activities which can cur-
rently only be performed by a single staff member.
This makes it almost impossible to guarantee some
essential services. The most critical are related to
system administration and network services.
5.2. Recent changes in Staff
Before discussing how we will address the staff
shortages outlined above, we will discuss the
changes in NCC staffing which took place in the
first quarter.
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____________________________________________________
New Staff in Q1-1996
In mid-January, Naomi de Bruyn joined the adminis-
trative staff of the RIPE NCC where she performs
secretarial services. Among other things, Naomi
answers the phone, handles questions sent to
<ncc@ripe.net>, maintains an agenda for staff mem-
bers, and helps with the coordination of RIPE meet-
ings and local IR training courses.
Carol Orange also joined the staff of the RIPE NCC
in mid-January as "Business Manager". Because of
ongoing commitments elsewhere, she started at the
NCC on a part-time basis. Since March 1, 1996, she
has been working full-time. In addition to daily
management tasks arising at the NCC, she is involved
in the production of the IR policy and procedure
documents (ripe-104++, ripe-128++), financial plan-
ning and controls, the WWW project, registration
services software projects, administrative services,
local IR courses, NCC staff training, and planning
and reporting activities.
Exiting Hostmasters
Both Soodabeh Eshghi and Hatice Kuey resigned their
hostmaster positions at the NCC in Q1-1996. Unfor-
tunately Hatice Kuey had to leave for personal rea-
sons quite unexpectedly and suddenly at the end of
March. Both Soodabeh and Hatice made valuable con-
tributions while working at the NCC and will be
missed.
While working at the NCC, Hatice Kuey developed and
launched the first version of the new request track-
ing system which is now used for work-flow manage-
ment in the Registration Services department. Due to
the suddenness of her departure, however, the imple-
mentation of the system had to be raised in prior-
ity, documentation had to be completed, and the
software had to be turned over to another staff mem-
ber for long term maintenance and enhancement. This
resulted in a delay for some other activities which
were planned in that period.
Staff Hired
As soon as it became clear that hostmasters were
going to leave, we started a hiring effort to find
replacements. This has been successful. We found
Paula Caslav and Lee Wilmot who will fill the
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____________________________________________________
vacated hostmaster positions. Paula has a back-
ground in journalism, and Lee has a background in
computer and cognitive sciences. Both start working
at the NCC in April 1996, and we are certain they
will make strong contributions to the Registration
Services department.
5.3. NCC Staff Planning
The number of local Internet Registries we support
is growing at the rate of approximately one per day,
and this growth is expected to continue or to
increase for the foreseeable future. It is essen-
tial that in our efforts to address our staffing
shortages, we take into account the expected growth
in our work load.
Many of the repetitive tasks performed by the regis-
tration services staff have been partially or com-
pletely automated. There are a number of other
tasks that can still be automated and some areas in
which automation can be improved. In particular,
providing customers with tools to submit requests
quickly will result in a substantial reduction in
work for the registration services staff, and reduce
the work load of our customers as well. Producing
user friendly software tools with good documentation
and support will, however, require a substantial
effort. This will be necessary if we are to prevent
our work load from growing in proportion to the
growth of the Internet.
By spending effort on automating these services
rather than simply performing them, we can reduce
the number of administrative and hostmaster staff
that must be hired in the future. This approach is
both cost effective and good for stability. It also
allows us spend more time on both technical and ser-
vice activities that have had to be postponed in the
past.
Strategically, to allow for automation of our cur-
rent and future processes, we need to improve
staffing in the area of systems and software sup-
port. Currently, there is a strong need for coordi-
nation of systems maintenance and software develop-
ment activities. We also need backup support when
the systems administration staff is unavailable.
It is worth noting that in the latter part of
Q4-1995 and the start of Q1-1996, our registration
services have been operating without a wait queue.
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____________________________________________________
However, since two of our hostmasters left the NCC
in Q1-1996, the wait queue is back and slowly
increasing over time. This confirms our estimation
that the registration staff at the start of 1996 is
what is currently needed to perform the hostmaster
services within an acceptable response time.
However, there area number of reasons to further
increase the registration services staff immedi-
ately. The number of requests for registration ser-
vices is not constant, and currently one bad week
can result in an increased wait queue over a longer
period. We also have no buffer for illness and other
unexpected absences with our current staff, nor have
we time for the ongoing training the job requires.
Since substantial on-the-job training is required
before a new staff member can perform the hostmaster
tasks, we need to hire new hostmasters far before
they become essential for handling the load. Once
the new hostmasters are fully trained, we expect to
have sufficient capacity to cope with peaks in the
work load, absence of staff members, and similar
factors which effect the response time. The host-
masters will then also be able to structurally spend
time on other activities which currently receive
sporadic attention at best.
