RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1998
Karrenberg, Kuehne, Orange, Ridley
____________________________________________________
RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1998
Daniel Karrenberg
Mirjam Kuehne
Carol Orange
Paul Ridley
RIPE NCC
Version 1.0
Document: ripe-162
Updates: ripe-144
See also: ripe-163
1. Scope & Process
This memorandum describes the activities to be per-
formed by the RIPE NCC and the associated expendi-
ture during the year 1998. The companion document
"RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 1998" (ripe-163) describes
how the necessary revenue is generated.
Traditionally there are several well defined stages
in the creation of this document: It is drafted by
the RIPE NCC based on input from RIPE and the users
of NCC services. Subsequently it is approved, pos-
sibly after modification, by the NCC Contributors
Committee representing the organisations providing
the funding. TERENA finally endorses the document,
acknowledging formal responsibility for the execu-
tion of the activities. At that point the document
is frozen and represents both charter and budget for
NCC activities during 1998.
This time the situation is special, because of the
establishment of an association which will execute
the activities separately from TERENA. This associ-
ation is dubbed RNA (RIPE NCC Association). RNA
will take over the activities on January 1 1998 and
will be governed by its members, the NCC contribu-
tors. Details about this can be found in document
ripe-161. Since RNA is not formally established,
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formal decisions cannot be taken within its frame-
work. However since the future members of RNA are
constituting the current NCC Contributors Committee,
it is logical to follow the traditional procedure
for approval of this document.
Status
This document has been approved by the RIPE NCC Con-
tributors Committee on September 23rd 1997 and
endorsed by the TERENA General Assembly on October
24th 1997.
Changes
The document itself will not be changed once the
process described above is completed. However the
last two years of NCC operations experience have
shown that revisions are needed during the course of
the year. In today's Internet environment it is
impossible to plan ahead for more than 15 months as
the formal process requires. Any amendments will be
made within the structure of RNA and thus require
approval by the RNA executive board.
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2. Principles for NCC Activities
The RIPE NCC performs activities for the benefit of
the Internet service providers (ISPs) in Europe and
the surrounding areas; primarily activities that the
ISPs need to organise as a group, although they may
be competing with each other in other areas.
The RIPE NCC must therefore observe strict neutral-
ity and impartiality with respect to individual ser-
vice providers. In particular it refrains from
activities that are clearly in the domain of the
ISPs themselves.
Activities are defined, performed, discussed and
evaluated in an open manner. Results of activities
such as software tools are made available to the
public. Budgets as well as actual income and expen-
diture are published. Individual data will be kept
in confidence where required. For example the
amounts of address space allocated and assigned are
published as are database entries of individual
assignments including the relevant contact data;
however the information supporting individual
assignment requests is kept in strict confidence.
While an activity may result in services being pro-
vided to an individual ISP, performing the activity
as a whole must benefit the European ISPs as a
group. For example address space registration ser-
vices are provided to ISPs individually, but the
activity as such benefits all ISPs by distributing
address space according to common standards as well
as maintaining a neutral and accessible registry.
It is because of this distinction that this document
is structured around activities, rather than ser-
vices.
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3. Activity Areas
Since 1996 all NCC activities have been grouped into
four main categories. We begin with a general
description of these categories. The budget itself
will be discussed the following section. Detailed
descriptions of all activities can be found in the
appendices.
Registration Activities
This represents activities related to the NCC's role
as Regional Internet Registry (IR) for Europe and
the surrounding areas. It includes handling of
requests for assignment and allocation of IP address
space, management of reverse domain name space asso-
ciated with this address space, as well as the
auditing and quality control necessary to ensure
fair and expedient processing of requests. Also
included in this area are training of Local Internet
Registries, production of documentation related to
Internet registration as well as specific activities
to ensure a proper and expedient start of new local
IRs.
Services performed in this area are only accessible
to formally established local IRs contributing to
the funding of the NCC.
Coordination Activities
The activities grouped in this area are quite
diverse. Their common purpose is to support the
coherent operation of the Internet in the European
area. An important activity is the provision of
access to the RIPE database which provides informa-
tion about address space and routing policies
together with the appropriate contact points.
