                              RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1996
                                                   Daniel Karrenberg

                ____________________________________________________




                       RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1996



                                 Daniel Karrenberg
                                      RIPE NCC

                                 Document: ripe-133
                       See also: ripe-125, ripe-132, ripe-134


    Scope

                This  memorandum  describes  the RIPE NCC activities
                and associated expenditure for the year  1996.   The
                companion  document  "RIPE  NCC  Revenue  & Charging
                1996" (ripe-134) describes ways to generate the nec-
                essary revenue.

                The  "RIPE NCC Activity Plan" (ripe-125) defines the
                activities of the RIPE NCC desired by the RIPE  com-
                munity.   Based  on  this activity plan the RIPE NCC
                has drafted this  document  which  was  subsequently
                amended  according  to the decisions of the NCC Con-
                tributors Committee as per point 3.2 of the  commit-
                tee's  terms  of reference.  For details about those
                decisions see the  minutes  of  the  Spetember  1995
                meeting  of  the  committee  (ripe-132).  TERENA has
                subseuently approved the expenditure budget as  pro-
                posed.


    1.  Workload & Challenges

                The  bulk  of  resources expended by the RIPE NCC is
                proportional to the number of  local  Internet  Reg-
                istries  which  in  turn is mostly equivalent to the
                number of serious Internet service providers.   Con-
                sequently  any  estimate of the resources needed has
                to start from a prediction of the  number  of  local
                registries.   This  number has been growing steadily
                ever since the NCC has started operations.

                Recently the growth rate has considerably increased.
                In  Q1/95,  after  the  introduction  of the current
                charging scheme, a sharp increase in the  number  of
                local  IRs  was  observed.   This trend continued in
                Q2/95 and still continues to this day.  For  details
                see the report on the 1995 revenue situation.

                ____________________________________________________
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                The  table  below  gives an overview of the observed
                and expected number of registries:


         +------------+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
         |            |    Observed     |             Expected              |
         |Registries  |  Q4    Q1    Q2 |  Q3    Q4    Q1    Q2    Q3    Q4 |
         |            |  94    95    95 |  95    95    96    96    96    96 |
         +------------+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
         |  Large ISP |  17    17    19 |  20    22    24    26    28    30 |
         | Medium ISP |  28    31    35 |  38    42    46    50    54    58 |
         |  Small ISP |  51    84   119 | 153   188   222   256   290   324 |
         | Enterprise |  14    15    17 |  18    20    22    24    26    28 |
         |Last Resort |  31    32    32 |  32    32     3     3     3     3 |
         |            |                 |                                   |
         |      TOTAL | 141   179   222 | 261   304   317   359   401   443 |
         +------------+-----------------+-----------------------------------+


                The  figure  below  illustrates  that  we expect the
                total number of registries is expected to grow  lin-
                earily during 1996:

           500++---------------------------------------------------+
               |                                                   |
               |                                                   |
           450++                                             *A    |
               |                                           **      |
           400++                                        *A*        |
               |                                      **           |
               |                                   *A*             |
           350++                                 **                |
               |                               **                  |
           300++                         A****A                    |
               |                       **                          |
               |                     **                            |
           250++                   *A                              |
               |                ***                                |
               |             *A*                                   |
           200++           **                                      |
               |        *A*                                        |
           150++      **                                           |
               |    A*                                             |
               |                                                   |
           100++----+----+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+----+----+
                        Q4   Q1   Q2    Q3   Q4   Q1    Q2   Q3   Q4

                The  irregularity  between Q4.95 and Q1/96 is caused
                by the expected closure of almost all "Last  Resort"
                registries.   Since  these  registries  did not con-
                tribute to funding in the past, this development has
                no  effect  on  the expected revenue.  Otherwise the
                almost linear prediction looks very simple at  first
                ____________________________________________________
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                glance.  Some other  indicators  predict  more  than
                linear  growth  while  others  predict slightly less
                than linear growth.   These  numbers  represent  the
                best  possible  estimates  the RIPE NCC is able pro-
                duce.  We now have mechanisms  in  place  to  detect
                deviations  from  expected  figures very quickly and
                take necessary actions.


