RIPE NCC Activities, Expenditures, and Charging Scheme 2003

  Joao Luis Silva Damas
  Daniel Karrenberg
  Mirjam Kuehne
  Axel Pawlik
  Paul Rendek
  Jocehm de Ruig


Document ID: ripe-255
Date: 17 September 2002
Updates: ripe-226

Table of Contents

Process
Executive Summary
Growth Plan and Budget
Membership Services 
Registration Activities 
Test Traffic Measurements 
Co-ordination Activities 
New Activities 
Administration Activities 
Charging Scheme 
Challenges

Appendices

M - Membership Services
M1  Regional Internet Registry
M2  Initial Support for New LIRs
M3  Liaison and Co-ordination
M4  Test Traffic Measurements
M5  Membership - RIPE NCC Interaction Facilities

C - Co-ordination Activities 
C1  RIPE Database Maintenance and Development 
C2  Information Services, Communication, and Education
C3  DNS Co-ordination
C4  RIPE Meetings

N - New Activities
N1  Deployment of Internet Security Infrastructure (DISI)
N2  Routing Information Service
N3  Name Server Daemon (nsd)
N4  Unforeseen Activities


Process

This document contains the planned activities for the RIPE NCC and the
associated expenditures as well as the charging scheme to ensure the
necessary revenues for the year 2003. The RIPE NCC has drafted this
document based on input from the RIPE community and users of RIPE NCC
services. The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC presents it to the RIPE
NCC members. The members approve the final version at the annual
General Meeting. No changes are made to the document after its
approval.  The text in this document does not affect or change any
policies or procedures defined in any other published RIPE documents.

Executive Summary

The total budget for the planned activities in 2003 is kEUR 10,004. A
conservative growth of 5% in new members is projected translating to 1
new member per 2 calendar days. However, this will result in a zero
net growth rate in membership due to the number of expected closures
in 2003. The budget will be contained to an increase of 4% in total
expenditures. This is significantly lower than the budget increases
experienced in 2001 and 2002 that were 28% and 21%
respectively. Membership fees have increased by approximately 50% per
billing category to maintain the stability and continuity of the
organisation, quality of service and to replenish part of the reserves
utilised in 2002.

Fees for Local Internet Registries (LIRs) will be increased by
approximately 50% on average to EUR 2,750, EUR 3,750 and EUR 5,250 for
Small, Medium and Large LIRs respectively. The new LIR fee will be
increased by 20% to EUR 2,500. Total revenues of kEUR 10,937 will
cover all expected expenses and are expected to lead to a kEUR 933
surplus.

An operating plan must to able to adapt to changing circumstances. Any
amendments to the RIPE NCC Activities, Expenditures, and Charging
Scheme 2003 will be made within the formal structure of the RIPE NCC
Association and therefore require the approval of the RIPE NCC
Executive Board. No fee adjustment will be made in the course of the
year.

Growth Plan and Budget

Following the analysis of the growth over 2002, a zero growth rate is
expected in 2003. We anticipate the number of new members will equal
the number of members that discontinue their membership. The number of
new members is estimated at approximately 0.5 member per calendar
day. This is a decrease of 1.0 member per calendar day in relation to
the budget 2002.

The projections for the remainder of 2002 and the year 2003 are as
follows:

                 Actual             Projections

                1999   2000   2001     2002     2003
Small
               1,257  1,978  2,536    2,677    2,470 
Medium           346    459    441      433      650 
Large             93    130    145      140      130 

               1,696  2,567  3,122    3,250    3,250 

The projected total income for the year 2003 (in kEUR) is derived as
follows:


                                   No.     Fee       Amount in kEUR 
New LIRs
- Start-up fee                     183     2,500           457 
- Membership fee, small            183     2,750           252 

Existing LIRs
- Small                          2,287     2,750         6,289 
- Medium                           650     3,750         2,438 
- Large                            130     5,250           682 
- Billing charges                                           20 

Total LIR fees                                          10,138 

Other Income

- RIPE Meetings                                            306
- ENUM                                                     112
- TTM                                                      188
- Interest                                                 193

Total Income                                            10,937

The budgeted costs for the various activities for 2003 (with budget
2002 for comparative purposes) are shown below in kEUR.


