          


                ____________________________________________________




                       RIPE NCC Activities & Expenditure 1997



                                 Daniel Karrenberg
                                   Mirjam Kuehne
                                    Carol Orange
                                    Paul Ridley

                                      RIPE NCC

                                    Version 2.0

                                 Document: ripe-144
                                 Updates: ripe-133
                                 See also: ripe-145




    1.  Scope & Process

                This  memorandum describes the activities to be per-
                formed by the RIPE NCC  and  associated  expenditure
                during  the year 1997.  The companion document "RIPE
                NCC Revenue & Charging  1997"  (ripe-chr)  describes
                the way to generate the necessary revenue.

                There  are  several  well defined stages in the cre-
                ation of this document: It is drafted  by  the  RIPE
                NCC  based  on  input from RIPE and the users of NCC
                services.  Subsequently  it  is  approved,  possibly
                after  modification, by the NCC Contributors Commit-
                tee representing  the  organisations  providing  the
                funding.   TERENA  finally  endorses  the  document,
                acknowledging formal responsibility for  the  execu-
                tion  of the activities.  At that point the document
                is frozen and represents both charter and budget for
                NCC activities during 1997.


    Current Status

                The  contributors  committee has approved this docu-
                ment on September 11 1996.  TERENA has  subsequently
                endorsed it.  This version is final.




                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    Changes

                The document itself will not  be  changed  once  the
                process  described  above is completed.  However the
                last two years of  NCC  operations  experience  have
                shown that revisions are needed during the course of
                the year.  In today's  Internet  environment  it  is
                impossible  to plan ahead for more than 15 months as
                the formal process requires.   We  therefore  expect
                that  the  plan will be amended at least once during
                1997. The RIPE NCC  will  propose  amendments  which
                will be approved following an accelerated version of
                the process described above involving the  contribu-
                tors   committee  and  TERENA.   The  NCC  quarterly
                reports will provide background and  motivation  for
                any such amendments.



    2.  Principles for NCC Activities

                The  RIPE NCC performs activities for the benefit of
                the Internet service providers (ISPs) in Europe  and
                the surrounding areas; primarily activities that the
                ISPs need to organise as a group, although they  may
                be competing with each other in other areas.

                The  RIPE NCC must therefore observe strict neutral-
                ity and impartiality with respect to individual ser-
                vice  providers.   In  particular  it  refrains from
                activities that are clearly in  the  domain  of  the
                ISPs themselves.

                Activities  are  defined,  performed,  discussed and
                evaluated in an open manner.  Results of  activities
                such  as  software  tools  are made available to the
                public.  Budgets as well as actual income and expen-
                diture  are published.  Individual data will be kept
                in  confidence  where  required.   For  example  the
                amounts  of address space allocated and assigned are
                published as  are  database  entries  of  individual
                assignments  including  the  relevant  contact data;
                however  the   information   supporting   individual
                assignment requests is kept in strict confidence.

                While  an activity may result in services being pro-
                vided to an individual ISP, performing the  activity
                as  a  whole  must  benefit  the  European ISPs as a
                group.  For example address space registration  ser-
                vices  are  provided  to  ISPs individually, but the
                activity as such benefits all ISPs  by  distributing
                address  space according to common standards as well
                as maintaining a neutral  and  accessible  registry.
                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

                It is because of this distinction that this document
                is  structured  around  activities, rather than ser-
                vices.


    3.  Activity Areas

                Since 1996 all NCC activities have been grouped into
                four  main  categories. A general description of the
                categories follows to precede  the  budget  figures.
                Detailed descriptions of all activities can be found
                later in this document.


    Registration Activities

                This represents activities related to the NCC's role
                as  Regional  Internet  Registry (IR) for Europe and
                the surrounding  areas.   It  includes  handling  of
                requests  for assignment or allocation of IP address
                space, management of reverse domains associated with
                this  address  space as well as auditing and quality
                control to ensure fair and expedient  processing  of
                requests.   Also  included in this area are training
                of Local Internet Registries, production of documen-
                tation  related  to Internet registration as well as
                specific activities to ensure a proper and expedient
                start of new local IRs.

                Services  performed in this area are only accessible
                to formally established local  IRs  contributing  to
                the funding of the NCC.


    Coordination Activities

                The  activities  grouped  in  this  area  are  quite
                diverse.  Their common purpose  is  to  support  the
                coherent  operation  of the Internet in the European
                area.  An important activity  is  the  provision  of
                access  to the RIPE database which provides informa-
                tion  about  address  space  and  routing   policies
                together   with   the  appropriate  contact  points.
                Developing and publishing the RIPE database software
                is  also  part  of this area, as is the provision of
                information services for ISPs and the general public
                via  the Internet.  Operational coordination such as
                efforts to reduce the  number  of  globally  visible
                routing  prefixes  also  fall into this category, as
                does the  production  and  publication  of  software
                tools for such efforts.