For the reasons stated above we plan to hire the
following additional staff as soon as possible:
1. Manager - Systems and Software
This staff member will be responsible for the
coordination of activities involved in NCC sys-
tems administration and software development,
and for the management of staff members respon-
sible for these activities. This person will
play a key role in the long term planning of
the network systems used by the NCC staff, and
in coordinating the execution thereof. More-
over, this person should identify those areas
in which RIPE NCC services can be automated,
and in cooperation with RIPE NCC senior staff
members, prioritise and coordinate software
development activities.
2. Network Engineer
This staff member will develop and document
tools for registration services and administra-
tion services as needed. Some of the tools will
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____________________________________________________
be for our customers, to assist them in per-
forming registration services. These tools will
reduce the workload on the hostmasters substan-
tially. Others will be for use by the NCC
staff. Moreover, in cooperation with our net-
work engineer, the RIPE database software may
be maintained and further developed by this
person.
3. Junior hostmaster
This staff member will be responsible to per-
form those duties required of the registration
services staff. Moreover, this staff member
will be responsible to help with technical
writing, and other information services activi-
ties whenever possible.
We expect that this combination of new staff members
will allow us to meet the short term needs of our
customers, and to prevent unnecessary growth of the
NCC in the long term.
With the inclusion of the new positions the organi-
sational structure of the RIPE NCC will become:
Figure not available in ASCII.
This is a logical continuation of the restructuring
we started by organising registration services under
one manager. We now continue this with the staff
working on systems and software. Further the staff
performing administrative services will now report
to the business manager.
These moves relieve the NCC manager of many recur-
rent tasks and responsibilities for details. As has
been requested by both RIPE and the contributors
committee, he will then be able to concentrate on
planning and strategy as well as on identifying and
leading technical activities that need attention.
It will also allow the NCC manager to take up one
day per week of unpaid parental leave during the
latter part of 1996.
This restructuring also provides for greater
resilience of the NCC as there will be a backup
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person for all management tasks. Managers will also
be actively performing some of the activities.
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6. Financial Summary
Because of the absence of RIPE NCC Quarterlies in
1995, we will open this section with a brief summary
of the financial information for the 1995 calendar
year. We will then summarise the state of our
finances at the close of Q1-1996.
6.1. 1995 Income and Expenditures
Registries reported above, the number of local IRs
in the service area of the RIPE NCC more than dou-
bled. This resulted in a healthy income, but of
course imposed an increased workload.
For services performed in 1995, we sent out invoices
for a total of 986 kECU. At the end of Q1-1996, we
had received 934 kECU for services performed in
1995, 95% of the invoiced amount. According to pol-
icy the few non-paying registries are not receiving
services from the NCC. They will be closed after a
sufficient warning period is exceeded.
RIPE NCC expenditure for 1995 approved by the NCC
contributors in September 1994 was 407kECU. In June
1995 this was increased to 529kECU in order to
account for unexpected growth in demand. At the end
of the year total expenditure was 535 kECU, within
2% of the budget.
The details of how much we spent on various activi-
ties will be published in the 1995 RIPE NCC Annual
Report once the 1995 accounts have been closed and
audited.
Note that our actual income for services provided in
1995 (934 kECU) is 174% of our expenditures (535
kECU) in the same year. This has allowed us to both
lower our fees by about 30% and to start building
financial reserves essential to the long term sta-
bility of the NCC.
6.2. Quarter Summary: Q1-1996
At the start of 1996, there were a total of 308
local Internet registries in the RIPE NCC service
area. Now there are 368, and given that some of the
last resort registries have closed shop during this
time, we've had a total of 66(!) new local IRs
starting operations during Q1-1996. This enormous
growth in the number of registries has a large
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____________________________________________________
impact both on our income, and on our expenditures.
The expenditure budget for 1996 approved by the RIPE
NCC contributors committee in September 1995 is 916
kECU. While details about expenditure in the Q1-1996
are not available at the time of this writing spend-
ing is within the budget allotted.
At the end of Q1-1996, we had commitments for 795
kECU of revenue, which is 86% of the expenditure
budget. We had sent invoices for 785 kECU, and
received a total of 557 kECU at the quarter's end.
Therefore, 60% of the currently planned expenditure
had been received in the first quarter. The NCC has
a very healthy cash flow.