Developing and publishing the RIPE database software
is also part of this area, as is the provision of
information services for ISPs and the general public
via the Internet. Operational coordination also
falls into this category, as does the production and
publication of software tools for such efforts.
In order to be effective, the services performed in
this area have to be accessible to the general
Internet public. Contributors to the funding of the
NCC will receive precedence over other users when
special support is needed.
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Administration Activities
This area covers all general administrative over-
heads which cannot be clearly attributed to a spe-
cific activity as well as all regular reports pub-
lished by the NCC, and administrative support for
RIPE. As such it includes the resources needed for
charging, billing and the general financial adminis-
tration.
New Activities
This area represents those activities that are
either entirely unforeseen or cannot be fully speci-
fied at the time of this writing. The existence of
this area gives the NCC the flexibility to react
quickly to the rapidly changing needs in today's
Internet. Activities in this area are often sug-
gested by the appropriate RIPE working group.
If the activities turn out to need long term support
they may become a regular NCC activity funded by all
contributors later. If the activities are short
term but substantial or continued support by all
contributors is not appropriate, they may be contin-
ued as special projects for which funding is sought
separately among interested parties.
These new activities are executed under the guidance
of the RIPE working groups. It is assumed that rep-
resentatives of the contributors participate
actively in these working groups.
The PRIDE project and the creation of the routing
registry in general are good examples of such activ-
ities as is the startup of IPv6 coordination.
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4. Growth Plan and Budget
The number of local Internet registries is still
increasing rapidly. The projections for 1998 are as
follows:
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Observed | Projected |
|Registries | Q1 Q2 | Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 |
| | 1997 1997 | 1997 1997 1998 1998 1998 1998 |
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Large ISP | 48 48 | 49 49 65 65 65 65 |
| Medium ISP | 93 109 | 109 109 170 170 170 170 |
| Small ISP | 491 567 | 653 744 758 849 940 1031 |
|Last Resort | 0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| TOTAL | 632 725 | 811 902 993 1084 1175 1266 |
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
We expect a linear growth of approximately one new
local IR per calender day, which is consistent with
our observations over most of 1997. Note that the
total number of registries is somewhat lower than
forecast in September 1996 (ripe-144). One reason
for this is that the predicted small increase in the
growth rate has been absent. The main reason though
is that a thorough clean-up operation resulted in
the closure of a substantial number of inactive reg-
istries during Q1 1997.
While the relative growth of 40% predicted for 1998
is the lowest in the NCC's history, it is still
large in absolute terms. It requires close atten-
tion and adaequate resources.
Reliability and Quality
During 1997 the RIPE NCC has received a number of
requests for a significant increase of activities in
a number of important areas. We have included in
this plan those activities that are appropriate fol-
lowing the principles described in section 2, are
considered high priority by the community, are con-
sistent with our focus of quality and reliability,
and that we expect to be able to execute success-
fully.
The stability of the NCC is of vital importance to
the community in general and the LIRs in particular.
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Reliable registration and coordination services are
essential for the functioning of the Internet. The
Internet continues to develop from something new and
experimental towards a public utility, and the RIPE
NCC has to follow this evolution. This increases
the requirement for resilience and reliability.
Recent operational problems with key Internet
resources have demonstrated this very clearly.
Resilience and reliability however are not free,
they cost resources.
Also Internet governance comes under increased
scrutiny from all sides including governments and
various interest groups. This scrutiny requires the
NCC to demonstrate that it does a good and impartial
job in order to defend itself and the concept of
industry self regulation.
During 1998 the RIPE NCC will focus on both quality
and reliability for all its activities. Activities
that are focussed on these issues. especially in
the RIPE database area, will be increased.
Registration Activities
We will continue to provide the high level of
responsiveness we were able to achieve in 1997.
Workflow management will keep step with growth and
quality control efforts will continue to be ramped
up. Liaison activities with other regional reg-
istries and IANA will continue. In order to main-
tain quality and efectiveness we will intensify and
improve the training facilities offered to both new
and existing local IRs.
Resources used by these activities will grow roughly
in step with the growth in LIRs.
Coordination Activities
Coordination activities will focus on three areas:
information services, DNS coordination and the RIPE
database, with the RIPE database receiving most of
the attention. Database consistency, security and
exchange will be addressed. The database software
itself is nearing the end of its useful life and
will be replaced.
