
                    The RIPE Network Coordination Centre

                             1998 Annual Report



                             Table of Contents

                  1. Foreword
                  2. Outlook for 1999
                  3. RIPE NCC Information and Overview
                  4. RIPE NCC Services and Projects
                        o Registration Services
                        o Database Services
                        o DNS Services
                        o Test Traffic Project
                        o RIPE CENTR Project
                  5. RIPE
                  6. Financial Report 1998



                           Copyright RIPE NCC 1999
                             All rights reserved
                   The 1998 Annual Report can be found at:
                http://www.ripe.net/annual-report/98ar.html

1. Foreword

1998 has marked the seventh year of RIPE NCC operations and the first year
of its existence as an independent association.

During this year the membership has grown by more than one third to 1,263
members from 76 countries. The membership has continued to take an active
interest. Participation in the various RIPE working groups that provide
guidance to NCC operations is strong and constructive. The general meeting
of the association saw constructive discussion and strong support for the
association and its board. We thank the membership for the guidance and
support they have provided.

The staff has grown to 50 people, a very international group comprising 18
nationalities and a lot of professional expertise. They have continued to
provide the membership with professional services in an impeccably neutral
and impartial way. We thank all of them for their contribution to the
success of the RIPE NCC in 1998.

The coming year will further see the formalisation of Internet
administration through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN). Administration of Internet resources will be subject to
scrutiny from many parties: governments, consumers, various industry groups
and, last but not least, the membership of the RIPE NCC association.

The challenge before us is to play an active role in the process of
formalisation, building on the structures we have developed over the years
and keeping the interests of the membership in mind. The individual members
will have to take an active rather than passive role in this at all levels
as awareness of the importance of these issues increases. Members will have
to defend the RIPE NCC as a reliable and open institution of industry
self-regulation. This must take place at all levels including local forums,
national groupings, RIPE and the RIPE NCC association itself, as well as
global forums. Without active involvement from the membership it will be
impossible for the RIPE NCC to play an effective role in the further
formalisation of Internet administration.

                       
 Keith Mitchell                Daniel Karrenberg

 Chairman of the Board         General Manager

2. Outlook for 1999

1999 will be the 8th year of RIPE NCC operations and the second year of the
RIPE NCC association as an independent legal entity. The Internet will
continue to grow at least as quickly as before and the main challenge of the
NCC will be to grow with it.

At the 1998 Annual General Meeting the membership unanimously approved both
the activity plan and the charging scheme for 1999. This provides a sound
vote of confidence on which the RIPE NCC will build its activities and
services in the coming year.

Activities will include the development of internal software tools that will
further ensure the delivery of efficient and consistent services. New
software tools will be developed for the community providing easier access
to existing registration and database services. Existing documentation and
training will be revised and additional material developed. Additional
topics such as Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL) and IPv6 address
space distribution will be included in the training programme.

An important source of information and documentation is the RIPE NCC Web
site. In 1999, the RIPE NCC will introduce a revised Web site to structure
and effectively present the enormous amount of information currently
available on the site.

In the area of database services, the RIPE database working group has
advised the RIPE NCC to fully concentrate efforts on the re-implementation
of the RIPE database software. As a result, the development of new
functionality to the existing code will cease in early 1999. The new
software is expected to be operational in the autumn of 1999.

In addition to planned developments in core services the RIPE NCC, together
with suggestions from RIPE, will investigate new projects and work towards
developing them into new services. Due to its unique position, the RIPE NCC
can play an important role in the field of technical coordination among its
members and beyond. In 1999, the Test Traffic Project will complete its
initial phase and develop into a service.

In all areas of activity the RIPE NCC will continue to cooperate shared
resources with related industry parties, specifically the other Regional
Internet Registries (RIRs), to provide consistent services. During 1999 we
expect the emergence of further RIRs, most notably an African RIR which is
expected to provide operational coordination in part of the current RIPE NCC
service region.

The coming year will also see further formalisation of the administrative
structures of the Internet. The RIPE NCC will actively take part in these
discussions and work constructively with all concerned while representing
the interests of the RIPE NCC membership in particular and the wider RIPE
community in general.

3. RIPE NCC Information and Overview

The RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) has emerged from RIPE (see
section 5). As the Internet grew, a need for a bottom-up self regulatory
entity for operational coordination was identified. The most important tasks
were seen to be maintaining a database of all IP network numbers used in
Europe and carrying out the activities of a `delegated IP registry' for
Europe.

The RIPE NCC started in April 1992 with Amsterdam as its home base and 3
staff. The activities delivered by the NCC at that time were performed under
the umbrella of services provided by the TERENA Association. As the RIPE NCC
subsequently outgrew TERENA, it was agreed by membership and TERENA that the
RIPE NCC should establish itself as a legal entity operating as a
not-for-profit association. Since January 1 1998, the RIPE NCC has been
established as a separate, not-for-profit association. Membership is open to
anyone using the RIPE NCC services, primarily Internet Service Providers
(ISPs).