                           Budget 2002    Budget 2003    Change vs 2002

Registration               4,367 46%      4,422 44%      55    1%
Co-ordination              2,419 25%      2,961 30%     542   22%
Test Traffic Measurements    868  9%        526  5%   - 342  -39%
New Activities               976 10%        853  9%   - 123  -13%
Administration               963 10%      1,242 12%     279   29%

                           9,593         10,004         411    4%

The increase in the budgeted costs for 2003 is 4% including a special
reserve of EUR 50,000 or 0.5% of total expenses for various
contingencies. Revenues and costs will provide a surplus of
approximately 933 kEUR, which is just below 9.5% of the total budgeted
cost of the activities.

Membership Services

Registration Activities

Registration activities represent operations relating to the RIPE
NCC's role in the distribution of Internet resources to the RIPE NCC
service region.  These operations are primarily focused on the
handling of requests for the assignment and allocation of IP address
space and AS numbers. They also include the responsibility for
delegating the reverse domain name space associated with this address
space and the services required to set up a new LIR.

To facilitate the above process, the RIPE NCC is active in the
preparation of documentation relating to Internet registration
policies and procedures. They provide training and education to LIRs
and advise on the development of projects relating to these
services. Services provided in this area are available only to members
that contribute to the funding of the RIPE NCC.

In 2003, the RIPE NCC will continue to work on improving efficiency
and implementing new procedures around our core services. The number
of tickets received by the RIPE NCC is expected to continue to
increase from 30,000 in 2002 to 35,000 in 2003. Current Hostmaster
staffing levels are sufficient to adapt to fluctuations in the
workload.  New procedures and software tools will reduce the amount of
manual processing and allow greater focus on providing advice and
training. The RIPE NCC plans to investigate procedures for possible
reclaiming of unused Internet resources in the future.

The RIPE NCC recognises that the LIRs are exercising responsible
stewardship of the Internet resources they manage. The RIPE NCC will
focus on introducing procedures that enable LIRs to self-manage those
resources more effectively and efficiently. The RIPE NCC maintains its
commitment to oversee the fair and efficient distribution of these
resources.

The RIPE NCC LIR Training Courses have received considerable support
from the RIPE community as they provide a fast and effective mechanism
to update and educate the registered contacts on changes in
procedures.  This will be especially important over the coming year as
new procedures and software tools become available. The RIPE NCC will
increase the number of LIR trainings given and will aim to reach a
broader spectrum of the community. Additionally, advanced courses will
be given on specific aspects of the RIPE NCC services to help broaden
the depth of knowledge in key areas.

Following the implementation of an IPv6 policy common to all RIRs, in
July 2002 we expect to see a gradual increase of demand for IPv6
address space over 2003. The RIPE NCC continues to gain experience
with IPv6 and is becoming increasingly skilled in handling requests of
this type. The RIPE NCC will continue its close co-ordination work
with the other RIRs regarding this policy.  The RIPE NCC will invest
further efforts in gaining operational experience with IPv6 and will
monitor and advise the RIPE community on its deployment.


Test Traffic Measurements (TTM)

TTM measures key parameters of the connectivity between a site and
other points on the Internet (i.e. routing vectors, one-way delay and
packet-loss, IPDV, Bandwidth, with additional measurements being
developed). Since July 2001, sites participating in the TTM are
charged a prorated annual service fee of EUR 3,000 for the first
test-box and EUR 1,500 each for the second and additional
test-boxes. They also pay for the costs of the hardware installed at
their site.

Contrary to what was expected, the TTM service does not yet generate
enough revenue to break even. Therefore during 2003 the RIPE NCC will
restructure the service such that it will be self-sufficient by the
end of the year. The new service model will be developed in
consultation with users of the service and the RIPE TTM Working Group
during the coming months. The new service model will be presented at
the RIPE 45 Meeting.