If the growth in the number of IRs continues at its
present pace, our income for services performed in
1996 will exceed 1400 kECU and thus be 50% above
currently planned expenditure. Of course this
increase in demand will also require additional
resources. Should this trend continue in Q2-1996 we
will compile a revised budget to cope with it.
In general we observe that 12 month budgeting cycles
are too long in the current rapidly changing Inter-
net environment.
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7. Q2-1996
7.1. Efforts and Expectations
Local IR Training
As discussed in Section 3.2.2., the variety in
course attendees demands that we closely evaluate
the structure of our training course. During
Q2-1996, we will be doing this, and sometime in the
latter half of 1996 we will announce different
courses for those with and without a technical back-
ground. We believe the effectivity of the courses
will be improved by doing so.
Because of the high demand for local IR Trainings,
we have scheduled three courses to be held in
Q2-1996. These are listed in the table below.
Q2-1996 Trainings
---------------------------
May 10, 1996 Budapest
May 20, 1996 Amsterdam
June 7, 1996 Stockholm
If possible, additional trainings in Q2-1996 will be
scheduled.
As always, we are happy if a local IR offers to host
a course. However due to the high demand, we have
decided to make an effort to hold courses frequently
whether or not we have a host. To make it easy for
people to attend these courses, most will be held at
or near major airports in Europe.
The courses for Q3-1996 will be announced to the
local IR mailing list as usual, and in this section
of the Q2-1996 Quarterly as above.
RIPE Database Developments
Upon the completion of the hierarchical authorisa-
tion scheme, we will turn our attention to the auto-
matic assignment of NIC handles. Minor changes to
the syntax of the 'country' attribute will also be
made. We also aim to integrate the reverse delega-
tion robot in the RIPE database software. This will
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____________________________________________________
allow us to use the authorisation mechanisms of the
RIPE database for reverse delegations.
Integrity Effort for Registry Data
In addition to the closure of last resort reg-
istries, we will start to close registries that have
never signed formal agreements with the RIPE NCC, as
well as those who have long term outstanding bills.
We will also make some modifications to our registry
database software to prevent these entities from
creating anomalies in our financial data.
Documentation
The successor to ripe-104, the European Internet
Registry Policies and Procedures will be completed
in Q2-1996. It will be sent to the Local-IR Working
Group and to the contributors committee for review
and approval. Together with this policy document,
the accompanying forms and instructions will be pub-
lished.
Staff Hiring
During Q2-1996, we hope to hire three new staff mem-
bers, with the following job titles:
o Hostmaster (to keep registration services
running smoothly)
o Network Engineer (to help in the effort to
automate services)
o Manager - Systems and Software (to lead
automation and systems activities)
Especially with the last two, we hope to gear up our
automation and technical service activities.
New Activity Plan
At the RIPE-24 meeting in Berlin, the RIPE NCC
Activity Plan for 1997 will be discussed. After
agreement is reached in the RIPE community on the
desirable set of activities for the NCC, we will
examine it, and develop an associated budget for the
RIPE NCC Contributors Committee.
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New Charging Model
A significant effort on the investigation into usage
based charging models for RIPE NCC services will be
started in the second quarter.
Redundant Routing Information
Efforts to reduce redundant routes in Europe will be
continued in Q2-1996. In particular, we aim to make
the detection and reporting of redundant routes
occur fully automatically at regular intervals.
Launch new WWW Site
Last but not least, we hope to have the new WWW site
up and running in the latter part of Q2-1996.
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Appendix A: Hostcount TLD's
The set of DNS Top Level Domains contributing to the
hostcount statisics described in Section 3.1.1 are:
al: Albania am: Armenia
at: Austria az: Azerbaijan
be: Belgium bg: Bulgaria
by: Belarus ch: Switzerlan
cy: Cyprus cz: Czech Republic
de: Germany dk: Denmark
dz: Algeria ee: Estonia
eg: Egypt es: Spain
fi: Finland fo: Faroe Islands
fr: France gb: United Kingdom
ge: Georgia gr: Greece
hr: Kroatia hu: Hungary
ie: Ireland il: Isreal
is: Iceland it: Italy
li: Liechtenstein lt: Lithuania
lu: Luxemburg lv: Latvia
ma: Morocco md: Republic of Moldova
mk: The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia mt: Malta
nl: The Netherlands no: Norway
pl: Poland pt: Portugal
ro: Romania ru: Russian Federation
se: Sweden si: Slovenia
sk: Slovakia (Slovak Republic) sm: San Marino
su: The Former Soviet Union tn: Tunesia
tr: Turkey ua: Ukraine
uk: United Kingdom va: Holy See (Vatican City State)
yu: Yugoslavia
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