All this requires relatively more resources than the
activities performed in 1997.
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Administration Activities
These activities are increasing very slightly as
required by the need for stability and the estab-
lishment of the RIPE NCC Association (see ripe-161).
New activities
The relative size of this area will remain constant
as we focus on the deployment phase of the test
traffic measurement project and retain sufficient
room for unforeseen new activities.
Support Activities
Of course the NCC also executes a number of internal
activities in support of the externally visible
ones. During 1998 the focus of the internal activi-
ties will be that of operational reliability. One
example of this is further increasing the resilience
of the NCC's computing resources, 24x7 operational
coverage and increased attention to operational
security.
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Budget
Based on the growth projection and the required
activities the operating costs during 1998 are as
follows:
+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
|Activity Area | 1997 % | 1998 % | delta |
+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
| Registration | 1064 54 | 1516 44 | 452 |
| Coordination | 442 22 | 972 28 | 530 |
|Administration | 311 16 | 663 19 | 35 |
| New | 166 8 | 306 9 | 140 |
+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
| TOTAL (kECU) | 1983 | 3457 | 1474 |
+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
The growth in operating costs is significantly
higher than the growth in local IRs because of the
increased need for reliability and the increase in
coordination activities. However we strongly
believe that the investment in reliability and the
increased activities are needed for the success and
stability of the RIPE NCC. This plan represents
good value for money for the RIPE NCC contributors.
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Of course the growth has been planned carefully.
The plans are ambitious but realistic. For illus-
tration purposes a summary of the staffing plan is
shown below.
+---------------+---------------------------+
| | FTEs |
| Department | Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 |
| | 1997 1997 1998 1998 |
+---------------+------+--------------------+
| Management | 4 | 4 4 4 |
| Registration | 10 | 11 13 14 |
| Engineering | 10 | 12 17 18 |
|Administration | 4 | 7 9 9 |
+---------------+------+--------------------+
| Total | 28 | 34 43 45 |
+---------------+------+--------------------+
Note that there is no direct relationship between
the breakdown by activity area and that by depart-
ment because staff from several departments may work
on a particular activity.
In order to keep the growth in staff down we will
consciously make use of consultants for non continu-
ing activities wherever this is possible.
Of course we will also closely monitor the growth in
local IRs and adapt the plans to changes in the
growth pattern.
5. Challenges
The main challenge for the NCC -as for the Internet-
remains to manage its growth while remaining stable,
reliable and innovative at the same time. We have
planned the growth of the NCC as carefully and real-
istically as possible while maintaining enough flex-
ibility to react to the changing environment. This
plan represents a good basis in material resources
but the success of the NCC will depend on finding
and keeping the people who make it happen.
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Appendices
All activities will be described in appendices
grouped activity by area. The descriptions list
related activities as well as links to the relevant
RIPE working groups. Wherever an activity is start-
ing or increasing significantly during the year this
is indicated. Finally special budgeting considera-
tions are listed where appropriate.
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Appendix R - Registration Activities
This represents activities related to the NCC's role
as Regional Internet Registry (IR) for Europe and
the surrounding areas. Services performed in this
area are only accessible to formally established
Local IRs contributing to the funding of the NCC.
R1 Regional Internet Registry
The RIPE NCC provides Internet registration ser-
vices for Europe and surrounding areas; it acts as
a Regional Internet Registry.
The overall goal of this activity is to provide
fair, impartial and stable distribution of Inter-
net numbers, especially address space in Europe and
the surrounding areas. The specific goals for the
distribution of address space are uniqueness of
addresses, conservation of the remaining IPv4
address space, aggregation of routing information
and registration of network management informa-
tion.
To determine the resources needed we assume a con-
stant linear growth of approximately one new LIR per
calender day. This is the growth we have been
observing during the majority of 1997. we have also
observed no major trend in the numbers of requests
other that they grow roughly with the number of
LIRs.
We thus assume no significant shifts in the
resources needed to perform activities R.1.1 - R.1.5
reliably. The basic procedures did not change and
apart from improvements of existing tools no addi-
tional software has been produced.
To be able to perform registration activities
existing tools are used and new tools will be
developed.