The resources budgeted for 2003 provide the means to:

1. Run a network of test-boxes. 

The RIPE NCC will continue to operate a network of test-boxes as well
as a service where the host sites can retrieve the data produced by
their text-boxes.

2. Expanding the measurement network. 

The RIPE NCC will continue to promote the TTM service and install
test-boxes at interested sites. The promotion of the TTM service that
was started at RIPE 38 will be continued and expanded.

More focus will be put on communication with current and future
test-box hosts to better understand their requirements for performance
measurements and their needs for products based on the data.

There has been considerable interest from groups outside the
traditional RIPE NCC membership in the TTM service.  The RIPE NCC has
been working with those groups to adapt TTM to their specific needs
and will continue to do so.  Also, several sites have expressed
interest in other versions of the test-box hardware. Development of
these versions is in progress.

Finally, the RIPE NCC will investigate the possibility of installing
test-boxes at topologically interesting sites on the Internet such as
exchange points and popular web sites.

3. Run standard analysis. 

A standard analysis package will be run on the data every day. This
package will continue to be expanded based on user feedback.

Also, on the latest model test-boxes, a web-based user interface has
been installed. This user interface allows the user to access a
real-time, though preliminary, analysis of the data collected with the
test-box. This will be expanded in 2003.

At RIPE 33, a method was proposed to detect unusual network conditions
and warn operators about them. The RIPE NCC will continue to offer
this service and, together with network operators, interface these
warnings with existing network monitoring tools.

4. Development work on the project. 

Development work on the project will continue in several different
areas:

a. Metrics for throughput measurements are currently being studied
within the framework of the IETF IPPM Working Group. A first version
has been implemented on the test-boxes. This will be developed
further.

b. The IETF has developed metrics to describe packet reordering. These
metrics will be implemented and added to the regular measurement
program.

c. The RIPE NCC has been collaborating with several groups to model
the delay measurements.  These studies will continue, and suitable
results will be turned into products offered to the test-box hosts.

d. Other new metrics will be studied and, if feasible, implemented on
the test-boxes.

e. Development of interfaces to other applications such as Traffic
Engineering tools.

f. Development of an IPv6 version of the test-boxes.

g. Implementation of other requests from current and future test-box
hosts.

h. Any developments in the Internet, related to the Test Traffic
Measurements, will be energetically followed and responded to.

5. User training. 

The RIPE NCC will investigate how end-to-end performance data can be
used in day-to-day ISP operations and provide this information to its
membership either as courses or white papers.

Additional information on Test Traffic Measurements can be found at:

http://www.ripe.net/test-traffic


Co-ordination Activities

The common purpose of the diverse co-ordination activities of the RIPE
NCC is to support the coherent operation of the Internet in the RIPE
region. The primary activity is the provision of access to the RIPE
Database, providing information about address space, routing policies
and reverse DNS information together with the appropriate contact
points.

Development and publication of RIPE Database software, provision of
information services for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the
public via the Internet fall under co-ordination
activities. Operational co-ordination also comes under this category
as does the production and publication of software tools for such
efforts. Other important co-ordination activities include the
maintenance of the root name server that the RIPE NCC operates.

In addition to these services, during 2002 the RIPE NCC entered an
outsourcing agreement with the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) to
provide technical services related to the operation of the e164.arpa
DNS zone. This activity will continue in 2003.

To be effective the services performed in this area, must be
constantly accessible to the Internet community. Whenever special
support is needed, RIPE NCC members receive priority over other users.

Another key co-ordination activity is the organisation of the three
RIPE Meetings every year. The meeting fees charged cover part of the
expenses of the RIPE Meetings. The RIPE NCC subsidises the deficit to
cover all other expenses and provides logistical support,
registration, documentation, minute-taking, the maintenance of the
RIPE website, among other key co-ordination efforts.

Awareness and representation of the RIPE NCC continue to be an
important focus for 2003.  The Activity Plan for 2003 foresees more
concentration on new technologies and industries that could have an
impact on IP address usage rate and the Internet Registry
System. External representation of the RIPE NCC and the RIPE community
to third party organisations (i.e. new industries, governments, the
European Parliament, ICANN, etc.) is also a notable co-ordination
activity.