    Challenges

                Given the increased growth  rates  and  the  current
                staffing situation there are two main challenges for
                the year 1996 are


                  o  Consolidation of Registration Services

                  o  Re-Start of Other Activities.


                Registration services are the most critical services
                the  NCC  provides.  They are critical both in terms
                of response time and  quality.   Quality  is  mainly
                measured  in the degree of fairness and transparency
                of decisions as well as the  support  of  the  local
                IRs, the customers.

                With  the  high  growth  rate  of  requests  and the
                increasing number of players, registration  services
                are  undergoing a major transition and will continue
                this  process  through  much  of  1996.   The  major
                aspects  of this are similar to the issues currently
                faced by ISPs:


                Increasing Division of Work
                     During 1996 we will reach a total of 9  persons
                     spending  the  majority of their time on regis-
                     tration services, compared to three persons  at
                     this stage.  This necessitates a total revision
                     of how this work is organised.


                Hierarchical Organisation
                     We will introduce a much  clearer  division  of
                     senior  vs junior and second-line vs first-line
                     support.


                Dedicated Person per Customer
                     The first-line support persons will have  their
                     own  set  of  customers,  so that each customer
                ____________________________________________________
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                     normally deals with only one person at the NCC.


                Request Tracking
                     The flow of requests  among  this  many  people
                     necessitates other queueing and tracking mecha-
                     nisms  than  electronic   mailboxes.    Several
                     request  tracking  (trouble  ticketing) systems
                     have been  evaluated.   Ticketing  and  message
                     lookup by ticket number is already implemented.
                     Request tracking will be added as soon as prac-
                     tical.


                Resource Accounting
                     Together with request tracking we will get much
                     more detailed  insight  in  how  resources  are
                     being  used  in registration services.  We will
                     develop these data to detect problems and  fur-
                     ther  optimise  registration services.  We will
                     also investigate  how  this  can  be  used  for
                     charging purposes.


                Documentation and Training
                     With the increasing number of customers, train-
                     ing and documentation are  increasingly  impor-
                     tant.   We have already started specific train-
                     ing courses  about  registration  services  for
                     both  new and established customers.  This will
                     continue together with improvements in documen-
                     tation.


                Due to the high growth rate in registration services
                and critical staffing situation the other NCC activ-
                ities  have  been  suffering  badly.   Some of these
                activities  are  quite  important  to  the  European
                Internet  community and have to be continued or even
                intensified.  Furthermore it is important  that  the
                NCC  keeps  doing  other work than registration ser-
                vices in  order  to  keep  highly  qualified  people
                interested to work here.  Therefore other activities
                have to be (re-) started  during  1996  with  enough
                resources to produce useful results.








                ____________________________________________________
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                              RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1996
                                                   Daniel Karrenberg

                ____________________________________________________

    2.  1996 Activities & Expenditure


                The table below gives an overview of the  activities
                and  the associated expenditure.  The following sec-
                tions will detail all activities  according  to  the
                "RIPE NCC Activity Plan" ripe-125.


            +----------------------+------------------------------------+
            |                      |    1995                            |
            |                      | revised     %   1996     %   delta |
            +----------------------+------------------------------------+
            |                      |                                    |
            |Registration Services |     358    68    556    61     198 |
            |       Other Services |      71    13    162    18      91 |
            |    Admin & Reporting |      78    15    138    15      60 |
            |       New Activities |      22     4     60     6      38 |
            |                      |                                    |
            +----------------------+------------------------------------+
            |         TOTAL (kECU) |     529   100    916   100     387 |
            +----------------------+------------------------------------+


    Registration Services

                The  "Registration  Services" budget line represents
                the basic NCC activities related to the NCC being  a
                Regional  Internet  Registry,  such  as  handling of
                incoming requests for address space, assignment  and
                allocation of the address space and the coordination
                with organisations such as other  regional  Internet
                registries  and  IANA.  Also included in this budget
                line are the activities related to the  support  and
                the  training  required to secure a proper start out
                of new registries, which will eventually lead  to  a
                reduction  of the load on the RIPE-NCC.  In relation
                to ripe-125 these are 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.8,  and  half
                of 4.1.