Because the amount of requests staff continues to
grow, work flow management will receive increased
attention and resources in 1998.
Common to all of registration activities is liaison
with the RIPE Local IR WG about general application
of procedures and policies.
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R1.1 First Address Space Assignment
Description:
The RIPE NCC will give special attention to
requests from LIRs for their first address
space. It will help to make the first assign-
ment and allocate an aggregateable range of
addresses for further assignments.
Goal:
This will help Local IRs to successfully
process their first request and to have a bet-
ter understanding of the procedures for fur-
ther requests. It will also help to build a
good working relationship between the RIPE
NCC and the Local IR. Furthermore it will
enable neutral and impartial treatment of all
Local IR's.
Related Activities:
R1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R1.2 Assignment Approval
Description:
Some IP address requests require approval from
the RIPE NCC, specially when they are above a
threshold size. The RIPE NCC will evaluate
these IP address requests. Sometimes local
IRs will also request the opinion of the
NCC about assignments even when it is not
strictly required. The RIPE NCC will further-
more give recommendation and guidelines
for future requests.
Goal:
This activity will ensure uniform application
of policies and assignment criteria by all
Local IRs and will help to make a Local IR
familiar with request evaluation. It will sup-
port Local IRs in their operations and help
them to process increasing request sizes. It
will also enable fair operations of all Local
IRs.
Related Activities:
R1.7, R1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R1.3 PI Assignment
Description:
The RIPE NCC will process all requests for PI
(provider independent) address space submitted
by Local IRs.
Goal:
This activity will prevent fragmentation of the
local IR's allocated address space by making
the PI assignment from an address pool managed
by the RIPE NCC. This will promote aggregation
of routing information.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
R1.4 Address Allocation
Description:
The RIPE NCC will allocate address space to
Local IRs for further assignment to end users.
This activity will also contain auditing of
assignments made from previous allocations. A
tool will be developed to support the alloca-
tion process and to ensure best aggregation
possible.
Goal:
This activity will help to ensure fair dis-
tribution of address space. It will also
support the efficient use of address space in
order to conserve the remaining IPv4 address
space and to aggregate routing information.
Related Activities:
R1.7, R1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R1.5 AS Number Assignments
Description:
The RIPE NCC will assign AS numbers according
to global and local policies. It will register
these numbers and the associated routing poli-
cies.
Goal:
This activity will ensure uniqueness of AS num-
bers and help in collecting data for the Rout-
ing Registry.
Related Activities:
C1.6
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
R1.6 Reverse DNS Delegation
Description:
The RIPE NCC will delegate reverse DNS zones
for the address ranges allocated or assigned
via the RIPE NCC. In order to provide this
service the RIPE NCC will provide reliable name
servers and try to avoid pollution of the DNS
in the zones delegated to the RIPE NCC.
Therefore the RIPE NCC will check all
zones under its responsibility for proper
set-up and functioning.
Goal:
This activity will be necessary to ensure
proper address-to-name mapping for addresses
allocated to the RIPE NCC.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R1.7 Consistency & Auditing
Description:
The RIPE NCC will actively check the qual-
ity and validity of registry data. This
will also include the production of statistics
on address space usage.
In order to ensure a fair address space distri-
bution, the RIPE NCC will regularly check that
assignment guidelines are applied equally.
This activity is separated from the other reg-
istration activities because it needs to be
defined and executed somewhat independently
from the day-to-day processing of requests.
Of course consistency checking and auditing
will still be performed within other activities
as well. This particular activity is to pro-
vide the parts that have to be done indepen-
dently of processing individual requests.
Goal:
This activity will promote consistent and fair
application of assignment criteria w.r.t. con-
servation of address space and aggregation of
routing information. This activity will also
help to identify parts of the procedures them-
selves that cause problems. These observations
will be reported back to the RIPE Local IR
working group for further investigation and
improvement of the procedures.
Related Activities:
all registration activities
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R1.8 Registration Activities Quality Management
Description:
Because of the size of registration activities
and the continuing growth it is important to
systematically monitor the quality of reg-
istration activities within the NCC. This
becomes even more important as the quality and
fairness of industry self-regulation activities
in the Internet environment comes under
increased scrutiny from many directions includ-
ing governments and consumers.
The NCC will continuously develop quality mea-
sures for registration activities and monitor
them. Part of this activity will be to give
careful attention to customer questions and
suggestions. This will also include propos-
als for possible automation and other
improvements of internal procedures. Eventu-
ally this activity may lead to seeking a formal
quality management certification.
Of course quality control will still be per-
formed within other registration activities as
well. This particular activity is to provide
the parts that have to be done independently of
processing individual requests. This will also
be managed and executed separately from
day-to-day request processing.
Goal:
This activity will help to maintain a high
quality of services provided.
Related Activities:
All registration activities and related
administrative support activities.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R2 Initial Contact for new Local IRs
The initial support for newly established registries
is independent from other registration activities.
It is not initiated by a request sent to the RIPE
NCC but is part of the process to open a Local IR.
During this phase additional clarification and
explanation is involved to make the new Local IR
familiar with all procedures necessary to operate an
Internet registry.
R2.1 Initial Contact & Registry Setup
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide initial support to
Local IRs during their start up phase. It will
support and provide information to potential
Local IRs.
Goal:
This activity will support new Local IRs during
their start up phase, so that they feel com-
fortable with tools, procedures and guidelines.
It will also give potential Local IRs enough
information so that they can make an informed
choice as to whether become a Local IR or not.
Related Activities:
R2.2
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R2.2 Training Courses
Description:
The RIPE NCC will develop and deliver Training
Courses for Local IRs. The course material
will include IP address assignment and alloca-
tion procedures and policies, delegation of
reverse domains and how to you use the
RIPE database.
Goal:
The goal of this activity is to make new Local
IRs familiar with procedures and policies as
well as to keep established Local IRs up to
date with new guidelines and developments.
This will facilitate smooth operations between
the RIPE NCC and the Local IRs. By establish-
ing a consistent application of policies we
will also enable fair distribution of
address space among the community.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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R3 Liaison & Coordination
Description:
In order to execute its activities the RIPE NCC
has to act as liaison and coordinate with a
variety of organisations as well as track the
activities of others. Examples of such organi-
sations are IANA, IETF, RIPE, NANOG, ARIN, and
APNIC. It is often difficult to attribute
liaison and coordination resources to specific
activities. Therefore it is an activity in its
own right.
Goal:
To keep the necessary liaison and coordination
relationships with other relevant organisa-
tions.
Budgeting:
Costs for this activity are split evenly
between the registration and coordination bud-
get lines.
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Appendix C - Coordination Activities
The activities grouped in this area are quite
diverse. Their common purpose is to support the
coherent operation of the Internet in the European
area.
In order to be effective the services performed in
this area have to be accessible to the general
Internet public. However contributors to the fund-
ing of the NCC will receive precedence when special
support is needed.
C1 RIPE Database Maintenance and Development
Description:
The RIPE NCC will assure the reliability of the
RIPE database and extend its functionality as
needed. The quality of data will be improved,
both by improving consistency and providing
reliable security mechanisms. C1 activities
include the NCC work related to the RIPE
database software and the quality of registry
data.
Goal:
The RIPE database is the core software on which
the RIPE Regional IP Registry and the RIPE
Routing Registry are based. Reliability and
good functionality of the RIPE database is
essential for the NCC and local IRs. This set
of activities is designed to continue consis-
tent support and provide a reliable service
both in the short and long term, as well as to
continue developments according to the needs of
the RIPE community.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C1.1 User Support and Software Maintenance
Description:
The RIPE NCC will manage the <ripe-
dbm@ripe.net> role mailbox, and address user
questions in a timely fashion. The NCC will
also perform basic software maintenance activi-
ties including bug fixes and minor modifica-
tions. At the same time, the RIPE NCC will
provide robust portable releases with fixed
bugs and new features. It will also work on
maintaining and improving user documentation.
Goal:
This activity is intended to provide a timely
response to user enquiries. It will also help
assure the smooth running of the registry sys-
tem. By maintaining public releases, RIPE NCC
hopes to encourage all registries making use of
the software and acquiring the newest improve-
ments in a timely fashion. This encourages
data exchange and cooperation among registries.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C1.2 New Database Features
Description:
The RIPE NCC will design and implement new
database features as requested by the user com-
munity. The NCC will perform the development
work based on the priorities established in the
appropriate working groups.