The RIPE NCC will provide continued support to activities related to
the Routing Registry (RR). These include the extension of activities
related to the Routing Registry Consistency Check (RRCC) project and
the responsibility for the support and development of the
RAToolset. Effort will also go into increasing synergy between the
Routing Registry system and live sources of Internet routing data.

In 2003 the RIPE NCC will continue to increase support for IPv6 and
multicast applications in the RR. Additionally, security aspects of
interaction with the RIPE Database will be an important item.

Efforts will also be continued to provide proper data maintenance,
data management and data analysis tools, including regular updates on
the status of the data in the database as well as general help with
good data maintenance practices. Database and related software will be
actively maintained and developed to ensure that new features are
available to meet user needs.

During 2003, the RIPE NCC will apply additional efforts to increase
flexibility and security in its interaction with the membership. The
aim is to provide a more user-friendly and secure means of interaction
for LIRs in their applications for Internet resources and the
management of information residing at the RIPE NCC servers (e.g. the
RIPE Database).

The year 2003 will also see the availability of RIPE NCC network
services using IPv6 transport.


New Activities

New Activities are either entirely unforeseen or have started recently
and are not yet at the stage where they can be developed as regular
services. Due to its impartial and neutral position, the RIPE NCC
plays an important role in facilitating new projects and services for
its members and the RIPE community.

The impetus for New Activities comes from various sources: the RIPE
NCC itself, individuals and/or organisations within the RIPE
community, and the appropriate RIPE Working Groups.

If the activities require long-term support, they may become a regular
RIPE NCC activity subsequently funded by all members. If the
activities are short term and substantial, or continued support by all
members is not appropriate, they may be continued as special projects
for which funding is sought separately among interested parties.

These activities fall under the guidance of the various RIPE Working
Groups with active participation of the RIPE NCC membership and the
Internet community.

There are three new projects already underway that will be further
developed in 2003: Deployment of Internet Security Infrastructure
(DISI), Routing Information Service (RIS) and Name Server Daemon
(nsd).

Deployment of Internet Security Infrastructure (DISI)

Security Deployment is a new activity started in late 2000. As the
Internet is used for more and more critical applications, security
becomes increasingly important. A lot of security technology has
recently been developed and now needs to be deployed throughout the
Internet infrastructure [RFC 2828]. Prominent examples are DNSsec [RFC
2535] and IPSec [RFC 2401].

The DISI project will support the RIPE community in deploying these
technologies, specifically those technologies that need to be deployed
in the Internet infrastructure itself, rather than at end sites
only. This project initially focuses on DNSsec and will later be
expanded to other relevant technologies in 2003.

During 2002, the technology behind DNSsec reached a state where it
could be meaningfully deployed. The RIPE NCC has started to deploy
DNSsec on the in-addr.arpa tree. The first address blocks allocated to
the RIPE NCC are planned to be secured early in 2003. This will then
be turned into a production facility and it should be possible for the
entire community to routinely sign zones by mid-2003.

At RIPE 43, the draft procedures for signing a zone by an LIR were
presented. These procedures are also explained in a one-day course
that has been offered to the membership since then. These courses will
be offered once-a-month in 2003 as a regular service for the
membership.

The DISI project will then start to focus on other security
technologies. The RIPE NCC liaises with other parties interested in
these technologies and is actively involved in the relevant IETF
Working Groups.

Routing Information Service (RIS)

The Routing Information Service collects BGP routing information at
several major exchange points in near real time and stores it in a
database. An interface similar to a "looking glass" then provides both
multiple views and information about specific times in the past. This
is a new and unique tool for ISP operations. Operators no longer have
to search for specific "looking glass" services covering their area of
interest. In addition, they can query for data at the specific time of
any problems.

The RIS Database is also useful to the RIPE NCC itself as it provides
information about how resources allocated by the RIPE NCC are actually
used on the Internet over an extended period. During 2003, RIS will
move from a new activity to a regular part of the routing
co-ordination services available to the Internet community.