                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

                In order to be effective the services  performed  in
                this  area  have  to  be  accessible  to the general
                Internet public.  Contributors to the funding of the
                NCC  will  receive  precedence over other users when
                special support is needed.


    Administration Activities

                This area covers all regular  reports  published  by
                the  NCC, administrative support for RIPE as well as
                general administrative  overheads  which  cannot  be
                clearly  attributed to a specific activity.  As such
                it includes production of the Quarterly Reports  and
                the  resources  needed for charging, billing and the
                general financial administration.


    New Activities

                This  area  represents  those  activities  that  are
                either entirely unforeseen or cannot be fully speci-
                fied at the time of this writing.  The existence  of
                this  area  gives  the  NCC the flexibility to react
                quickly to the rapidly  changing  needs  in  today's
                Internet.   Activities  in  this area are often sug-
                gested by the appropriate RIPE working group.

                If the activities turn out to need long term support
                they may become a regular NCC activity funded by all
                contributors later.  If  the  activities  are  short
                term  but  substantial,  or continued support by all
                contributors is not appropriate, they may be contin-
                ued  as special projects for which funding is sought
                separately among interested parties.

                These new activites are executed under the  guidance
                of the RIPE working groups.  It is assumed that rep-
                resentatives   of   the   contributors   participate
                actively in these working groups.

                The  PRIDE  project  and the creation of the routing
                registry in general are good examples of such activ-
                ities as is the startup of IPv6 coordination.









                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    4.  Budget and Growth Plan

                The  number  of  local  Internet registries is still
                increasing rapidly.  The projections for 1997 are as
                follows:


       +------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
       |            |   Observed   |                Projected                |
       |Registries  |   Q1      Q2 |   Q3     Q4     Q1     Q2     Q3     Q4 |
       |            | 1996   01996 | 1996   1996   1997   1997   1997   1997 |
       +------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
       |  Large ISP |  32      34  |  37     41     44     48     51     54  |
       | Medium ISP |  49      53  |  60     65     71     76     82     88  |
       |  Small ISP | 246     308  | 376    451    529    610    692    776  |
       | Enterprise |  19      26  |  31     37     42     48     54     60  |
       |Last Resort |  22      13  |   6      0      0      0      0      0  |
       +------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
       |      TOTAL | 368     434  | 510    594    686    781    878    977  |
       +------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+

                For  easy comparison the projection uses the current
                categories for registries.


                Based on this projection and the required activities
                as described below the sum of  the  staff  resources
                needed during 1997 is as follows:


                              +---------------+------+
                              |Activity Area  | FTE  |
                              +---------------+------+
                              |  Registration | 14.0 |
                              |  Coordination |  6.1 |
                              |Administration |  4.7 |
                              |           New |  2.5 |
                              +---------------+------+
                              |         Total | 27.3 |
                              +---------------+------+













                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

                From  this the following budget results according to
                the budgeting principles described in appendix X:


                  +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
                  |Activity Area  | 1996    % | 1997    % | delta |
                  +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
                  |  Registration |  556   61 | 1064   54 |   508 |
                  |  Coordination |  162   18 |  442   22 |   280 |
                  |Administration |  138   15 |  311   16 |   173 |
                  |           New |   60    7 |  166    8 |   106 |
                  +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
                  |  TOTAL (kECU) |  916      | 1984      |  1068 |
                  +---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+

                The figures of the 1996 budget (ripe-133) are  shown
                for  comparison.  This budget represents expenditure
                under the assumption that the charging model similar
                to  the  current  one will be in use  and thus there
                will be no additional resources needed to administer
                charging.   The  additional resources needed to exe-
                cute different models are on the order of  one  per-
                cent  of  the total.  See the Revenue&Charging docu-
                ment for details.


                Of  course  the  growth  has been planned carefully.
                The plans are ambitious but realistic.   For  illus-
                tration  purposes  the  staffing plan broken down by
                department is shown below.


                    +---------------+---------------------------+
                    |               |           FTEs            |
                    |  Department   |   Q2     Q4     Q2     Q4 |
                    |               | 1996   1996   1997   1997 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+
                    |    Management |    3 |    4      4      4 |
                    |  Registration |    6 |    7      9     12 |
                    |   Engineering |    2 |    6      9     11 |
                    |Administration |    2 |    3      5      5 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+
                    |         Total |   13 |   20     27     32 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+

                Note that there is no  direct  relationship  between
                the  breakdown  by activity area and that by depart-
                ment because staff from several departments may work
                on a particular activity.