Goal:
The purpose of this activity is to provide new
functionality as the RIPE database user commu-
nity expresses the need for it.
Related Activities:
C1.1
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C1.3 Database Security
Description:
The RIPE NCC will document, design, and imple-
ment security mechanisms for the RIPE Database.
The mechanisms will be designed to allow proper
authorization (what is a user permitted to do),
authentication (is he who we think he is?),
signing and integrity (did the object change
somehow?).
The NCC will then prepare and deploy training
courses for members of the RIPE database commu-
nity in which they can learn how they can put
the new mechanisms to effective use.
A task force has been established to guide this
activity.
Goal:
This acticity is intended to provide mechanisms
which allow users to protect the data they sub-
mit in the RIPE database, and which allow those
who query the data to treat it with an appro-
priate degree of trust. The mechanisms must be
selected to be widely available. Those users
who do not wish to make use of them should not
be inconvenienced by them in any way.
Related Activities:
C1.1 C1.2
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database Security Task Force
RIPE Database WG
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C1.4 Consistency & Accuracy
Description:
The RIPE NCC will try to prevent inconsisten-
cies and inaccuracies in the RIPE Database con-
tents by improving syntax checks, modifying
contact reference mechanisms, and educating
users.
In the meantime, the RIPE NCC will perform
database cleanup activities to improve the
quality of data already in the RIPE database.
This will include reporting problems to con-
tacts where possible, and providing tools which
enable users to clean up their data. The NCC
will also produce regular "State of the
Database Reports" in order to enable others to
judge the quality of the data they find in the
database.
Goal:
The value of the RIPE database for its users
depends on the quality of data in the database.
The quality of the data depends on the accuracy
of the data in each object as well as a consis-
tent reference mechanism which leads to the
contact objects,
The goal of this activity is to monitor and
improve the consistency and accuracy of the
data maintained in the RIPE database.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C1.5 Database Availability and Exchange
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide access to the RIPE
Database via whois servers, and by supporting
other sites in mirroring the data. Support
will be given to local IRs in setting up sec-
ondary database servers, for example. Mean-
while, the RIPE NCC will actively pursue and
coordinate data exchange both with other
regional IP registries and other Routing Reg-
istries.
Goal:
This activity is intended to enable RIPE
database users to acquire the information they
need in a timely fashion, and to help those
outside the RIPE region acquire information in
the RIPE database as easily as possible. This
is essential for both the IP and the Routing
registries.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C1.6 Routing Registry Tool Deployment and Training
Description:
The RIPE NCC will incorporate RPSL extensions
in the RIPE Database code and support the tran-
sition from ripe-181 to RPSL.
The RIPE NCC will deploy new RR tools and in
particular the RA toolset. These tools will be
made available to members of the RIPE commu-
nity. The NCC will design and deploy a train-
ing course to teach the RPSL language and the
use of the RR tools in configuring routers and
examining policies and routing in the Internet.
Note: The support of the PRIDE toolset will be
discontinued as it is becoming obsolete.
Goal:
Based on RIPE work the IETF is developing a new
standard language for the Routing Registry:
RPSL. RPSL can be used to express a number of
routing policies which are commonly used, but
cannot be described using ripe-181.
Meanwhile useful RR tools are currently being
developed elsewhere. In particular the RA
toolset can be used to define routing registry
objects, and to evaluate currently registered
objects in the process. There is also a tool
called "rtconfig", which allows router configu-
rations to be generated from the contents of
the routing registry. The goal of this activ-
ity is to enable members of the RIPE community
to exploit RPSL and the new RR tools.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing WG
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C1.7 Redesign & Reimplement RIPE Database Code
Description:
The RIPE NCC will redesign and implement the
RIPE database. The new system should be com-
patible with the old, but should have the fol-
lowing improvements: The system should prevent
inconsistencies as much as feasible, contain
security mechanisms, as well as any extended
functionality added to the current database
code before its deployment. The system must be
easily extended and the design and code must be
well documented.
Goal:
The RIPE Database is the very heart of the
European Internet Registry and many other RIPE
NCC activities. It has become an essential
resource for European ISPs. Thus the reliabil-
ity of the database software is essential.