Name Server Daemon (nsd)

During 2002 the RIPE NCC, in co-operation with NLnet Labs, has
developed "nsd", an authoritative-only DNS name server
implementation. The main reason for this development is code diversity
in high-level DNS name servers. nsd provides a high performance
open-source DNS server to operators of authoritative name servers.

The RIPE NCC has contributed to nsd in the area of producing
requirements and specifications, general design as well as a reference
implementation of the zone compiler and thorough testing of the server
in various stages of development. For this purpose we created a
laboratory for performance and regression tests called DISTEL.

NLnet Labs also contributed to the general design and provided all the
implementation work on the production version of the code. nsd
1.0.0-beta was released at the RIPE 42 Meeting. A DNSsec-capable
version is expected before the end of 2002.

In 2003 we expect some incidental work in keeping the specification
up-to-date and in testing work as new revisions of nsd are
released. In addition there is a growing demand for structural testing
of various DNS implementations for performance and differences in
their responses.  There may be a need to collect feedback from nsd
users in a structured manner.

Unforeseen Activities

As always, the RIPE NCC will be available to start new activities as
required by the membership and the RIPE community. We will continue to
actively pursue developments and spot new needs as the Internet
develops. We will continue to actively participate in the appropriate
forums such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the
North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG).


Administration Activities

This area covers all general and administrative overheads (building
rental and refurbishment, computer infrastructure, personnel, office
supplies, etc.) that cannot be clearly attributed to a specific
activity.


Charging Scheme

The charges for 2003 are fixed annual charges and are based on the
size category of a LIR. A minimum size category will be determined
based on address space allocations held by the LIR on 1 November
2002. The categories will be published and LIRs change in billing
category size will be notified by e-mail.

The proposed charges for 2003 are as follows (in EUR):

Annual charge     1999   2000   2001   2002   2003

Small            2,650  2,400  2,100  1,800  2,750 
Medium           3,700  3,350  2,950  2,500  3,750 
Large            4,900  4,400  3,900  3,400  5,250 
Sign-up fee      2,100  2,100  2,100  2,100  2,500 

The proposed fees for 2003 are approximately 50% higher than those of
2002. The fees for 2003 are similar to the 1999 fees. They cover
associated 4% growth in expenses and replenish reserves to ensure
stable operations.

The charging model algorithm can be found in the RIPE Document "RIPE
NCC Charging Scheme 1997", section 4.1 at:

ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-146.txt

This algorithm has been successfully used over the past 5 years to
determine the minimum size category for each LIR. For 2003, the size
of the LIR will be determined based on the address space allocations
held by the LIR on 1 November 2002.

The projected distribution of Small/Medium/Large size members in
percent for the year 2003, as compared to July 2002, is as follows:

Category         2002   2003

Small           82.2%   76.0%
Medium          13.3%   20.0%
Large            4.5%    4.0%

The expected changes of LIRs between the three size categories are
shown in detail below:

From          To:   Small   Medium   Large
Small               2,468    207       2
Medium                  2    425       6 
Large                   0     18     122 


Challenges

The provision of professional and stable services in the current and
future economic situation will be a challenge for the RIPE NCC. This
plan ensures the efficient delivery of essential services to the
members and, at the same time, maintains the flexibility necessary to
be able to react promptly to the continually changing environment. The
RIPE NCC will work to increase public awareness of experiences gained
with IPv6 and operational knowledge of IPv6 deployment.

The RIPE NCC will continue to promote the long-standing, bottom-up,
self-regulatory structures and remain flexible and open to new
developments and industry players.

The success of this activity plan lies in retaining the people who are
employed to make it happen. The RIPE NCC will continue to offer an
attractive and challenging work environment.


APPENDICES

M - Membership Services

Activities included in membership services relate directly to services
provided to the RIPE NCC membership. Services performed in this area
are only accessible to established members of the RIPE NCC.

M1 Regional Internet Registry 

In its role as a Regional Internet Registry, the RIPE NCC provides
allocation and registration services to LIRs in its service region
that covers Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and African
countries north of the equator. The overall goal of this activity is
to provide fair, impartial and stable distribution of Internet numbers
(IPv4, IPv6 and AS) in its service region. The specific goals for the
distribution of address space are uniqueness of addresses,
conservation of IPv4 address space, procedure and policy definition
for IPv6 address space, aggregation of routing information, and
registration of network management information.