                The  high absolute growth in "Registration Services"
                represents more  personnel  being  hired  for  these
                activities  as  well  as  some external contracts to
                produce documentation and training  material.   Note
                that  the majority of the increase due to the catch-
                up programme being performed in the second  half  of
                1995  as  per  the revised expenditure plan reported
                elsewhere.  This increases the budget line  in  1996
                because  the  salaries are budgeted for only part of
                the year in 1995.  Real growth in personnel in  1996
                thus  is  less than it may appear at first sight.  I
                do not propose linear growth with workload.   Assum-
                ing  unchanged   workload  growth patterns 1996 will
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                ____________________________________________________

                see  a  consolidation followed by very modest growth
                in 1997.  At the same time note  that  the  relative
                size  of  "Registration Services" decreases slightly
                in relation to the other activities.


    Other Activities

                The "Other Activities" line encompasses all  activi-
                ties  which  are  not  part of the other three cate-
                gories.  These  are  the  technical  activities  not
                related  to registration services or new activities.
                In particular the maintenance of  the  Routing  Reg-
                istry  as  well  as  other  tools  developed  at the
                RIPE-NCC, such as PRIDE, the update of the  Database
                management   tools,  and  the  maintenance  of  RIPE
                related documents and  meetings  organisation.   For
                details see the following sections.

                This budget line increases significantly in absolute
                terms.  These activities have been neglected  during
                the past resource shortages.  Those in the most dire
                need of attention will be progressed again.

                The budget line also increases  slightly  relatively
                to  the  others.   This  does  not so much reflect a
                change in policy but rather the fact that not enough
                resources  were  available  in  the previous period,
                causing a shift towards "Registration Services".


    Administration and Reporting

                The "Administration & Reporting" budget line  repre-
                sents  activities  6.1-6.4  of the activity plan, as
                well as the formal procedures concerned with billing
                and invoicing.

                This  lines  increases in absolute terms because the
                resources necessary for regular  reporting  will  be
                available again.  Also the effort involved in charg-
                ing and billing has turned out  to  be  considerable
                even  with  the  current  relatively simple charging
                model.


                Note:
                     The constant relative size of this category  is
                     slightly  misleading  because  of  a  budgeting
                     change.  In 1995 this category was bearing  the
                     full  cost  of  NCC computer system administra-
                     tion.  This cost is now being divided over  all
                     activities  because  the  systems are obviously
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                ____________________________________________________

                     not  being  used  just  for  "Administration  &
                     Reporting".


                It is important to note that this figure  assumes  a
                charging scheme for 1996 which is very simple.  More
                involved charging schemes will add significantly  to
                the resources necessary in this category.


    New Activities

                The  "New Activities" line represents the participa-
                tion in special projects approved by the RIPE commu-
                nity  and  the  NCC  contributors, as defined in the
                RIPE-NCC activity plan (4.4).

                The currently planned activities are related to IPv6
                tracking  and  testing.  This represents roughly 50%
                of the planned expenditure.  The remaining  50%  are
                reserved  for  necessary  activities  arising during
                1996.  Note that this is less than one third of  the
                ceiling set by ripe-125.


    Support for New Registries

                The  expenditure proposed on activities specifically
                for new registries is ECU 172k all of  which  is  in
                the "Registration Services" category.


    Reserves

                Although  building  reserves is not expenditure, the
                buildup of prudent reserves should continue in 1996.
                This  is  necessary because TERENA has to avoid lia-
                bility for NCC operations as much as  possible.   As
                the size of the NCC and the commercial and strategic
                impact of its services increase, liabilities and the
                need  for  stability  increase  as well.  Employment
                related liabilities are estimated  at  ECU 380k.   A
                more  careful liability analysis will be done during
                1996.









                ____________________________________________________
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    Summary

                The  proposed  set  of  activities strikes a balance
                between what is desired by the  community  and  what
                can be achieved by the NCC considering the necessary
                growth, while maintaining a reasonable level of cost
                at the same time.

                The  main challenges for 1996 are re-structuring and
                consolidation of registration services  as  well  as
                re-start of other important activities.

                The  total  increase  in expenditure compared to the
                revised 1995 budget is 73% while the number of  cus-
                tomers  rises  by  55%  at  the same time.  The high
                total growth is a consequence of the catch-up opera-
                tion  in  progress  and mainly due to the additional
                staff hired during 1995.   Their  salaries  show  in
                1996 for the first whole business year.