The mission of the RIPE NCC is to perform activities for the benefit of the
membership in Europe and the surrounding areas; primarily activities that
the members need to organise as a group, although they may be competing with
each other in other areas. While an activity may result in services being
provided to an individual member, performing the activity as a whole must
benefit the RIPE NCC membership as a group. The RIPE NCC was established as
the first of 3 Regional Internet Registries (RIR) which operate in the world
today. The other RIRs include APNIC, serving the Asia Pacific Region, and
ARIN, serving the Americas and part of Africa.

The current membership of the RIPE NCC stands at 1,263. In 1998, the RIPE
NCC secured service contracts with 356 new members. Countries in the RIPE
NCC region that experienced the highest growth in new LIRs were: Germany,
United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, France and The Netherlands.

The following chart illustrates the real membership figures of small,
medium, and large size LIRs for the past two years as well as the projected
membership for 1999.



* the `projection' is as of September 1998

The RIPE NCC currently provides services for members in 76 countries. Its
service region includes Europe, the Middle East, parts of Asia (the former
USSR), and the northern half of Africa. A detailed map of the service
regions can be found at:

http://www.ripe.net/lir/registries/europe.html

                         The RIPE NCC Service Region



The activities and services of the RIPE NCC are defined, performed,
discussed and evaluated in an open manner. New activities are usually
suggested from RIPE. The annual activity plan and budget are approved by the
membership. The activity plan can be found at:

ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-162.txt

Results of activities, such as software tools, are made available to the
public. Budgets as well as actual income and expenditures are published.
Individual data however, is kept in strict confidence.

One of the core activities is to act as the Regional Internet Registry in
Europe and the surrounding regions. The service provided to its members
ensures the fair distribution of global Internet resources in the RIPE NCC
service region required for the stable and reliable operation of the
Internet. This includes the handling of requests for assignment and
allocation of IP address space, inter-domain routing identifiers, and the
management of reverse domain name space. These areas of activity also
include auditing and quality control of IP requests, training of LIRs, and
producing the documentation related to Local Internet Registries.

Another main activity of the RIPE NCC is to develop and maintain the RIPE
database which provides information about address space, domain objects,
routing policy, and contact information. Other activities include the
administrative support of RIPE, and the research and coordination of new
projects such as the Test Traffic Project.

In all of its activities, the RIPE NCC observes strict neutrality and
impartiality with respect to individual service providers. In particular it
refrains from activities that are clearly in the domain of the ISPs
themselves.

More information about the RIPE NCC is available on the Web site at:

http://www.ripe.net/

4. RIPE NCC Services and Projects

Registration Services

As a Regional Internet Registry, one of the main activities of the RIPE NCC
is to provide registration services to its membership. The overall goal of
this activity is to provide fair, impartial and stable distribution of
Internet numbers, particularly IP address space, in Europe and the
surrounding regions.

The tasks performed include the handling of requests for assignment and
allocation of Internet addresses and the assignment of routing IDs, as well
as the training, auditing and quality control necessary to ensure fair and
expedient distribution of these resources. These criteria are also applied
when members, acting as LIRs, provide registration services to their
customers.



Registration Services currently operates with 14 staff members, 7 of whom
began employment at the RIPE NCC during 1998. In the past year, the RIPE NCC
has allocated 9,771,034 addresses (approximately 149 /16s) in its service
region. A total of 11,260 requests were processed. In the auditing activity,
205 LIRs were audited to check whether they comply with the address
assignment and allocation policies and procedures.

Registration Services also provides training courses for the membership. In
1998, the RIPE NCC conducted 27 LIR Training Courses in 13 countries of its
service region. Further development of the current training course will
continue in 1999 and it is envisaged to extend the existing course portfolio
with practical hands-on sections and to produce new courses covering topics
in demand such as RPSL (Routing Policy Specification Language) and IPv6
address space distribution.

Another important activity is the coordination of services and policies with
the other Regional Internet Registries. Staff members from each Regional
Internet Registry met this year at the various meetings directly related to
the industry (such as RIPE, IETF, and NANOG meetings) and used the
opportunity to coordinate operations and policies. In November, a retreat
was organised for the Regional Internet Registries to discuss address
assignment policies as well as IPv6. The RIPE NCC continues to work very
closely with the other Regional Internet Registries to define guidelines on
how IPv6 addresses will be assigned.

The RIPE NCC publishes documents to help its members understand the various
procedures and policies. This year, an updated version of the "European
Internet Registry Policies and Procedures" document was re-published under
the document number ripe-185. In addition, a new document titled "Guidelines
for Setting up a Local Internet Registry at the RIPE NCC" (ripe-160) was
published to provide the information necessary to establish a new LIR.

The RIPE NCC worked consistently to improve the speed and quality of service
delivered to the membership. During 1998, the distribution of the incoming
hostmaster mail was automated. In addition, a hostmaster robot was
implemented. The robot checks the syntax of the "European IP Address Space
Request Form" and transmits errors, warnings and comments back to the
sender.

http://www.ripe.net/lir/services/registration.html

Database Services

Another important activity is the operation and maintenance of the RIPE
whois database and the implementation of new database functionality
requested by the membership. The RIPE whois database is located at:

http://www.ripe.net/db/whois.html

With the continuous growth of the Internet, more individuals use the
database for operational purposes. During 1998, the number of objects in the
database almost doubled from 718,677 to a total of 1,390,040. The following
chart illustrates the growth in the number of database objects over the past
two years.



During 1998, the database on average received 9,912 queries daily, bringing
the total of queries to 5,876,972. Correspondingly, the number of updates to
the database in 1998 more than doubled to a total of 195,836. To cope with
long-term growth, the RIPE NCC installed new server hardware. In addition,
further manpower was allocated to deal with various issues related to user
support.

Versions 2.1 to 2.2.1 of the DB software were released. New functionality
implemented in the latest release include:

   * PGP as an additional authentication mechanism;
   * referral mechanism for domain objects;
   * cross notification for route objects;
   * additional syntax checks to prevent inconsistencies;
   * referential integrity checks on updates to prevent dangling references;
   * performance improvements.

To deal with increased demand the RIPE NCC has planned to re-implement the
entire RIPE DB software and progress has been made; the modification of
existing functionality has been completed and the design work for the new
code has started and will continue in 1999.

Another activity requiring significant resources is the routing registry,
specifically, the transition from ripe-181 format to RPSL. Since May 1998,
the RIPE NCC operates a server that writes ripe-181 and reads both RPSL and
ripe-181. This is the second phase in a four-phase transition plan. The
detailed transition plan can be found at:

ftp://ftp.ripe.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-rps-transition-02.txt

At the RIPE meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland, a RPSL tutorial was made
available to all interested participants (in cooperation with ISI, the
Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California).
More information about Database Services can be found at :

http://www.ripe.net/db/

DNS Services

The RIPE NCC reports on the growth of the European Internet via the RIPE
Region Hostcount. Every month all of the DNS zones under the ccTLDs (top
level domain) in the RIPE Region are examined. The RIPE NCC then publishes
summary statistics derived from this data. The results are available on the
RIPE NCC Web site at:

http://www.ripe.net/statistics/

During 1998, the RIPE NCC expanded its data collection to include the entire
RIPE NCC service region. As a result, 50 new ccTLDs were added. This
increased the total number of hosts by approximately 32,000. The total
increase in hosts during 1998 was 2,082,064.



Test Traffic Project

The Test Traffic Measurements project aims to reliably and impartially
measure performance characteristics of the inter-provider Internet. This is
achieved by deploying `test-boxes' that send measurement traffic to each
other. Packet-loss and delays are measured between the test boxes according
to the framework and metrics developed by the IETF. Since the RIPE NCC has
an impeccable track record of neutrality and impartiality it is an ideal
organisation to perform such measurements in a trusted way.

In the autumn of 1998 the deployment of the initial test network consisting
of 22 boxes in 11 countries has been completed. The results look very
promising. In the first half of 1999 further verification will be done, 20
new boxes will be deployed and data taking will be largely automated. In the
second half of 1999, more complex products from the raw measurements will be
developed and a significant number of additional test boxes will be
deployed.

RIPE CENTR Project

CENTR, Council of European National Top level domain Registries is a project
which was developed during 1997 by RIPE, in particular the Top Level Domain
Working Group (TLD-WG).

With the impending formalisation regarding the administration of the
Internet domain name system, a TLD-WG task force identified the need for
European TLD registries to have a focal point at which to discuss matters of
policy affecting ccTLDs and to present the position of participants with one
voice. The Project was initiated at a meeting of representatives from
European TLD registries on March 2 1998. The registries of 36 countries gave
their support to the project which was funded on a voluntary basis for 1998.
The RIPE NCC was asked to execute the initial activities of the project
while a procedure was drawn up to establish CENTR as a separate legal
entity.

CENTR has enjoyed an active first year and has been able to comment and make
statements on behalf of the group on matters relating to Internet Governance
and the transition from IANA to the newly formed ICANN. CENTR has also been
involved and continues to give input to the process to form the Domain Name
Support Organisation as required in the ICANN bylaws.

With the assistance of the RIPE NCC, CENTR staged a Workshop for the
Technical staff of TLD registries in June and a Managerial workshop in
September. Gathering information on the practices of registries has begun
and should be published during 1999.