While the current growth in the number of new LIRs is slowing, the
workload on Registration Services continues to increase. However the
introduction of New secure website services and the development of new
procedures should mean that staffing levels now match their
commitments to the community.

To minimise clerical work for RIPE NCC Hostmasters and provide fast
feedback to LIRs, a big effort is being made to automate the process
of making and processing requests. Supplementary attempts are made to
develop and improve the request forms.

Training courses for members are an additional activity. Seeing the
positive impact of these courses in educating the new and existing
members, the number of training courses provided by Registration
Services will be increased. In addition, advanced trainings will be
made available to LIRs to enable a deeper understanding of more
specific processes with the Registration Services
department. Resources to cope with this extra workload will be made
available.

In 2003, both workflow and quality management will have to keep step
with any expected growth and ensure that peaks in the load do not
create unacceptable delays or a reduction in quality. The impartiality
and neutrality of the RIPE NCC has to be maintained at all
times. Common to all of registration activities is liaison with the
RIPE Local IR Working Group (LIR-WG) and with the other RIRs about the
general application of procedures and policies.


M1.1 Distribution of IPv4 Address Space 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC allocates IPv4 address space to RIPE NCC members for
further address assignments to their own and End Users
networks. Special attention is given to these allocation
requests. Tools to support the allocation process and ensure the best
aggregation possible will be enhanced.

IPv4 address space assignments above a threshold size require approval
from the RIPE NCC. The RIPE NCC evaluates these assignment
requests. Members can ask a second opinion about assignments even when
it is not required. In addition the RIPE NCC gives recommendations and
guidelines for future requests.

Regarding address allocations and assignments, the RIPE NCC provides
special support for new members and beneficial guidance to established
members.

Goal: 

The process of allocating and assigning address space helps to ensure
a fair distribution of IPv4 addresses. It also supports the efficient
use of address space to conserve the remaining IPv4 address space and
to aggregate routing information.

Approval of IPv4 address space assignments ensures homogeneous
application of policies and assignment criteria by all RIPE NCC
members (LIRs) and helps them become familiar with request evaluation.

Assistance to new and established LIRs helps to process successfully
their address space requests and to provide a good understanding of
policies and procedures for further requests. This support also
promotes a good working relationship between RIPE NCC and its members,
and ensures that the members are able to provide the same support to
their customers.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG 


M1.2 Distribution of IPv6 Address Space 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC allocates IPv6 address space to its members. This
includes evaluating and auditing of assignments made from IPv6
allocations. Tools to support the allocation process and to ensure the
best aggregation possible will be enhanced.

Goal: 

This activity helps to ensure a fair distribution of IPv6 address
space and encourages the use of IPv6. It also supports the aggregation
of IPv6 routing information.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG, RIPE IPv6-WG 


M1.3 Autonomous System Number (ASN) Assignments 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC assigns AS numbers according to global and local
policies. It registers these numbers and the initial associated
routing policy. The request form, supporting documentation and
training materials will be updated.

Goal:

This activity ensures uniqueness of AS numbers and helps collect data
for the Routing Registry. It also helps to prevent unnecessary
increases in the number of autonomous systems that are visible in
global Internet routing.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG, RIPE Routing-WG, RIPE Database-WG 


M1.4 Reverse Delegation 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC delegates reverse DNS zones for the address ranges
allocated or assigned via the RIPE NCC. To support this service, the
RIPE NCC will provide a reliable secondary name server and work to
avoid pollution of the DNS in the zones delegated to the RIPE
NCC. Therefore, the RIPE NCC will check all zones under its
responsibility as to proper set-up and functioning. Proactive checking
of already delegated zones is an important goal.