Moreover due to the changing needs in the
Internet world, extensibility of the code is
essential. We expect that the current database
software will reach the end of its useful life
cycle within 12-18 months from now. Many
changes and extensions have made it both diffi-
cult to maintain and difficult to extend. The
aim of this activity is to re-implement the
RIPE Database software in order to produce a
stable software base which can be reliably
extended for future needs.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
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C2 Information Services
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide services and techni-
cal infrastructure to facilitate exchange of
information within the RIPE community and RIPE
working groups in particular. This includes
the management of mailing lists, and provision
of the www.ripe.net web site. Moreover content
of the web and ftp sites will be maintained and
extended.
Goal:
The RIPE NCC is known to be a neutral source of
authoritative information on the Internet in
Europe and beyond. This activity is designed
to ensure that it continues to be a useful
resource to the ISPs in Europe.
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C2.1 Mailing List Management
Description:
The RIPE NCC will maintain high quality mailing
lists for exchanging information among members
of the RIPE community. Effort will be spent to
prevent spam (unsolicited advertising) on the
lists, to improve the quality of the address
lists in order to minimize bounces, and to sup-
port subscribers with problems. The processing
of mailing list traffic will be constantly mon-
itored.
Goal:
The mailing lists maintained by the RIPE NCC
have a history of constructive and concise dis-
cussions on issues of import to the RIPE commu-
nity. Mailing list maintainers are facing new
challenges ranging from unsolicited messages
(spam) to increased size and usage of lists.
This activity is intended to maintain the qual-
ity of the mailing lists in the face of
increased usage and new challenges. This
serves to facilitate discussion and consensus
forming in the RIPE community.
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C2.2 Maintenance of Information Services
Description:
The RIPE NCC will maintain a WWW server at
http://www.ripe.net/ and the accompanying <web-
master@ripe.net> role mailbox to provide help
and information to users. This includes the
following detailed activities: Implement minor
modifications and add new content to the web
and ftp sites. The NCC will also monitor the
content on the web site to be sure it is accu-
rate and will assure a consistent and user
friendly style is used on all web pages.
Goal:
The purpose of this activity is to assure that
the information and services on the RIPE NCC
web site are up to date and working well and
that user needs are responded to in a timely
fashion.
Related Activities:
C2.3
RIPE Working Group Advising:
all
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C2.3 Extension of Information Services
Description:
The RIPE NCC web site will be extended to pro-
vide new tools and services as needed, in par-
ticular for local IRs.
Goal:
This activity is intended to provide new web-
site services such as automated forms for IP
requests and on-line payment mechanisms.
Related Activities:
C2.2
RIPE Working Group Advising:
all
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C3 DNS Coordination
The RIPE NCC does not provide domain name registra-
tion services. It does however provide DNS coordi-
nation and support activities as well as registra-
tion of reverse address mapping domain registrations
within the in-addr.arpa domain.
C3.1 European Root Name Servers
Description:
The RIPE NCC will support the operation of the
root name servers located in Europe and the
surrounding area. In particular it will oper-
ate the server currently located at the LINX in
London (k.root-servers.net).
Goal:
Those few DNS name servers serving the "."
(root) zone are critical elements of the Inter-
net infrastructure that should be operated in a
neutral and professional way. The goal of this
activity is to ensure that this happens.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS WG
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C3.2 Secondary DNS Service
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide secondary name ser-
vice and limited support to those country TLD
administrators that whish to use it. The RIPE
NCC will assist IANA in the administration of
those TLDs as described in RFC1591.
Goal:
Many users in Europe depend on DNS name servers
serving the zones of two letter ISO3166 country
code top level domains. Name service for these
zones should be reliable. New countries should
be supported to establish their country code
TLDs.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS WG
C3.3 DNS Hostcount
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide monthly statistics on
the number of hosts connected to the Internet
in Europe and surrounding areas. The statis-
tics are gathered in collaboration with numer-
ous organisations doing local counts per coun-
try TLD.
Goal:
The goal of this activity is to collect and
publish uniform time series data about the
growth of the Internet in the region. It con-
tinues a time series started in October 1990.