                Assuming  no major changes in workload by the end of
                1996 the RIPE NCC will have reached a  stable  state
                producing  a  high  level of standard services while
                still being capable of starting  new  activities  as
                needed  in  the changing Internet environment.  Fur-
                ther growth of the NCC is expected to be moderate in
                1997 and beyond.


























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    Activities in Detail

                The remaining sections of this document  detail  the
                planned activities according to the "RIPE NCC Activ-
                ity Plan" (ripe-125).  The numbering  scheme  corre-
                sponds  to  ripe-125  and  significant  parts of the
                activity descriptions have been included.   Some  of
                them have been amended slightly.

                The  table  below  summarises  the correspondance of
                activities and budget lines:


                +----------------------+-----------------------------+
                |     Budget Line      |         Activities          |
                +----------------------+-----------------------------+
                |Registration Services | 3.1,3.2,3.4,3.8,4.1(50%)    |
                |       Other Services | 4.1(50%) + all others       |
                |    Admin & Reporting | 6.1-6.4 + billing&invoicing |
                |       New Activities | 4.4                         |
                +----------------------+-----------------------------+
































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    3.  Technical - Coordination Activities


    3.1.  Internet Registry for Europe

                The RIPE NCC will provide Internet number  registra-
                tion  services  for Europe and the surrounding area.
                It acts as a Regional Internet Registry.   The  RIPE
                NCC  performs this function in close cooperation and
                coordination with

                          a. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
                          (IANA)

                          b. Other Regional Internet Registries.

                          c. Local Internet Registries

                This  activity  includes providing the necessary DNS
                services for functions like address to name  mapping
                (in-addr.arpa).

                In exceptional cases the NCC can act as the Registry
                of last resort for European organisations.

                This activity  will  be  resourced  sufficiently  to
                achieve  the high service level available tradition-
                ally with the goal of  processing  fully  documented
                address  space  allocation  and  assignment requests
                within a maximum of two working days.  The personnel
                resources  available  at  full deployment will total
                some 200 hours per week.

                In addition to that this activity includes the main-
                tenance of local IR training material and the deliv-
                ery of courses for new and  established  local  IRs.
                Some  of  this work, such as technical writing, will
                be contracted out.















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    3.2.  Maintain a database of European IP networks and their man-
    agement information.

                The database maintained contains several classes  of
                objects.   These  objects are described in detail in
                ripe-13  and  later  revisions.   The  NCC  will  be
                responsible for the database entries; this includes

                          a. collection of database entries

                          b. checking of individual entries

                          c.  checking  of consistency and integrity
                          of the database.

                Quarterly reports on changes in the contents of  the
                database  will be produced, together with statistics
                about the number of database entries.

                This activity will have its resources increased suf-
                ficiently  to  resume the necessary maintenance work
                (b and c above).  It will be executed  by  registra-
                tion  services staff and thus form a buffer activity
                which can be expanded and  contracted  according  to
                the immediate needs of activity 3.1.


    3.3.  Distribution of the database.

                Secondary copies of the database can be installed at
                other  sites  upon request. It is the responsibility
                of the NCC to keep track of such  secondaries.   The
                RIPE NCC will provide assistance to local registries
                in setting up secondary database servers.  An up  to
                date record of secondary sites will be maintained on
                line.

                The database availability  is  currently  excellent.
                This  activity is not urgently needed.  No resources
                are allocated for  it.   However,  should  the  need
                arise  it can be started up quickly because the nec-
                essary technology will be enhanced in  activity  4.1
                and used by activity 3.4.










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    3.4.   Coordination  of  database  exchange with other organisa-
    tions.

                The NCC will coordinate and execute the exchange  of
                database  information with NCC's outside Europe. The
                result will be that for the end user of the database
                one uniform set of global information will be avail-
                able.

                This activity has seen almost no progress other than
                in  the  Routing Registry part of the database where
                little resources are needed to exchange information.
                In other areas of the database there was no progress
                at all in 1995.  In 1996 this will be started  again
                with emphasis on registration data exchange with the
                InterNIC.  The possibilities of RWhois  and  whois++
                will  be  explored.   The  activity has 12 engineer-
                hours per week allocated.


    3.5.  Keep a record of operational contact points.

                This will consist of a list of NOC's and responsible
                people that will be used as a reference list for the
                individual  NOC's  to  be  used  in  case of network
                related  incidents,  including  security  incidents.
                Individual  NOC's  will  be  able  to subscribe to a
                weekly update service.

                The database and self-maintained (majordomo) mailing
                lists  at  the  NCC  have proven sufficient for this
                activity.  No resources are allocated in 1996.


    3.6.  Placement of name servers and backup  servers  in  Europe,
    and beyond.

                On  a regular basis the interworking between the DNS
                name servers in Europe,  and  their  connections  to
                name   servers  outside  Europe,  must  be  checked.
                Detected  errors   and   inconsistencies   must   be
                reported.   Corrective  actions  must be followed in
                case of severe problems.  The result will be a  con-
                sistent set of name servers.

                This  activity  has  not consumed resources in 1995.
                No resources will be allocated for  1996.   However,
                the  RIPE  NCC  will continue to monitor the DNS and
                react to requests from  RIPE  if  necessary  and  if
                resources are available.



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                ____________________________________________________

    3.7.  Referral Service.

                The  RIPE  NCC  will  perform a Referral Service for
                Internet Service providers.  The NCC will do this in
                a  fair  and  impartial  way.   The  service is only
                available to service providers contributing to  RIPE
                NCC funding.

                This  activity  has  4  hours/week of administrative
                staff time allocated  to  it,  which  is  sufficient
                given  the  high  degree of automation used for this
                activity.


    3.8.  Coordination with Local Registries.

                The RIPE NCC will keep close contact with Local Reg-
                istries in Europe. The RIPE  NCC  will  assist  such
                registries  in setting up and maintaining their ser-
                vices.  This activity may include  presentations  on
                the work of the RIPE NCC for broader audiences, such
                as relevant conferences and workshops. It  may  also
                include coordinated development of common tools.

                The first part of this activity is indistinguishable
                from activity 3.1.  Nominal resources will be  allo-
                cated to the second part.


    3.9.  Routing Registry Maintenance

                The RIPE NCC will maintain the RIPE Routing Registry
                according to the relevant RIPE documents.   It  will
                encourage  European  service providers to use the RR
                and support them in doing so.  The NCC will actively
                work with service providers to minimise gaps in cov-
                erage.  It will provide training and report  on  the
                status  of  the  registry.   The NCC will coordinate
                with other RRs to achieve Internet wide RR coverage.
                The RIPE NCC will identify and propose needed exten-
                sions to the RR.

                This activity will be stepped  up  significantly  in
                1996  to 20 hours/week of engineering time.  This is
                expected to be sufficient to do significant work  in
                extending  coverage and awareness as well as keeping
                the quality of registered data at a high level.






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    3.10.  PRIDE Tool Maintenance

                The RIPE NCC  will  maintain  the  Routing  Registry
                Tools developed by the PRIDE project.  This activity
                does not cover development of new tools or  signifi-
                cant  new  features.  The RIPE NCC will identify and
                propose needed extensions to the tools.

                While this  activity  is  highly  desirable,  it  is
                impossible  to  do  significant  work on this in the
                current situation.  It is expected that others  such
                as the US Routing Arbiter project will take the lead
                in this activity.  12  hours/week  engineering  time
                should  be  sufficient  to track and influence other
                activities.  Once the NCC stabilises in  1996  sepa-
                rate funds could be raised to step up this activity.





































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                ripe-133.txt                                 Page 14
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                ____________________________________________________

    4.  Technical - Development Activities


    4.1.  Database management tools.

                Tools for management of the database and their main-
                tenance  are an important work item for the NCC. The
                result will be  the  availability  of  a  consistent
                database.

                This activity is important to the functioning of the
                NCC and will be done with 20 hours/week  engineering
                time.  A prioritised work plan has been presented to
                the RIPE DB working group.  This plan will  be  exe-
                cuted  with  the  current  priority items being com-
                pleted in 1996.


    4.2.  Database querying tools.

                Development and maintenance of  the  whois  utility.
                The  result will be a program, available from a file
                server, that permits  remote  interrogation  of  the
                database.

                Tools  are  available.  Only nominal effort is fore-
                seen for maintenance in this area.  No new  develop-
                ments.


    4.3.  DNS quality control tools.

                Utilities for quality control of the interworking of
                the DNS name servers will  be  developed  and  main-
                tained.  The  result  will  be a set of software and
                documentation, available from a server.

                Both tools and regular output of them are available.
                Only  nominal  effort is foreseen for maintenance in
                this area.  No new developments.













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                ripe-133.txt                                 Page 15
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                ____________________________________________________

    4.4.  Special projects.

                The RIPE NCC can  participate  in  special  projects
                that  have been approved by at least the RIPE commu-
                nity. The nature of the participation can be  admin-
                istrative, managerial or technical. The total amount
                of NCC participation should not exceed  20%  of  the
                NCC resources.  Results of the special projects will
                be publicly available.

                24 hours/week engineering time will be allocated for
                this.   The currently planned activities are related
                to  IPv6  tracking  and  testing.   This  represents
                roughly 50% of the planned resources.  The remaining
                50% are reserved for  necessary  activities  arising
                during 1996.





































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                ____________________________________________________

    5.  Administrative - RIPE Activity Support


    5.1.  Keeping the RIPE document store.

                The  NCC will keep RIPE documents on line and easily
                accessible to the RIPE community.  Copies  of  other
                document stores relevant to the RIPE community, such
                as the repository of RFCs, will equally be provided.
                Modern   document   retrieval   utilities   will  be
                installed and maintained to facilitate access to the
                document store.

                This  activity  has  received almost no attention in
                1995, resulting in the need for better maintainabil-
                ity  as  well as for revision of the server software
                and re-homing  to  a  newer  platform.   Significant
                staff  time  and  some  external consultancy will be
                used to make the document store more useful and eas-
                ier  to navigate.  The main emphasis will be on use-
                ful information for NCC customers and  will  concen-
                trate on access via WWW.


    5.2.   Technical  and secretarial support for studies undertaken
    by RIPE.

                The NCC will provide technical and clerical  support
                for  RIPE  studies  and  working  groups in order to
                enhance continuity  and  coordination  of  the  work
                between RIPE meetings.

                No  resources  will be allocated to this activity in
                1996


    5.3.  Organisational support for RIPE meetings.

                RIPE meeting attendance is expected  to  be  on  the
                order  of  80  persons,  meeting three times a year.
                The NCC will provide clerical  support  to  organise
                these meetings in order to keep them productive.

                The current level of resources is about 6 hours/week
                of staff time which  will  be  maintained  in  1996.
                Most  of this time goes into organisation of the one
                meeting outside Amsterdam while the meetings in Ams-
                terdam take comparatively little resources.





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                ripe-133.txt                                 Page 17
                              RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1996
                                                   Daniel Karrenberg

                ____________________________________________________

    6.  Administrative - Reporting


    6.1.  Quarterly Activity Reports

                Quarterly reports on all activities will be produced
                for  the  RIPE  participating  organisations and the
                RIPE NCC funding organisations.

                This activity has had almost no resources  allocated
                in  1995  due to the staff shortage.  Keeping opera-
                tions  going  is  considered  more  important   than
                reporting.   In  1996  sufficient  resources will be
                allocated to resume formal quarterly reporting.


    6.2.  Quarterly Problem Reports

                Quarterly reports on outstanding  problems  will  be
                produced  for  the  RIPE participating organisations
                and the RIPE NCC funding organisations.

                See above.


    6.3.  RIPE Meeting Reports

                The NCC reports on its ongoing work and  outstanding
                problems  also to each RIPE meeting.  These meetings
                currently take place three times a year.

                These reports have  been  delivered  even  in  1995.
                Sufficient  resources  will be allocated to continue
                them in 1996.


    6.4.  Annual Reports

                The NCC will produce annual reports.
                The annual report will  contain  a  summary  of  the
                activities  and  an overview of the financial situa-
                tion.

                Sufficient resources will be  allocated  to  prepare
                the 1996 annual report.








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                ripe-133.txt                                 Page 18