Goal:

This activity supports the proper address-to-name mapping for
addresses allocated to the RIPE NCC.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG, RIPE DNS-WG 


M1.5 Consistency and Auditing 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC actively checks the quality and validity of Internet
resource registry data, including the production of statistics on
address space usage. To ensure fair address space distribution, the
RIPE NCC regularly checks that assignments are applied uniformly. This
activity is separated from the other registration activities as it is
defined and carried out independently from the day-to-day processing
of requests. Consistency checking and auditing are performed within
other activities. Observations are reported back to the RIPE Local IR
Working Group for further investigations and improvement of the
procedures.

Goal:

This activity promotes a consistent and fair application of assignment
criteria relating to the conservation of address space and aggregation
of routing information. This activity assists in identifying parts of
the procedure that cause problems.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG 


M2 Initial Support for New LIRs 

The initial support for newly established LIRs is provided in addition
to the other registration services. It is embedded as part of the
process to establish a new LIR. During this phase, additional
clarification and explanation is involved to familiarise the new and
potential LIRs with all procedures necessary to operate an LIR.


M2.1 LIR Set-up 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC provides information to potential LIRs and gives initial
support and help to LIRs during their set-up phase. Information and
support is also extended to potential LIRs.

Goal: 

This activity supports new LIRs during their set-up phase to introduce
tools, procedures and guidelines. It also gives potential LIRs enough
information to make an informed choice as to whether or not they
become an LIR.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG 


M2.2 Training Courses 

Description:

The RIPE NCC will further develop and continue to deliver Training
Courses for LIRs, both new and existing.

LIR Training Course: The LIR Training Course material includes IP
address assignment and allocation procedures and policies, delegation
of reverse domains, and usage of the RIPE Database. Additionally, more
specific courses will be deployed within this period to address
security issues and new technological developments in the Internet.

DNSsec Training Course: An introduction course to DNSsec has been
developed in 2001/2002. This course shows how to secure a zone using
DNSsec and explains the RIPE NCC specific procedures. It will be
offered to the membership on a monthly basis during 2003, usually in
the same location as the LIR Training Course.

Goal:

The goal of the LIR Training Course is to familiarise the new LIRs
with procedures and policies and keep established LIRs up-to-date with
new guidelines and developments. This facilitates smooth operations
between the RIPE NCC and the LIRs. With the consistent application of
policies the RIPE NCC can ensure fair distribution of address space
among the community.

The DNSsec Training Course introduces LIRs to the concepts and where
these can be deployed in Internet operations. There are procedures to
be followed in order to deploy DNSsec that are presented during the
course.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE LIR-WG
RIPE Techsec-WG

M3 Liaison and Co-ordination

Description: To carry out activities for its members the RIPE NCC acts
as a liaison and co-ordinates with a variety of organisations and
tracks the activities of others. Examples of such organisations are
IANA, ICANN, IETF, RIPE, ARIN and APNIC. It is often difficult to
attribute liaison and co-ordination resources to specific activities
and it is therefore an activity in its own right. Costs for this
activity are split evenly between the registration and co-ordination
activity budget lines.

Goal: To maintain the necessary relationship with other organisations
related to the operations of the RIPE NCC.


M4 Test Traffic Measurements

Description: TTM measures key parameters of the connectivity between a
site and other points on the Internet (i.e. routing vectors, one-way
delay and packet-loss, IPDV, Bandwidth, with additional measurements
being developed). By utilising dedicated measurement devices, or
"test-boxes", TTM makes it possible to monitor proactively and
continuously the connectivity of networks to other parts of the
Internet.

TTM metrics and methodologies comply with current standards in RFCs
2330 and 2678 through 2681, published by the IETF IP Performance
Metrics Workgroup.

Goal: The goal of the Test Traffic Measurements (TTM) is to conduct
independent measurements of performance-related quantities of the
Internet and, in particular, between the networks operated by the
membership. Examples of such quantities are the delay, loss, or
routing vector between two points.

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE Test Traffic-WG


M5 Membership - RIPE NCC Interaction Facilities

Description:

The goal of this activity is to develop and improve flexible and
convenient ways for LIRs and users in general to interact with the
RIPE NCC's systems. Particular attention will be dedicated to the
security aspects of such interactions to ensure privacy and
authentication wherever needed. