RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 2000
Crain, van Draanen, Karrenberg and Kuehne
____________________________________________________
RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 2000
John Crain
Kees van Draanen
Daniel Karrenberg
Mirjam Kuehne
Version 1.0
RIPE NCC
Document: ripe-197
See Also: ripe-198
Updates: ripe-186
1. Scope & Process
This document contains the planned activities for
the RIPE NCC and the associated expenditures for the
year 2000. The companion document "RIPE NCC Charg-
ing Scheme"(ripe-198) outlines how the corresponding
revenues are to be raised.
There are well-defined and formal stages in the cre-
ation of these documents:
- the RIPE NCC staff drafts them based on input from
RIPE and the users of NCC services;
- the executive board of the RIPE NCC proposes them
to the RIPE NCC members, and;
- the membership discuss them and approve the final
version.
1.1 Status
The RIPE NCC management with the help of extensive
input from staff, in particular, Paula Caslav, Joao
Luis Silva Damas, Chris Fletcher, Paul Rendek, Henk
Uijterwaal and Lee Wilmont, has produced this ver-
sion of the RIPE NCC Activities and Expenditures
2000. The Executive Board has presented it to the
Annual General Meeting of the RIPE NCC membership
on 19 October 1999. The document has been adopted
by the general meeting. Comments from the RIPE
community to the authors and the board are encouraged.
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1.2 Changes
This document will not be changed once the process
described above has been completed. However, an
operating plan must be able to be adapted to chang-
ing circumstances. The last several years of the
RIPE NCC operations have shown that revisions are
sometimes needed in the course of the year and in
the current Internet environment it is increasingly
difficult to plan for more than 15 months ahead, as
required by the process. Any amendments to the RIPE
NCC Activities and Expenditures 2000 will be made
within the formal structure of the RIPE NCC and
therefore requires the approval of the RIPE NCC
Executive Board.
2. Principles for NCC Activities
The RIPE NCC performs activities for the benefit of
the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Europe and
the surrounding area. These are primarily activities
that the ISPs need to organise as a group even
though they may be competing with each other in
other areas.
It is therefore critical that the RIPE NCC observes
strict neutrality and impartiality with respect to
individual members. In particular, the RIPE NCC
refrains from activities that are clearly within the
realm 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 and actual results are published.
Individual data are kept confidential where
required.
While an activity may result in services being pro-
vided to an individual ISP, the performance of this
activity must benefit the ISPs in the RIPE NCC ser-
vice region as a whole. Address space registration
is an example of such an activity: the service is
provided to individual ISPs but all ISPs benefit
because address space is distributed according to a
common standard and a neutral and accessible reg-
istry is maintained. It is because of this distinc-
tion that this document is based on activities
rather than on services.
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3. Activity Areas
All RIPE NCC activities have been grouped into four
main categories since 1996. These were Registration
Activities, Co-ordination Activities, Administration
Activities and New Activities. The evolution of the
Test-Traffic Project from New Activities to some-
thing more concrete has meant that these categories
have had to be reconsidered. In 2000 a new category
called Membership Services will be introduced. This
will regroup Registration Services and Test-Traffic
Measurements and any other services that may be
offered to the members in the future.
Some of the administration category, consisting of
the RIPE meeting and administrative support for
RIPE, has been brought under Co-ordination Activi-
ties. The remaining activities have been left as
they were and can be considered to be the general
administrative overhead. The activity plan for 1999
has been restated based on this premise to ensure
comparative figures.
This section will give a general overview of the
activity areas for 2000 whereas the budget and the
growth plans will be discussed in Section 4.
Detailed descriptions of all activities for 2000 can
be found in the appendices.
3.1 Membership Services
3.1a Registration Activities
Registration activities represents operations relat-
ing to the RIPE NCC's role as a Regional Internet
Registry (RIR) for Europe and the surrounding areas.
It includes the handling of requests for assignment
and allocation of IP address space and AS numbers,
management of reverse domain name space associated
with this address space as well as the auditing and
quality control necessary to ensure fair and expedi-
ent processing of requests. Also included are train-
ing of Local Internet Registries (LIRs), production
of documentation related to Internet registration
and specific activities that guarantee a proper and
appropriate start of new LIRs.
Services provided in this area are only available to
formally established LIRs that contribute to the
funding of the RIPE NCC.
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3.1b Test-Traffic Measurements
During the last year, the Test-Traffic Project has
evolved from a research project to a state where it
can be offered as a regular service to all our mem-
bers. At the moment, approximately 40 measurement
stations (so-called "test-boxes") have been
installed all over the RIPE NCC service area. Ser-
vices based on the Test-Traffic data are either in
place or being developed. Moreover, the results from
the RIPE NCC Test-Traffic project have been compared
against results from the Surveyor project from
Advanced Networks and Services (USA). The results
proved to be comparable, suggesting that both the
RIPE NCC Test-Traffic project and the Surveyor pro-
ject correctly measure delays and losses on the
Internet.
To date, test-boxes have been offered free of charge
to sites interested in hosting a machine and oper-
ated on a "best effort" basis with no guarantees
about up-time or availability of results. Also, the
number of test-boxes was limited to 1 per member,
even though larger ISPs expressed interest in host-
ing more test-boxes.
The Test-Traffic project is now more mature and it
has been shown that Test-Traffic measurements can be
done on a regular basis and provide useful informa-
tion to the sites hosting them. It is time to turn
the project from a research topic into a regular
service that can be offered to the entire RIPE NCC
membership.
3.2 Co-ordination Activities
Although these activities are quite diverse their
common purpose is to support the coherent operation
of the Internet in Europe and the surrounding areas.
The primary activity is the provision of access to
the RIPE database, providing information about
address space and routing policies together with the
appropriate contact points. Development and publica-
tion of RIPE database software, provision of infor-
mation services for ISPs and the general public via
the Internet and administrative and technical sup-
port provided for the RIPE meetings all fall under
co-ordination activities.
Operational co-ordination also comes under this cat-
egory as does the production and publication of
software tools for such efforts. Maintenance of the
root name server that the RIPE NCC operates is also
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included in co-ordination activities. The organising
of the RIPE meeting is very much a co-ordination
activity.
The services performed in this area must be accessi-
ble to the general Internet public in order to be
effective. When special support is needed RIPE NCC
members will receive priority over other users.
3.3 Administration Activities
This area covers all general administrative over-
heads that cannot be clearly attributed to a spe-
cific activity in one of the other areas. It covers
all activities necessary to operate an organisation,
including building rental, office supplies, etc.
3.4 New Activities
New activities are either entirely unforeseen or
have started recently and cannot be fully specified
as a regular activity at the time that this document
was written. Two such projects are described in more
detail in Appendix N.
The existence of these activities gives the RIPE NCC
the flexibility to react quickly to the rapid
changes in today's Internet. The appropriate RIPE
working groups often suggest activities in this
area.
If the activities turn out to need long term support
they may become a regular RIPE NCC activity subse-
quently funded by all members. If the activities are
short term but substantial or continued support by
all members is not appropriate, they may be contin-
ued as special projects for which funding is sought
separately among interested parties.
These activities are executed under the guidance of
the various RIPE working groups with active partici-
pation of the RIPE NCC membership.
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4. Growth Plan and Budget
The increase of the number of new Local Internet
Registries was estimated at approximately one per
calendar day for the 1999 budget. For the first half
of 1999 the actual increase has been closer to 2 new
LIRs per calendar day. No explanation as to why the
number of LIRs is increasing at this rate is avail-
able but anecdotal evidence from others working in
the Internet field suggests that the same rate of
growth is being found elsewhere in the RIPE NCC ser-
vice region. Generally, the increase in new reg-
istries drops during the summer months, picks up
slightly in the period September to November and
virtually stops in December. Experience also shows
that an attrition rate of 10% can be expected. For
these reasons it is expected that the number of new
LIRs will average 1.25 per day for 1999 and that the
actual increase of active LIRs for 1999 will be
closer to 450 new registries.
The projections for 2000 are as follows:
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Observed | Projected |
|Registries | Q1 Q2 | Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 |
| | 1999 1999 | 1999 1999 2000 2000 2000 2000 |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Large | 75 75 | 75 75 85 85 85 85 |
| Medium | 253 253 | 253 253 285 285 285 285 |
| Small | 1114 1258 | 1342 1392 1475 1600 1700 1800 |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
|Total | 1442 1586 | 1670 1720 1845 1970 2070 2170 |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
Growth is expected to continue at the same rate of
1.25 Local Internet Registries per calendar day for
2000. As is usual in rapid growth industries, the
rate of attrition for start-ups is high and it is
also expected that this will continue to be true in
the RIPE NCC service region as well. However, the
wave of mergers and consolidations among ISPs that
has been seen in the United States does not seem to
have reached the RIPE NCC service region yet. Spe-
cial attention is being paid to see if this phe-
nomenon is spreading to the RIPE NCC service region
as it may have important consequences for the rev-
enue base.
The number of active Local Internet Registries in
the RIPE NCC service region is anticipated to be
just over 1,700 by the end of 1999 and approximately
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2,170 by the end of 2000, after accounting for
expected attrition. The use of the term 'active'
should be noted. An increasing number of Local
Internet Registries are completing the registration
process but have no address allocation. Although the
number is not significant at this time it is being
carefully monitored.
Local Internet Registry growth, in percentage terms,
is therefore expected to be just over 25%. This is
the lowest (in relative terms) in RIPE NCC history
but at 450 new Local Internet Registries is the
largest to date in absolute terms. Experience has
shown that additional dramatic increases in improved
efficiency, particularly in registration services,
are unlikely. The RIPE NCC has essentially a "third
line" support function and must provide proper
training to the LIRs that typically provide a "sec-
ond line" support function. This has direct implica-
tions for growth of the RIPE NCC in all areas.
Training and support is also important to ensure the
fair distribution of address space (from LIRs to
their customers).
4.1 Professionalism & Legitimacy
The RIPE NCC has continued to provide its services
in a reliable and professional manner during this
period of sustained, rapid growth. The Internet has
continued to make inroads into ever increasing areas
of the economies and the lives of the people in the
RIPE NCC service region. New energy has been put
into efforts at organising the Internet and the
administration of the Internet has become the sub-
ject of considerable public debate. The RIPE NCC has
been playing an active role in these efforts and has
stood up well to public scrutiny and, with the vig-
orous participation of the RIPE community, will put
more intensity in this area in 2000.
It has become more and more clear that the RIPE NCC
will have to defend its legitimacy and its pro-
cesses, not only to its members, but to the commu-
nity at large as well, including governments, insti-
tutions, industry and end-users. Greater effort will
need to be put into professionalism and quality and
this will need to be projected actively to the pub-
lic at large. Communications and quality management
will receive increased attention.
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4.2 Growth & Stability
The stability of the RIPE NCC is of tremendous
importance to the community in general and the mem-
bership in particular. Reliable registration and co-
ordination services are essential to the functioning
of the Internet, as is readiness to meet new chal-
lenges. At the beginning of the year 2000 the formal
administrative structure necessary to meet these
challenges, as they exist today, will be in place.
They will continue to be developed so that the sta-
bility of the RIPE NCC is safeguarded.
4.3 New and Improved Services
Special emphasis has been placed on the New Projects
area and additional staff has been hired. Ideas from
membership as to new services and special projects
will be actively solicited and developments in the
Internet will be closely followed as to their perti-
nence to members. New training courses will be
offered for LIR operations and in the routing reg-
istry area.
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4.4 Budget
The budgeted costs for the various activities for
2000 are shown below. Definitions for the activity
areas can be found in the previous section. Notes on
the individual areas follow:
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
|Activity Area | 1999 % | 2000 % | delta % |
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
|Membership Services | | | |
|Registration Activities | 2011 42.5 | 2646 42.6 | 635 31.6 |
|Test-Traffic Measurements | | 299 4.8 | 299 |
|Co-ordination | 1441 30.4 | 1786 28.8 | 345 24.0 |
|Administration | 964 20.4 | 990 15.9 | 26 2.7 |
|New Activities | 321 6.8 | 489 7.9 | 168 52.3 |
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
|Total (kEUR) | 4737 | 6210 | 1473 31.1 |
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
The increase in the budget for 2000 is just over
31%. This includes a special reserve of 500,000 EUR
for various contingencies, including, costs specifi-
cally related to the formalisation of IANA/ICANN
agreements, setting up of the Address Supporting
Organisation and the Address Council, etc. Because
this reserve touches on several of the activity
areas it has been distributed among them based on
the Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) required by each
activity.
Due to the great number of uncertainties facing the
RIPE NCC in 2000 and their importance to the contin-
ued existence of the activities of the RIPE NCC it
would be imprudent not to set aside this amount so
that action can be taken immediately when needed.
4.5 Membership Services
4.5a Registration Activities
Growth in Registration Activities continues to keep
pace with the growth of the number of new LIRs (if
the reserve is excluded) and the budget for this
activity remains the highest of all areas.
Unrealised economies of scale in the Registration
Services are minimal. Hostmasters deal primarily
with the most difficult cases or help relatively
inexperienced LIR staff through the initial learning
curve. As the number of new LIRs increases this
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workload increases proportionally.
Training courses are also provided for LIRs.
Although these are primarily to new LIRs, existing
LIRs may also send staff. New "advanced" courses
will further increase the number of course partici-
pants. Training facilities will be diversified and
improved, existing course material will be reviewed
and new courses will be developed. Continued atten-
tion will be paid to developments in the area of
registration services.
Increased interest in IPv6 is expected and IPv6
address space registration will become more impor-
tant. The RIPE NCC will require resources to gain
experience with IPv6 requests and to produce soft-
ware tools for handling them. Liaison activities
with other Regional Internet Registries will be
intensified and greater efforts will be made towards
co-ordination of policies and procedures. Close con-
tact with the membership and the community at large
is required in order to learn from experiences and
to further improve procedures and service levels.
4.5b7 Test-Traffic Measurements
This area represents approximately 10% of the total
Membership Services budget and, as described in the
previous section, has evolved from a research pro-
ject to a point where it can be further developed
and offered as a regular service to all interested
RIPE NCC members.
At the moment, approximately 40 measurement stations
(so called "test-boxes") have been installed all
over the RIPE NCC service area and are being used to
measure delays and losses in the Internet. Services
based on the Test-Traffic data, such as daily plots
showing the results of measurements, alarms based on
unusual network performance and analysis of network
performance over time, are either being offered to
the sites hosting the test-boxes or are currently
being developed.
The resources budgeted provide the means to continue
to run this network during 2000, offer the services
mentioned above to the sites already participating
in the project and continue the development of new
services based on the Test-Traffic data.
The measurement network will be expanded during
2000. However, sites joining the project will have
to pay for the hardware of the "test-box" (at the
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moment approximately 2500 EURO/box) and will be
charged a service fee for the operation of the
machine by the RIPE NCC. In order to guarantee the
integrity of the measurements, the boxes will be
operated as "black boxes" with no possibility for
the host sites to log in to the box. However, the
host sites will continue to have full access to the
raw data taken by the box as well as any derived
results.
Also, while the RIPE NCC has always focused on mea-
suring network parameters between ISP's, the mea-
surement techniques can also be used to measure net-
work parameters inside the network of a single ISP.