                ____________________________________________________
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    General Discussion

                Comparing  the growth in registries and in personnel
                shows that the two are growing roughly at  the  same
                rate:


                    +---------------+---------------------------+
                    |               |   Q2     Q4     Q2     Q4 |
                    |               | 1996   1996   1997   1997 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+
                    |    Registries |  434 |  594    781    977 |
                    |          FTEs |   13 |   20     27     32 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+
                    |registries/FTE |   33 |   30     29     31 |
                    +---------------+------+--------------------+


                Theoretically one would expect the NCC to grow  more
                slowly  than  the number of local registries because
                of economies of scale.  In reality however there are
                several factors compensating this trend.

                Firstly  the NCC is in a critical growth stage where
                low cost informal processes controlled and  executed
                by  individuals  have  to be replaced by more formal
                processes involving  several  people.   For  example
                financial planning and control have to be formalised
                further because both the funds  and  the  number  of
                people involved increase significantly.

                Secondly  the  stability  and reliability of the NCC
                becomes increasingly critical to the European Inter-
                net  industry.   Meeting this need causes additional
                overheads that we have been able  to  avoid  in  the
                past.

                Last  but  not  least  existing  services need to be
                extended in various ways and additional services are
                required.


    Registration Activities

                The  growth  in  the  expenditure  for  registration
                activities is  slightly  higher  than  the  expected
                total growth in registries from 594 to 977.

                We do expect to make further efficiency improvements
                to lower the  costs  for  the  present  registration
                activities.  However the room for that is limited as
                many of those activities  require  professional  and
                technical  judgement  of hostmasters which cannot be
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                ____________________________________________________

                automated.

                The increased expenditure is caused by the introduc-
                tion of necessary new activities and the stepping up
                of  training  activities.   Distinct  activities for
                quality control (R1.8) as well as consistency&audits
                (R1.9)  are  needed  to maintain a fair and credible
                registry system.  This also prepares well for  later
                quality  control  certification,  should  it  become
                desirable.

                In order to defend the registry system as a  process
                of industry self regulation towards the community at
                large, we need to continuously  make  sure  that  it
                works  well  and we must be able to demonstrate that
                it does.   Good  training  and  quality  control  is
                essential.


    Coordination Activities

                The    expenditure   for   coordination   activities
                increases again as the usage of them  increases  and
                they  become  more  critical  to a growing number of
                users.  The recovery from the  significant  lack  of
                resources  in 1995 continues and is represented by a
                further increase of the relative size of this budget
                line to 22% of the total.


    Administration Activities

                Resources  in  this area will increase significantly
                as required by growth while relative size of  expen-
                diture is kept constant.


    New activities

                Activities in this area will be stepped up while the
                relative size of expenditure the  area  for  remains
                constant.











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    5.  Challenges

                The main challenge for the NCC -as for the Internet-
                is to manage its growth.  We have planned the growth
                of  the NCC as carefully and realistically as possi-
                ble while maintaining enough flexibility to react to
                the  changing  environment.   This plan represents a
                good basis in material resources but the success  of
                the  NCC will depend on finding and keeping the peo-
                ple who make it happen.











































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                ____________________________________________________

    Appendices

                All  activities  will  be  described  in  appendices
                grouped  activity  by  area.   The descriptions list
                related activities as well as links to the  relevant
                RIPE working groups.  Wherever an activity is start-
                ing or increasing significantly during the year this
                is  indicated.  Finally special budgeting considera-
                tions are listed where appropriate.

                Finally appendix X lists details  of  the  budgeting
                procedures.









































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                ____________________________________________________

    R - Registration Activities

                This represents activities related to the NCC's role
                as  Regional  Internet  Registry (IR) for Europe and
                the surrounding areas.  Services performed  in  this
                area  are  only  accessible  to formally established
                Local IRs contributing to the funding of the NCC.


    R.1 Regional Internet Registry

                Goal:
                     The RIPE  NCC  provides  Internet  registration
                     services  for  Europe and surrounding areas; it
                     acts as a Regional Internet Registry.

                The overall goal of  this  activity  is  to  provide
                fair,  impartial and stable distribution of Internet
                numbers, especially address space in Europe and  the
                surrounding  areas.   The specific goals for address
                space are uniqueness of addresses,  conservation  of
                the  remaining  IPv4  address  space, aggregation of
                routing information and registration of network man-
                agement information.


                Description:
                     Because the Regional Internet registry consumes
                     the majority of RIPE NCC resources, its activi-
                     ties   are   described  and  accounted  for  in
                     detailed activities below.

                To be able to perform registration activities exist-
                ing  tools are used and new tools will be developed.
                The development of these tools is not listed as part
                of  only  a few activities, because the use of these
                tools is essential to  reach  the  overall  goal  of
                these  activities  and to provide reliable registra-
                tion services to Local IR's.