A process is now in place to establish CENTR as a separate legal entity with
a small secretariat to continue the work and develop it further. In early
1999, an Executive Committee will be elected by those who have formally
committed to join CENTR. This Committee will be entrusted with the task of
appointing staff and deciding on a suitable location where to establish
CENTR.

All relevant CENTR documents, details of participating registries and CENTR
meeting information are located on the CENTR Web site at:

http://www.centr.org/

All relevant TLD-WG documents can be found at:

http://www.ripe.net/wg/tld/index.html

5. RIPE

The RIPE community is an important source of public input for the RIPE NCC.
RIPE also plays an influential role in setting the annual activity plan of
the RIPE NCC. The staff of the RIPE NCC regularly report at RIPE meetings
and ask for feedback from participants on issues relevant to the RIPE
community.

RIPE (Rseaux IP Europens) is a collaborative organisation open to all
parties operating wide area IP networks in Europe. The objective of RIPE is
to ensure the administrative and technical coordination necessary to enable
the operation of a pan-European IP network.

The RIPE NCC facilitates the organisation of meetings for the RIPE
community. These meetings are held 3 times per year and are open to the
public. The main purpose is to discuss technical and policy issues affecting
the Internet Service Providers in the RIPE NCC region and beyond.

In each meeting, discussions take place in the form of working groups. These
discussions include technical matters such as DNS, routing and databases.
Other groups are concerned with policy issues such as IP assignments and
allocation policies. The RIPE NCC also provides operational support for the
chairpersons of these groups. The chairpersons are usually elected by
members of the working group and are not RIPE NCC staff members. To further
aid the RIPE community, the RIPE NCC facilitates RIPE working group mailing
lists and web pages to allow for open public debate on important Internet
issues relevant to the RIPE community.

The RIPE NCC coordinates venues, connectivity, publication of minutes and
presentations as well as the general administration of these meetings. In
1998, the following RIPE Meetings were held:

Further detailed information about RIPE can be found on the RIPE NCC Web
site at:

http://www.ripe.net/info/ripe/ripe.html





6. Financial Report 1998

Statement of Income and Expenditures (in k XEU)

                              1998           1997
                Income


                Fees          3,996          2,244
                Other income      95              19
                Total income           4,091         2,263

                Expenditure


                Operating
                costs         2,678          2,093
                Depreciation    249              52
                Total expenses         2,927         2,145

                Surplus before
                miscellaneous          1,164            118
                costs

                Miscellaneous
                costs

                Doubtful
                debtors/Credit   322            245
                notes
                Personnel fund   152            315
                Moving
                expenses            0             60
                Total
                miscellaneous             474           620
                costs

                Financial
                expenses

                Bank interest      -29             -9
                Exchange rate
                differences        -28              5
                Banking
                expenses            15              8
                Total
                financial                                  4
                expenses               -42


                Net surplus
                                          732          -506

Notes to the Statement of Income and Expenditures of RIPE NCC

The Financial Report has been approved by the auditor but has not yet been
approved by the Annual General Meeting of the members. The Annual General
Meeting of October 1998 agreed that the approval of the audited statements
could wait until the 1999 meeting which will be held in the autumn. The full
1998 Financial Report can be found at:

http://www.ripe.net/docs/ripe-193.html

All amounts are expressed in XEU. The principle foreign currency, the Dutch
guilder, was converted at a rate of .453 for the year. On December 31, 1998
the XEU was replaced by the EUR using the same rate.

The RIPE NCC had 53 employees as at December 31, 1998. Along with temporary
personal, this re-presents 49.9 FTE's (Full Time Equivalent). Salary and
related costs account for more than 60% of Total Expenses.

Revenues are higher than were budgeted because the number of MEDIUM and
LARGE Local Internet Registries (LIR) was higher than estimated. Interest
revenues come from short-term deposits of working capital. Other income is
primarily the RIPE meeting plus service charges and interest on outstanding
accounts receivable.

The number of LIR's has continued to grow at approximately one per calendar
day. At the end of 1998 there were 1,263 Local Internet Registries as
compared to 905 in 1997.

The Doubtful Debtors expense will clear out all outstanding debts for all
previous years and a large part of 1998 thought to be uncollectible. Any
debtors whose debt has been written off will first have to pay all existing
debts, a new sign-up fee as well as the annual fee in advance if they wish
to use the RIPE NCC services in the future. A debt collection policy has
been implemented in the second half of 1998 and it is expected that this
amount will be reduced to the budgeted amount in the future.

The Personnel Fund expense was calculated using the number of people with
employment contracts of indeterminate time working at the RIPE NCC as at
December 31, 1998. The amount includes allowances for vacation pay, the
pension and year end payment as well as the employer's part of social
premiums payable.

RIPE NCC
Singel 258
1016 AB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 20 535 4444
Fax. +31 20 535 4445
http://www.ripe.net/