The information is considered very useful by
organisations operating in this region.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS WG
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Appendix A - Administration Activities
This area covers the regular reports published by
the NCC, administrative support for RIPE, as well as
general administrative overheads which cannot be
clearly attributed to a specific activity.
A1.1 External Reporting
Description:
The RIPE NCC will keep contributors and other
interested parties informed about its activi-
ties. This will take the form of constantly
updated statistics published on the NCC web
site, as well as quarterly and annual reports.
The quarterly reports will be more topical and
smaller than those hitherto published with the
bulk of the statistical information moved to
the web site.
Goal:
This activity will provide NCC contributors and
other interested parties with open, detailed
information as to the RIPE NCC activities.
A1.2 RIPE Meeting
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide administrative and
technical support for the RIPE meetings. These
meetings are taking place three times a year.
Actual costs regarding venue, equipment hire,
and catering will be recouped by sponsorship
and the charging of an attendance fee.
Goal:
Support of an infrastructure whereby the RIPE
meetings can be held. Guidance and advice from
the RIPE WGs is invaluable to the NCC and
therefore the meetings are essential.
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A1.7 RNA Support
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide administrative sup-
port for the RIPE NCC association, especially
for the functioning of the associations formal
bodies.
Goal:
Smooth operation of the legal framework of the
NCC and good representation of the members.
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Appendix N - New Activities
This area represents those activities that are
either unforeseen or cannot be fully specified at
the time of this writing. The existence of this
area gives the NCC the flexibility to react quickly
to the rapidly changing needs in today's Internet.
Activities in this area are often suggested by the
appropriate RIPE working group. By their nature new
activities are hard to specify in detail and priori-
ties can change quickly. Activities may be dropped
or added as necessary. Priorities and details will
be discussed intensively with the relevant RIPE
working groups. The activity descriptions below are
therefore more of a subjective statement of direc-
tion rather than a fixed plan of action. In partic-
ular some of the ideas below have not yet been fully
discussed in the RIPE working groups concerned.
N1 Unforeseen New Activities
Description:
The RIPE NCC will react to unforeseen urgent
requirements for new activities as necessary.
Goal:
In the past the NCC has been requested to start
a fair number of unforeseen activities at short
notice. Many of them have been successful
because this possibility has been designed into
the activity plans since the NCC's inception.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
any
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N2 Test Traffic Measurement
Description:
The RIPE NCC will compile a 'traffic test sta-
tion' to inject, absorb and measure test traf-
fic packets. The RIPE NCC will promote deploy-
ment of the station by interested parties as
well as collect the measurement data, verify,
process and make it publicly available in vari-
ous forms. Note that this data is different
from the routing data (N3) and needs to be col-
lected at different points.
There are many uses for such independently col-
lected and verified data. A near real time
stream of measurement data can help to diagnose
connectivity problems. Processed statistics
can be used to manage and demonstrate quality
of ISPs and the Internet as a whole.
The key to this is the independent and impar-
tial collection and publishing of the data.
Also essential is good documentation about what
is being measured and what is not.
This activity has been started during 1997 in
consultation with the relevant RIPE working
groups and in coordination with the IPPM WG of
the IETF. A prototype implementation and test
deployment is expected to occur in 1997. Dur-
ing 1998 this activity will concentrate on an
initial deployment of several dozen test sta-
tions and the collection and presentation of
the data gathered. In the second half of the
year we will concentrate on plans for transi-
tion to a regular activity which could possibly
be funded through its own charging system.
Goal:
This activity is intended to help diagnose real
time connectivity problems. Collection of con-
nectivity data needs to be done by a neutral
agency. The goal of this activity is to help
establish measures for Internet quality.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE EOF WG
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N3 Routing Information Service
Description:
This activity has been described in the 1997
activity plan. Due to time and resource con-
straints there has been very little progress.
In 1998 we do not plan to increase our efforts
here but rather concentrate on the test traffic
measurement activity. However we have no indi-
cations that the requirement for this activity
has ceased to exist. Therefore we keep it in
the plan with just enough resources allocated
to track any developments that might occur
elsewhere. Should circumstances change we will
step up this activity.
Goal:
The purpose of this activity is to provide
access to the routing state at strategic points
both in near real time and for selected times
in the past and to enable time series analysis
of this data.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing WG
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