                Common to of all these  activities  is  further  the
                feedback given to the RIPE Local IR WG about general
                application of procedures and policies.

                Finally the general management of the Regional IR is
                accounted for in R1.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>



                ____________________________________________________
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    R1.1 First Address Space Assignment

                Description:
                     The  RIPE  NCC  will  give special attention to
                     every Local IR's initial  request  for  address
                     space.   It will help to make the first assign-
                     ment and allocate  an  aggregateable  range  of
                     addresses for further assignments.

                Goal:
                     This  will  help  Local  IR's  to process their
                     first request and to have a better  understand-
                     ing of the procedures for further requests.  It
                     will also help to build a  good  working  rela-
                     tionship  between  the  RIPE  NCC and the Local
                     IR's.  Furthermore it will enable  neutral  and
                     impartial treatment of all Local IR's.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>


    R1.2 Assignment Approval

                Description:
                     Some IP address requests require approval  from
                     the  RIPE  NCC, specially when they are above a
                     certain size.  The RIPE NCC will evaluate these
                     IP  address requests.  Sometimes local IRs will
                     also request  the  opinion  of  the  NCC  about
                     assignments   even  when  it  is  not  strictly
                     required.  The RIPE NCC will  furthermore  give
                     recommendation   and   guidelines   for  future
                     requests.


                Goal:
                     This activity will ensure  uniform  application
                     of  policies  and  assignment  criteria  by all
                     Local IR's and will help to  make  a  Local  IR
                     familiar with request evaluation.  It will sup-
                     port Local IR's in their  operations  and  help
                     them  to  process increasing request sizes.  It
                     will also enable fair operations of  all  Local
                     IR's.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>



                ____________________________________________________
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    R1.3 PI Assignment

                Description:
                     The  RIPE  NCC will process all requests for PI
                     (provider independent) address space  submitted
                     by Local IR's.


                Goal:
                     This activity will prevent fragmentation of the
                     local IR's allocated address  space  by  making
                     the  PI assignment from an address pool managed
                     by the RIPE NCC.  This will promote aggregation
                     of routing information.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>
                     RIPE Routing WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>


    R1.4 Address Allocation

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will  allocate  address  space  to
                     Local IR's for further assignment to end users.
                     This activity will  also  contain  auditing  of
                     assignments made from previous allocations.


                Goal:
                     This  activity will help to ensure fair distri-
                     bution of address space.  It will also  support
                     the  efficient use of address space in order to
                     conserve the remaining IPv4 address  space  and
                     to aggregate routing information.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>,
                     RIPE Routing WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>












                ____________________________________________________
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    R1.5 AS Number Assignment

                Description:
                     The  RIPE  NCC will assign AS numbers according
                     to IANA policies and will register  these  num-
                     bers and the associated routing policies.


                Goal:
                     This activity will ensure uniqueness of AS num-
                     bers and help in collecting data for the  Rout-
                     ing Registry.


                Related Activities:
                     Routing Registry Maintenance


                WG advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>
                     RIPE Routing WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>


    R1.6  Reverse DNS Delegation

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will delegate  reverse  DNS  zones
                     for the address ranges allocated or assigned by
                     the RIPE NCC.  In order to provide this service
                     the RIPE NCC will provide reliable name servers
                     and try to avoid pollution of the  DNS  in  the
                     zones delegated to the RIPE NCC.  Therefore the
                     RIPE  NCC  will  check  all  zones  under  it's
                     responsibility  for proper set-up and function-
                     ing.


                Goal:
                     This  activity  will  be  necessary  to  ensure
                     proper  address-to-name  mapping  for addresses
                     allocated to the RIPE NCC.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE DNS WG <dns-wg@ripe.net>
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>







                ____________________________________________________
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    R1.7 Registry Consistency & Auditing

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will  significantly  increase  its
                     efforts  to  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 a fair  address  space  distribu-
                tion, the RIPE NCC will regularly check that assign-
                ment guidelines are applied equally.

                This activity will be separated from the other  reg-
                istration  activities because it needs to be defined
                and executed somewhat independently from the day-to-
                day processing of requests.  Senior hostmasters will
                be relieved of their daily duties  and  assigned  to
                this activity for significant periods of time.

                Of  course  consistency  checking  and auditing will
                still be performed within other activities as  well.
                This  particular  activity  is  to provide the parts
                that have to be  done  independently  of  processing
                individual requests.



                Goal:
                     This  activity will promote consistent and fair
                     application of assignment criteria w.r.t.  con-
                     servation  of  address space and aggregation of
                     routing information.  This activity  will  also
                     help  to identify parts of the procedures them-
                     selves that cause problems.  These observations
                     will  be  reported  back  to  the RIPE Local IR
                     working group  for  further  investigation  and
                     improvement of the procedures.


                Related Activities:
                     all registration activities


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>







                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    R1.8 Registration Activities Quality Control


                Description:
                     Because  of  the  enormous  growth  it  becomes
                     increasingly  important to systematically moni-
                     tor  the  quality  of  registration  activities
                     within the NCC.

                The  NCC will develop quality measures for registra-
                tion activities and  monitor  them.   Part  of  this
                activity  will  be to give careful attention to cus-
                tomer questions and  suggestions.   This  will  also
                include  proposals for possible automation and other
                improvements of internal procedures  and  work  flow
                management.   Eventually  this  activity may lead to
                seeking a formal quality management certification.

                Of course quality control will  still  be  performed
                within  other registration activities as well.  This
                particular activity is to  provide  the  parts  that
                have to be done independently of processing individ-
                ual requests.

                This will also be managed  and  executed  separately
                from day-to-day request processing.  Senior hostmas-
                ters will be relieved  of  their  daily  duties  and
                assigned to this activity for significant periods of
                time.  The reporting chain  and  responsibility  for
                this activity will be separate from the other regis-
                tration activities.


                Goal:
                     This activity will  help  to  maintain  a  high
                     quality of services provided.


                Related Activities:
                     All  registration  activities.   Administration
                     activities.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>


                Budgeting:
                     10% of the costs for this activity are assigned
                     to  Administrative services because their qual-
                     ity will also be directly and indirectly  moni-
                     tored and approved.

                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    R2 Initial Support for Local IR's

                The initial support for newly established registries
                is independent from other  registration  activities.
                They are not initiated by a request sent to the RIPE
                NCC but are part of the process to open a Local  IR.
                During   this  phase  additional  clarification  and
                explanation is involved to make  the  new  Local  IR
                familiar with all procedures necessary to operate an
                Internet registry.


    R2.1 Initial Contact

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will provide  initial  support  to
                     Local IR's during their start up phase.


                Goal:
                     This  activity will support new Local IR's dur-
                     ing their start up phase,  so  that  they  feel
                     comfortable  with  tools, procedures and guide-
                     lines.


                Related Activities:
                     Billing

























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    R2.2 Training Courses

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will develop and deliver  Training
                     Courses  for  Local  IR's.  The course material
                     will include IP address assignment and  alloca-
                     tion  procedures  and  policies,  delegation of
                     reverse  domains  and  how  to  you   use   the
                     database.


                Goal:
                     The  goal of this activity is to make new Local
                     IR's familiar with procedures and  policies  as
                     well  as  to  keep established Local IR's up to
                     date  with  new  guidelines  and  developments.
                     This  will facilitate smooth operations between
                     the RIPE NCC and the Local IR's.  By establish-
                     ing  the  same assignment policies we will also
                     enable a fair  distribution  of  address  space
                     among the community.


                WG advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>




























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                ____________________________________________________

    R 3 Liaison and Coordination

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will perform  its  function  as  a
                     Regional  Internet Registry (IR) in close coop-
                     eration and coordination  with  other  Internet
                     organisations like the IANA, other regional IRs
                     and local IRs.  This activity will include pro-
                     cessing  electronic  mail  related  to registry
                     coordination  as  well  as  attending  relevant
                     meetings   mostly  in  conjunction  with  other
                     Internet meetings.


                Goal:
                     The goal of this  activity  is  to  ensure  the
                     European  registry  system  conforms  with  the
                     goals and policies of other regional  areas  of
                     the  Internet.  It is also important to promote
                     the interests of the Local IR's in its  service
                     region  to the whole community and the Internet
                     authorities.


                WG advising:
                     RIPE Local IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>


                Budgeting:
                     This activity is very closely related to  coor-
                     dination  services and it is often not possible
                     to separate out the resource usage  in  detail.
                     Thus  all  liaison activities are grouped here,
                     but 50% of the costs are assigned to  coordina-
                     tion activities.


















                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    C. Coordination Activities

                The  activities  grouped  in  this  area  are  quite
                diverse.  Their common purpose  is  to  support  the
                coherent  operation  of the Internet in the European
                area.  In order to be effective  the  services  per-
                formed  in  this  area  have to be accessible to the
                general Internet public.   However  contributors  to
                the  funding of the NCC will receive precedence when
                special support is needed.


    C.0 RIPE Database Software


                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC  will  continue  to  maintain  and
                     expand  the  RIPE database software suite.  The
                     RIPE database software is  used  to  provide  a
                     repository  for  registration  services data as
                     well as the RIPE routing registry and  to  make
                     this  data available on the Internet. The soft-
                     ware is also used by some local IRs, by the AP-
                     NIC  as  well  as all routing registries world-
                     wide.  The NCC will maintain the RIPE  database
                     software  suite  and further develop it to meet
                     future requirements.


                Goal:
                     This activity will result  in  a  highly  func-
                     tional  RIPE  database software suite in a dis-
                     tributable version.  By  making  this  publicly
                     available,  compatibility  between various reg-
                     istries is promoted.


                Related Activities:
                     Registration  services   activities   (R.1-R.3)
                     heavily  depend  on  this  software as does the
                     routing registry (C.5). Other  related  activi-
                     ties include: C.1, C.2, C.3 and C.7.


                WG advising:
                     RIPE  Database  WG <db-wg@ripe.net>, RIPE Local
                     IR WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>, RIPE Routing WG <rout-
                     ing-wg@ripe.net>





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                ____________________________________________________

    C.1 RIPE Database Availability


                Description:
                     The  RIPE  NCC  will provide access to the RIPE
                     database via whois and wais servers.  Addition-
                     ally,  efforts  to  support  secondary database
                     servers at other sites will be facilitated.  In
                     particular,  assistance  will  be  provided  to
                     local  registries  in  setting   up   secondary
                     database  servers.   Software which allows near
                     real time mirroring of the RIPE  database  will
                     be maintained and enhanced as required.


                Goal:
                     This  activity  will ensure efficient and reli-
                     able access to the  information  maintained  in
                     the RIPE database.


                Related Activities:
                     C.0   Database  Maintenance  and  C.2  Database
                     Exchange


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Database WG <db-wg@ripe.net>

























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                ____________________________________________________

    C.2 Routing Registry Data Exchange


                Description:
                     To  ensure  efficient  access to global routing
                     policy data, the RIPE NCC will  coordinate  and
                     execute the exchange of data with other routing
                     registries.


                Goal:
                     This activity  will  enable  ISPs  to  optimize
                     their  routing policies at a global level in an
                     efficient fashion.


                Related Activities:
                     C.1 RIPE Database  Availability,  C.3  Registry
                     Data  Exchange,  C.5 RR Maintenance, and C.6 RR
                     Tools.


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Database WG <db-wg@ripe.net> RIPE  Routing
                     WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>


    C.3 Registry Data Exchange


                Description:
                     The RIPE  NCC  will  coordinate  registry  data
                     exchange  with  other regional registries.  The
                     extent to which this will be  possible  depends
                     on  the  cooperation  of  other  regional  reg-
                     istries.


                Goal:
                     To provide the end  user  with  *authoritative*
                     data  on  address space and other assigned num-
                     bers regardless  of  the  regional  registry  a
                     query is submitted to.


                Related Activities:
                     C.1  RIPE  Database  Availability, C.7 Database
                     management tools


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Database WG <db-wg@ripe.net>

                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    C.4 DNS Quality Monitoring


                Description:
                     The  DNS  name  servers in the RIPE NCC service
                     region determine the quality of the data avail-
                     able  to  the  ISPs in the region. The RIPE NCC
                     will track the consistency and availability  of
                     DNS name servers in its service region, as well
                     as their immediate connections beyond.  The NCC
                     will report errors and will, if necessary, take
                     corrective action.  be  taken.   The  NCC  will
                     develop  tools  to  detect  errors as required.
                     The NCC will publish the monthly  European  top
                     level domain host count.


                Goal:
                     This activity supports the maintenance of glob-
                     ally consistent DNS servers. In  particular  it
                     is aimed to ensure the integrity of the reverse
                     delegation data corresponding  to  the  address
                     space allocated by the RIPE NCC.


                Related Activities:
                     R1.6  Reverse DNS Delegation, C.7 Database man-
                     agement tools


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE DNS WG <dns-wg@ripe.net>





















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                ____________________________________________________

    C.5 RR Maintenance


                Description:
                     The routing policies registered in the  RR  can
                     be  exploited to determine optimal policies for
                     a particular ISP.  To ensure  the  results  are
                     reliable,  the  RIPE NCC will track consistency
                     of routing registry data. Checks will  also  be
                     performed  for redundant routing announcements.
                     ISPs will be  informed  of  gaps  and  possible
                     errors.   Moreover, the NCC will develop train-
                     ing material for the use of the RR as needed.


                Goal:
                     This activity supports  the  maintenance  of  a
                     globally  consistent  RR.  It also helps elimi-
                     nate redundant route  announcements,  which  in
                     turn   helps  control  the  growth  of  routing
                     tables.


                Related Activities:
                     C.6 RR Tools, C.7 Database Quality Tools,  R2.2
                     Training Courses


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Routing WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>























                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    C.6 RR Tools


                Description:
                     The Routing Registry tools that were  developed
                     in  the  PRIDE project allow the data stored in
                     the RR to be employed in making routing  policy
                     decisions.   The  RIPE  NCC  will  maintain and
                     extend the RR tools developed in the PRIDE pro-
                     ject,  help  deploy and support RR tools devel-
                     oped by others as necessary and help to develop
                     new tools as required.


                Goal:
                     This  activity  will  enable the data stored in
                     the RR to be used to improve  Internet  routing
                     at a global level.


                Related Activities:
                     C.2  Routing  Registry  Data  Exchange,  C.5 RR
                     Maintenance.


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Routing WG <routing-wg@ripe.net>


























                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    C.7 Database Quality Tools


                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC maintains a number of databases in
                     which address allocations and  assignments  are
                     stored or referenced. To ensure the data regis-
                     tered is reliable, tools will be  developed  to
                     monitor  consistency  of the RIPE database, the
                     RR, the DNS, and the internal databases of  the
                     RIPE NCC.  Data maintainers will be notified if
                     an inconsistency is detected.


                Goal:
                     This activity will guarantee the  authority  of
                     the information maintained at the RIPE NCC, and
                     facilitate  data  consistency  among  the  dis-
                     tributed public databases.


                Related Activities:
                     C.4 DNS Quality Monitoring, C.5 RR Maintenance,
                     R1 Regional Internet Registry 4,3


                WG Advising:
                     RIPE Database WG <db-wg@ripe.net> RIPE Local IR
                     WG <lir-wg@ripe.net>


    C.10 RIPE Document Store


                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will maintain and enable access to
                     documents relevant to ISPs in the RIPE NCC ser-
                     vice area.  This includes documents produced by
                     RIPE,  the RIPE NCC, and related Internet docu-
                     ments which may be of use.   The  documentation
                     will be made available via FTP and WWW.


                Goal:
                     This  activity  enables  access to key Internet
                     information and documentation,  including  that
                     produced at the RIPE NCC.


                Related Activities:
                     all NCC activities


                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    A. Administration Activities

                This area covers the regular  reports  published  by
                the NCC, administrative support for RIPE, as well as
                general administrative  overheads  which  cannot  be
                clearly attributed to a specific activity.


    A1. Administration & Reporting

                Description:
                     The  NCC will maintain a proper financial plan-
                     ning, financial accounting, and general  admin-
                     istration.   It will publish quarterly activity
                     reports, yearly activity and financial reports.
                     The  RIPE  NCC will also provide administrative
                     support to RIPE, in particular for the  organi-
                     sation of RIPE meetings.

                Currently many tasks in this area such as accounting
                and personnel management are preformed by the TERENA
                secretariat.   During  1997 this support is expected
                to continue but  not  increase  in  absolute  terms.
                This  means an increasing proportion of the adminis-
                trative work will be done by dedicated  NCC  person-
                nel.


                Goal:
                     To  create and maintain a smooth running admin-
                     istrative  core  that  provides  a   management
                     information  system,  guarantees financial hus-
                     bandry, looks after personnel needs.   To  pro-
                     vide  information to the contributors and other
                     interested parties.


                Related Activities:
                     This activity is related to  and  supports  all
                     other categories of RIPE NCC.













                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    N. New Activities

                This  area  represents  those  activities  that  are
                either  unforeseen  or  cannot be fully specified at
                the time of this writing.   The  existence  of  this
                area  gives the NCC the flexibility to react quickly
                to the rapidly changing needs in  today's  Internet.
                Activities  in  this area are often suggested by the
                appropriate RIPE working group.  By their nature new
                activities are hard to specify in detail and priori-
                ties can change quickly.  Activities may be  dropped
                or  added as necessary.  Priorities and details will
                be discussed  intensively  with  the  relevant  RIPE
                working groups.  The activity descriptions below are
                therefore more of a subjective statement  of  direc-
                tion rather than a fixed plan of action.  In partic-
                ular some of the ideas below have not yet been fully
                discussed in the RIPE working groups concerned.


    N.1 IPv6 Coordination

                Description:
                     The  NCC  will  gather  and publish information
                     about implementations of IP version 6.  It will
                     provide  coordination  support  for  IPv6 pilot
                     networks including  the  registration  of  IPv6
                     objects  in  the  RIPE  database.  It will also
                     provide  routing  and  test-target  support  by
                     operating one or more IPv6 routers and end-sys-
                     tems.  This activity  is  already  started  and
                     will continue.


                Goal:
                     This activity will provide a source of informa-
                     tion about the state of IPv6 and help  ISPs  to
                     get experience with it.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     IP Version 6 WG <ipv6-wg@ripe.net>











                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    N.2 Routing Information Service

                Description:
                     Exterior routing is a critical component of the
                     Internet.  There is a growing need for  network
                     operations staff to have access to the state of
                     routing at strategic  points  in  the  European
                     Internet   both  in  near  real  time  and  for
                     selected times in the past.  This is very help-
                     ful  to quickly diagnose connectivity problems.
                     Long term time series of this  information  are
                     also  useful  to  determine  trends in routing,
                     help validate routing  registry  data,  promote
                     aggregation and much more.

                The  RIPE NCC will neutrally and professionally col-
                lect real time routing data from  those  willing  to
                provide  it.   The  NCC will make this data publicly
                available in a suitable form,  possibly  similar  to
                the current routing registry.

                Note  that  this activity is markedly different from
                operating 'route server'  at  exchange  points.   It
                does not provide individual real-time views of rout-
                ing information to  be  used  for  actually  routing
                traffic.   It  provides  general  views  at specific
                times for problem diagnosis and archives them.

                The RIPE NCC will also provide prototype  tools  for
                access  to  the  data.   It  will  not  provide full
                fledged commercial quality tools or  integrate  this
                functionality   into   existing  network  management
                tools.

                This activity will be started  during  the  year  in
                consultation with the relevant working groups.  It's
                schedule is dependent on the  relative  priority  of
                other  activities  in this area.  The resources cur-
                rently planned are sufficient for  prototype  imple-
                mentations  and  initial  deployment support showing
                feasibility and usefulness of  the  service.   Large
                scale  deployment  and maintenance may require addi-
                tional funding which will be sought separately.


                Goal:
                     To provide access to routing state at strategic
                     points  both in near real time and for selected
                     times in the past.  To enable time series anal-
                     ysis of this data.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                ____________________________________________________
                ripe-144.txt                                 Page 29
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                ____________________________________________________

                     Routing  WG  <routing-wg@ripe.net>,  EOF  <eof-
                     wg@ripe.net>


    N.3 Test Traffic Measurements

                Description:
                     The RIPE NCC will compile a 'traffic test  sta-
                     tion' software suite to inject, absorb and mea-
                     sure test traffic packets.  The RIPE  NCC  will
                     promote deployment of the station by interested
                     parties as  well  as  collect  the  measurement
                     data,  verify,  process  and  make  it publicly
                     available in various  forms.   Note  that  this
                     data  is  different from the routing data (N.2)
                     and needs to be collected at different  points.

                There are many uses for such independently collected
                and verified data.  A near real time stream of  mea-
                surement  data  can  help  to  diagnose connectivity
                problems.

                Processed statistics  can  be  used  to  manage  and
                demonstrate  quality  of  ISPs and the Internet as a
                whole.

                The key to this is  the  independent  and  impartial
                collection  and publishing of the data.  Also essen-
                tial is good documentation about what is being  mea-
                sured and what is not.

                This  activity  will  be  started during the year in
                consultation with the relevant working groups.  It's
                schedule is dependent on the relative priority given
                to other activities in  this  area.   The  resources
                currently   planned  are  sufficient  for  prototype
                implementations and initial deployment support show-
                ing  feasibility  and  usefulness  of  the  service.
                Large scale deployment and maintenance  may  require
                additional  funding which will be sought separately.


                Goal:
                     To help diagnose real time  connectivity  prob-
                     lems.   Collection  of   connectivity data by a
                     neutral agency.  To help establish measures for
                     Internet quality.


                RIPE WG Advising:
                     EOF  <eof-wg@ripe.net>,  Routing  WG  <routing-
                     wg@ripe.net>

                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

    X - Budgeting Principles

                Since  personnel resources dominate all others, bud-
                geting is based on the expected personnel  resources
                needed by each activity.

                In determining the distribution of various overheads
                to particular budget lines, each overhead was  dealt
                with  separately  and  distributed in an appropriate
                manner.  After this process  of  distribution  total
                individual  FTE  costs  were  allocated  to specific
                activities which were in turn split between the four
                budget  lines.  Listed below are all of the overhead
                categories  together  with  a  description  of   the
                respective distribution policies.


                Office Supplies
                     These costs were distributed on an FTE basis.


                Rented Equipment
                     These  costs  were  distributed  on an employee
                     basis, regardless of their FTE status.


                Telecommunications Costs
                     These costs were distributed on an FTE basis.


                Computer Equipment
                     These costs were distributed based  on  an  FTE
                     basis.


                Travel Costs
                     These  costs  were  attributed  to the specific
                     activity to which they pertained.


                Rent This cost was distributed based on an  employee
                     basis, regardless of their FTE status.


                Recruitment
                     These  costs  were  distributed based on an FTE
                     basis.


                Consultancy Fees
                     These costs were distributed based  on  an  FTE
                     basis.

                ____________________________________________________
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                ____________________________________________________

                External Accounting
                     These costs were distributed based  on  an  FTE
                     basis.


                Unforeseen Expenses
                     These were distributed based on an FTE basis.














































                ____________________________________________________
                ripe-144.txt                                 Page 32