Basic support for these kinds of private experiments
will start to be offered. Details for these services
will be worked out and discussed in the appropriate
RIPE working groups in 2000.
4.6 Co-ordination Activities
Following a major re-implementation of the database
in 1999, increased focus on quality and consistency
of the data registered in the RIPE database is
planned in 2000. Efforts will be continued in order
to provide proper data maintenance and data manage-
ment tools including regular updates on the status
of the data in the database as well as general help
with good data maintenance practices.
Particular attention is given to the data related to
routing information in the database. An increasing
number of ISPs rely on the Internet Routing Registry
(IRR) to support decisions made relating to their
network operations. The RIPE NCC continues to pro-
mote security mechanisms to ensure reliable and
trustworthy data and perform reality checks on the
data registered in the IRR.
An important part of co-ordination activities in
2000 is the deployment and support of RPSL. This
includes the development of tools to interact with
the new database software.
The RIPE NCC continues to provide a reliable service
and user support. In light of the new database soft-
ware, user support may require additional attention.
Information Services and administrative and techni-
cal support of RIPE Meetings have been incorporated
into co-ordination activities.
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4.7 Administration Activities
Administration Activities would show a decline of
just over 7% for 2000 if the reserve were not taken
into account. This is due to two principal reasons:
1) the RIPE meeting has been taken out of Adminis-
tration Activities and added to Co-ordination Activ-
ities; and 2) the costs in 1999 were higher than
normal because there was major effort and expense
put into providing the necessary administrative
structure so that the RIPE NCC would be well pre-
pared to handle the future.
Administration Activities include providing and
maintaining a "state of the art" computing infras-
tructure, Human Resources, financial management,
general office supplies and services such as recep-
tion, etc. and other common administrative services
that are difficult to attribute directly to the
other activities.
4.8 New Activities
An ongoing investment will be made in New Activities
in 2000, not only in time and energy but also in
personnel and money. This is planned to continue
throughout 2000. The goal is to become more pro-
active and to attain a higher profile in the wider
RIPE community.
Due to its unique position, the RIPE NCC can play an
important role in facilitating new projects and ser-
vices for its members as well as for the RIPE commu-
nity. Depending on the nature of the projects, the
RIPE NCC will either utilise the expertise of its
current staff or hire additional staff. The orienta-
tion will be broadened to include not only the
development of new services but also the more active
"marketing" of them.
Two new projects have already been started (Routing
Information Services and Routing Registry Consis-
tency, see Appendix N) and increased attention will
be brought on technological development relating to
the Internet. Participation in the Working Groups of
organisations such as the IETF or NANOG will be
increased.
4.9 Summary
Excluding the reserve, the not quite 20% increase in
the total budget is lower than the 25% growth in the
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number of members. All activities directly pertain-
ing to members show increases ranging from almost
19% to just over 35% while the administrative costs
(overhead) show a decrease of more than 11% over the
previous year. This budget is based on an analysis
of 1998 audited financial statements and the 1999
second quarter results and is a reasonable and real-
istic estimate of what the RIPE NCC needs to con-
tinue to operate efficiently for the next year.
5. Challenges
Managing the growth while remaining stable, profes-
sional and pro-active in developing new activities
and keeping abreast of leading edge technical devel-
opments, continues to be one of the greatest chal-
lenges facing the RIPE NCC. This plan ensures the
timely and proficient delivery of essential services
to the members and, at the same time, maintains the
flexibility necessary to be able to react promptly
to the continually changing environment. The success
of this plan lies in finding and keeping the people
who work to make it happen.
The last twelve to eighteen months have seen finding
personnel become the greatest challenge. The biggest
single limit to the growth of the RIPE NCC is the
lack of IT personnel, not just in the Netherlands
and the European community but in the entire RIPE
NCC service region. The RIPE NCC will have to con-
tinue to offer salaries that are competitive, a
working environment that stimulates and challenges
personnel, training, personal growth and career
development.
6. Appendices
All activities described in the appendices below are
grouped into relevant activity areas. The descrip-
tions list related activities as well as links to
the relevant RIPE working groups. Activities that
commence during the year or existing activities that
increase significantly are reported. In addition,
special budgeting considerations are listed where
appropriate.
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Appendix M - Membership Services
Activities included in Appendix M relate directly to
services provided to the RIPE NCC's membership. Ser-
vices performed in this area are only accessible to
formally established members of the RIPE NCC.
M1 Regional Internet Registry
In its role as a Regional Internet Registry the RIPE
NCC provides Internet registration services for
Europe and surrounding areas. The overall goal of
this activity is to provide fair, impartial and sta-
ble distribution of Internet numbers (IPv4 and IPv6)
in the RIPE NCC service region. The specific goals
for the distribution of address space are uniqueness
of addresses, conservation of the remaining IPv4
address space, procedure and policy definition for
IPv6 address space, aggregation of routing informa-
tion and registration of network management informa-
tion. To determine the resources needed, a constant
linear growth of approximately 1.25 new LIRs per
calendar day is assumed. This is the growth rate
expected during 1999, and is an increase over the
one registry per day experienced in 1997 and 1998.
Increased automation provides a clear structure in
communication between the NCC and the LIRs. Requests
are automatically checked for completeness and syn-
tactic correctness. This eliminates much of the
purely clerical work of the RIPE NCC Hostmasters. It
also saves time as LIR staff receive immediate feed-
back on the most common problems.
Experience shows that there are little economies of
scale left in the registration services area. The
RIPE NCC hostmasters now mostly deal with the most
difficult cases or support relatively inexperienced
LIR staff during their initial learning curve. They
also provide training courses for LIRs. This is very
much a "third line" support activity. It also
requires a high level of scrutiny because of the
absolute requirement for fairness and impartiality
in registration services decisions. In 2000 both
work flow and quality management will have to keep
step with the expected growth and ensure that peaks
in the load lead neither to unacceptable delays nor
to a reduction in quality. The impartiality and neu-
trality of the RIPE NCC has to be maintained at all
times. No significant shifts in the resources needed
to perform activities M1.1 - M1.5 reliably is
assumed. The basic procedures have not changed. Com-
mon to all of registration activities is liaison
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with the RIPE Local IR Working Group (WG) and with
the other Regional Internet Registries about general
application of procedures and policies.
M1.1 First Address Space Assignment
Description:
The RIPE NCC will give special attention to
initial address space requests from new LIRs.
It will assist in producing the first assign-
ment and allocate an aggregatable range of
addresses for further assignments.
Goal:
This will help LIRs to process successfully
their first request and provide a better under-
standing of the procedures for further
requests. This initial support also promotes a
good working relationship between the RIPE NCC
and the LIR and ensures that the LIR is able to
provide the same support to their customers. In
addition, it enables neutral and impartial
treatment of all LIRs.
Related Activities:
M1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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M1.2 Assignment Approval
Description:
Certain IP address requests require approval
from the RIPE NCC, especially when they are
above a threshold size. The RIPE NCC will eval-
uate these IP address requests. LIRs also
request the opinion of the RIPE NCC about
assignments even when it is not strictly
required. The RIPE NCC will provide recommenda-
tions and guidelines for future requests.
Goal:
This activity will ensure uniform application
of policies and assignment criteria by all LIRs
and will help make the LIR familiar with
request evaluation. It supports LIRs in their
operations and helps them process increasing
request sizes. It will also enable the fair
operations of all LIRs.
Related Activities:
M1.7, M1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
M1.3 PI Assignment
Description:
The RIPE NCC will process all requests for PI
(provider independent) address space submitted
by LIRs.
Goal:
This activity will prevent fragmentation of the
LIRs 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
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M1.4 Address Allocation
Description:
The RIPE NCC will allocate IPv4 address space
to LIRs for further assignment to end-users.
IPv6 address space will also be allocated to
Top Level Aggregate Registries. These activi-
ties will also contain auditing of assignments
made from previous IPv4 and IPv6 allocations.
Tools to support the allocation process and to
ensure the best aggregation possible will be
enhanced. This particularly includes tools and
software to support the newer IPv6 activity.
Goal:
This activity helps to ensure fair distribution
of IPv4 and IPv6 address space. It will also
support the efficient use of address space in
order to conserve the remaining IPv4 address
space and to aggregate IPv4 and IPv6 routing
information.
Related Activities:
M1.7, M1.8
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
____________________________________________________
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M1.5 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. In 2000, this activity will require extra
resources as the format for specifying routing
policies is expected to change to that devel-
oped by the IETF rps working group. Documenta-
tion and training materials will be updated and
an additional training course will be devel-
oped. The RIPE NCC plans to produce a Web-based
AS number request form to reduce the Hostmaster
workload.
Goal:
This activity ensures uniqueness of AS numbers
and helps in collecting data for the Routing
Registry. It also helps to prevent unnecessary
increases in the number of autonomous systems
that are visible in global Internet routing.
Related Activities:
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG RIPE Routing WG RIPE Database
WG
____________________________________________________
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M1.6 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 ser-
vice the RIPE NCC will provide a reliable sec-
ondary nameserver and work 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 as to proper
set-up and functioning. Adaptation of existing
software for IPv6 needs is expected to consume
considerable amounts of resources as will
rewriting the existing inaddr software. More
proactive checking of already delegated zones
will be an important goal.
Goal:
This activity ensures the proper address-to-
name mapping for addresses allocated to the
RIPE NCC.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG RIPE DNS WG
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M1.7 Consistency & Auditing
Description:
The RIPE NCC will actively check the quality
and validity of registry data. This will also
include the production of statistics on address
space usage. In order to ensure fair address
space distribution, the RIPE NCC will regularly
check that assignment guidelines are applied
uniformly. This activity is separated from the
other registration activities as it is defined
and executed somewhat independently from the
day-to-day processing of requests; consistency
checking and auditing are performed within
other activities. Observations are reported
back to the RIPE Local IR Working Group for
further investigation and improvement of the
procedures.
Goal:
This activity promotes a consistent and fair
application of assignment criteria relating to
the conservation of address space and aggrega-
tion of routing information. This activity
assists in identifying parts of the procedure
that causes problems.
Related Activities:
All registration activities
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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M1.8 Registration Activities Quality Management
Description:
Due to the size and continued growth of regis-
tration activities it is important to systemat-
ically monitor the quality of registration
activities. This becomes even more important as
the quality and fairness of industry self-regu-
lation activities in the Internet environment
come under increased scrutiny from many sec-
tors, including governments and consumers.
The RIPE NCC will continuously develop and mon-
itor the quality measures for registration
activities and give careful attention to cus-
tomer questions and suggestions. This will also
include proposals for possible automation and
other improvements of internal procedures. This
activity may eventually lead to seeking a for-
mal quality management certification. This par-
ticular activity provides quality control that
is performed independently and managed sepa-
rately from day-to-day request processing.
Goal:
This activity helps to maintain a high quality
of services provided to the LIRs and increases
the credibility and legitimacy of the industry
self-regulation process.
Related Activities:
All registration activities and related admin-
istrative support activities.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
M2 Initial Support for new LIRs
The initial support for newly established registries
is provided in addition to other registration activ-
ities. It is not initiated by a request for address
space or AS numbers sent to the RIPE NCC but is part
of the process to establish a new LIR. During this
phase additional clarification and explanation is
involved to familiarise the new LIR with all proce-
dures necessary to operate an Internet registry.
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M2.1 Registry Set-up
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide initial support to
LIRs during their set-up phase. It will support
and provide information to potential LIRs.
Goal:
This activity supports new LIRs during their
set-up phase to introduce tools, procedures and
guidelines. It will also give potential LIRs
enough information to make an informed choice
as to whether or not they become a LIR.
Related Activities:
M2.2
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
M2.2 Training Courses
Description:
The RIPE NCC will further develop and continue
to deliver Training Courses for LIRs. The
course material includes IP address assignment
and allocation procedures and policies, delega-
tion of reverse domains and usage of the RIPE
database. Approximately 40 courses are expected
to be delivered in the 2000 operating year.
Additional courses, such as an advanced
'refresher' course for experienced LIR person-
nel, are planned.
Goal:
The goal of this activity is to familiarise the
new LIRs with procedures and policies and keep
established LIRs up-to-date with new guidelines
and developments. This will facilitate smooth
operations between the RIPE NCC and the LIRs.
With the consistent application of policies the
RIPE NCC can ensure fair distribution of
address space among the community.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Local IR WG
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M3 Liaison & Co-ordination
Description:
In order to execute its activities the RIPE NCC
has to act as a liaison and co-ordinate with a
variety of organisations and track the activi-
ties of others. Examples of such organisations
are IANA, ICANN, IETF, RIPE, ARIN, and
APNIC. It is often difficult to attribute liai-
son and co-ordination resources to specific
activities and it is therefore an activity in
its own right.
Goal:
To maintain the necessary relationships with
other organisations related to the operations
of the RIPE NCC.
Budgeting: Costs for this activity are split
evenly between the registration and co-ordina-
tion activity budget lines.
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M4 Test Traffic Measurements
Description:
1. Continue to run a network of test-boxes.
The RIPE NCC will continue to operate a network
of test-boxes as well as a service where the
host sites can retrieve the data produced by
their text-box.
The network will be expanded during 2000, as dis-
cussed in section 4.
The test-boxes currently measure delays between all
possible pairs of test-boxes. As not all of these
combinations are of interest to the sites hosting
them solutions will have to be found to remove unin-
teresting paths from the measurement program.
Finally, in order to improve the quality of the data
and to detect problems with the test-boxes, Data
Quality Monitoring (DQM) will be done on a regular
basis.
2. Run standard analysis. The RIPE NCC will con-
tinue to run analysis code on the test-traffic data
on a daily basis and provide the sites hosting the
test-boxes with plots showing the results of the
measurements over the last day(s). The current ver-
sion of the analysis code will be expanded to show
summary numbers, trends over time and other sugges-
tions made for expanding or improving the project.
3. Interaction with the test-box hosts in the Test
Traffic (TT)-WG. It is impossible to know what the
users want and in which direction the project should
move without closer interaction with them. Active
participation in the RIPE TT-WG as well as other
working groups (for example IETF-IPPM) related to
the Test-Traffic Project will be continued.
4. Continue development work on the project. Devel-
opment work on the project will continue in several
different areas:
a. Develop models to parameterise the data. A model
will be developed to describe the data over long
time intervals and to look for trends in the data
over time. This can be used as a planning tool for
ISPs. b. Generate Network alarms. A method to
detect unusual network conditions and warn the net-
work operators about these conditions was proposed
at RIPE-33. Development work in this area will con-
____________________________________________________
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tinue. c. Any developments in the Internet related
to the Test-Traffic Measurements will be energeti-
cally followed and responded to. The same is true
for suggestions made for expanding or improving the
project.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
Test-Traffic Working Group
Appendix C - Co-ordination Activities
The activities performed in this area must be acces-
sible to users of the Internet and the general pub-
lic in order to be effective. Their common purpose
is to support the coherent operation of the Internet
in Europe and the surrounding areas.
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 work related to the RIPE database
software and the quality of data registered in
the database.
Goal:
The RIPE database is the core software on which
the Regional IP Registry and the RIPE Routing
Registry are based. Reliability and good func-
tionality of the RIPE database are essential
for the RIPE NCC and LIRs. This set of activi-
ties is designed to continue consistent support
and provide a reliable service both in the
short and long term and to continue develop-
ments according to the needs of the RIPE commu-
nity.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
____________________________________________________
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C1.1 User Support and Software Maintenance
Description:
The RIPE NCC will manage a role mailbox for
questions and comments and address user ques-
tions promptly. The RIPE NCC will also perform
basic software maintenance activities including
bug fixes and minor modifications. In parallel,
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 also helps
assure the smooth operation of the registry
system. By maintaining public releases, the
RIPE NCC hopes to encourage all registries to
make use of the software and to acquire the
newest improvements. This encourages data
exchange and co-operation among registries.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
____________________________________________________
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C1.2 Consistency & Accuracy
Description:
The RIPE NCC will continue working to prevent
inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the RIPE
Database contents by using syntax checks, modi-
fying contact reference mechanisms and educat-
ing users.
The RIPE NCC will perform database clean-up
activities to improve the quality of data
already in the RIPE database. This will include
reporting problems to contacts where possible
and providing tools which enable users to clean
up their data. The RIPE NCC will also produce
regular "State of the Database Reports" in
order to monitor the quality of data over time.
In 2000, the RIPE NCC will specifically concen-
trate on the consistency of data in the routing
registry.
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 that leads to the
other objects. The goal of this activity is to
monitor and improve the consistency and accu-
racy of the data maintained in the RIPE
database.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database WG
____________________________________________________
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C1.3 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. For example,
support will be given to LIRs in setting up
secondary database servers. The RIPE NCC will
actively pursue and co-ordinate data exchange
both with other Regional IP Registries and
other Routing Registries.
Goal:
This activity is intended to enable RIPE
database users to acquire the information they
need quickly 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
C1.4 New Database Features
Description:
The RIPE NCC will design and implement new
database features as requested by the user com-
munity or proposed by the RIPE NCC. The RIPE
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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C1.5 Routing Registry Tool Deployment and Training
Description:
The RIPE NCC will continue the incorporation of
RPSL extensions in the RIPE Database code and
implement the next transition steps from
ripe-181 to RPSL.
The RIPE NCC will work to create support tools
such as RR tools and the RA toolset. These
tools will be made available to members of the
RIPE community. The RIPE NCC will design and
deploy a training course to teach the RPSL lan-
guage and the use of the RR tools in configur-
ing routers and examining policies and routing
in the Internet.
Goal:
The IETF has developed a new standard language
for the Routing Registry: RPSL based on RIPE
work. RPSL will be supported as it is generally
more powerful than ripe-181.
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. It further allows configurations to be
generated from the contents of the routing reg-
istry. The goal of this activity is to enable
members of the RIPE community to exploit RPSL
and other new RR tools.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing WG
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C2 Information Services
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide services and techni-
cal infrastructure to facilitate exchange of
information mainly to the RIPE NCC membership,
the RIPE community and RIPE working groups. The
RIPE NCC will continue developing and improving
the external representation and image of the
organisation. This includes the management of
electronic mailing lists, a publicity database
and provision of the RIPE NCC Web and ftp
servers. The content of the web and ftp sites
will be continuously maintained, improved and
extended.
Goal:
The RIPE NCC is known to be a neutral source of
authoritative information on the Internet in
its region of operation and beyond. This activ-
ity is designed to ensure that it continues to
be a useful resource to the ISPs and other
interested parties in Europe and globally.
C2.1 Mailing List Management
Description:
The RIPE NCC will maintain high quality mailing
lists for exchanging information among the RIPE
NCC members, the RIPE community and interested
public. Effort will be spent to prevent spam
(unsolicited advertising) on the lists, support
subscribers with requests and problems and to
improve the quality of the address lists in
order to minimise bounces. Mailing list traffic
will be constantly monitored.
Goal:
The mailing lists maintained by the RIPE NCC
have a history of constructive and concise dis-
cussions on issues of importance to the RIPE
community. Mailing list maintainers are faced
with challenges ranging from spam to increased
size and usage of lists. This activity is
intended to maintain the quality of the mailing
lists and 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 and ftp server
at http://www.ripe.net/ and ftp://ftp.ripe.net/
respectively and the accompanying <webmas-
ter@ripe.net> role mailbox to provide help and
information to users. This includes the follow-
ing detailed activities: continuous modifica-
tion and re-structuring of the information on
the WWW server providing the best structure for
ease of use to visitors of the site. The RIPE
NCC will also monitor the content of the
servers to assure accuracy, consistency and a
user-friendly environment.
Goal:
The purpose of this activity is to ensure that
the information and services on the RIPE NCC
servers are up-to-date and working well and
that responses to user needs are provided in a
timely manner.
Related Activities:
C2.3
RIPE Working Group Advising:
all
____________________________________________________
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C2.3 Reporting
Description:
The RIPE NCC will continue to report about its
activities to its membership, the RIPE commu-
nity and the general public both on the network
and at RIPE meetings. This will take the form
of constantly updated statistics published on
the RIPE NCC web site and regular reporting to
the RIPE NCC membership. The RIPE NCC will pub-
lish an Annual Report, including financial
statements, for distribution to its membership,
suppliers and interested members of the public.
The Annual Report will also serve as a general
Public Relations document. The RIPE NCC will
monitor press clippings and produce press
releases when necessary, regarding issues con-
cerning the operations of the RIPE NCC. Contin-
uous effort will be placed in developing the
Web site to provide up-to-date and informative
documentation essential to the RIPE NCC member-
ship.
Goal:
This activity provides the RIPE NCC membership
and other interested parties with open,
detailed information about the ongoing RIPE NCC
activities.
Related Activities:
C4
C3 DNS Co-ordination
The RIPE NCC does not provide domain name registra-
tion services. It does however provide DNS co-ordi-
nation and support activities as well as registra-
tion of reverse address mapping domain registrations
within the in-addr.arpa. and ip6.int. domains.
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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 operate
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
C3.2 Secondary DNS Service
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide secondary name ser-
vice and limited support to those country TLD
administrators wishing to use it. The RIPE NCC
will assist IANA in the administration of those
TLDs as described in RFC1591. Secondary DNS
service will also be provided for all in-
addr.arpa. zones corresponding to a /16 alloca-
tion to a LIR and to all ip6.int. zones com-
prising the reverse mapping for sub-TLAs it
allocates.
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. Reverse zones are served in a secondary
capacity to assist in ensuring the reliability
of reverse lookups.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS WG
____________________________________________________
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C3.3 DNS Hostcount
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide various monthly
statistics (e.g. the number of hosts regis-
tered) from the DNS of the TLDs corresponding
to countries it serves. The statistics are
gathered in collaboration with numerous organi-
sations performing local counts per country
TLD. The RIPE NCC will continue its efforts to
increase the accuracy of the numbers by con-
tacting zone admins. Published statistics will
be expanded.
Goal:
The goal of this activity is to collect and
publish uniform time series data about the
growth of the Internet in the region and con-
tinues a time series started in October 1990.
The information is used extensively by organi-
sations operating in this region and beyond.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS WG
____________________________________________________
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C4 RIPE Meeting
Description:
The RIPE NCC will provide administrative and
technical support for the RIPE meetings. These
meetings take place three times a year and are
open to the public. Actual costs regarding
venue, equipment hire, etc. are partially cov-
ered by charging an attendance fee as well as
through corporate sponsorship of the meetings.
These meetings are organised on a not-for-
profit basis.
Goal:
To provide support of an infrastructure whereby
the RIPE meetings can be held. Guidance and
advice from the RIPE Working Groups and member-
ship is invaluable to the RIPE NCC in support-
ing its effective role in further formalising
Internet Administration. RIPE also plays an
influential role in defining the annual activ-
ity plan and these meetings are therefore
essential to the stable operations of the RIPE
NCC.
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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 writing. By nature new activities are
hard to specify in detail and priorities can change
quickly. Activities may be dropped or added as nec-
essary. The activity descriptions below are there-
fore more of a subjective statement of direction
rather than a fixed plan of action. In particular,
some of the ideas below have not yet been fully dis-
cussed in the relevant RIPE working groups.
N1 Routing Information Services
Description:
This activity has been on the activity plan for
several years but due to time and resource con-
straints, very little progress was made. This
changed in 1999 when a Network Engineer joined
the New Projects group and started to work
full-time on this project.
Goal:
The goal of the Routing Information Server
(RIS) is to collect routing information between
AS's at several major exchange points in near
real time and store that in a database. This
historic information will be made available to
ISP's in order to facilitate their operations.
At a later stage, the information will be com-
pared against the information from the Internet
Routing Registry (IRR).
Work on the Routing Information Server started in
July 1999. A project plan was presented at RIPE-33
and it is hoped that the first version of this ser-
vice will be presented and made available to beta-
users early in 2000. The product will be further
developed based on their experiences and it is also
planned to carry out statistical analyses on the
data are also planned to be carried out.
Projections are to turn this activity into a regular
service that can be used by all members by the end
of 2000.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing WG
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N2 Routing Registry Consistency
Description:
This activity seeks to improve data quality in
the Internet routing registry as a public
source of intended routing information (as
described by the maintainers of the data, the
ISPs). It also aims to improve data accessibil-
ity and processing capabilities to enable users
to extract the largest possible benefit from
this information source.
Goal:
The objective of this activity is to provide a
public, accurate and reliable source of infor-
mation about public routing information in the
"European" Internet, comparing the intended
routing policies as described in the IRR to the
information actually exchanged by routing pro-
tocols. A coupling to the RIPE NCC's address
assignment activities is also an objective of
this activity.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing WG
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N3 Unforeseen Activities
Description:
The RIPE NCC will actively follow the develop-
ments in the Internet community and react to
any requirements for new activities from the
RIPE membership. The RIPE NCC has been
requested to start a fair number of new activi-
ties during the course of the year at short
notice. Many of them have been successful
because this possibility has been designed into
the activity plans since the RIPE NCC's incep-
tion.
Goal:
The goal of this activity is to ensure that the
RIPE NCC continues to react to the developments
and changing needs of the Internet environment.
RIPE Working Group Advising:
Depending on the activity
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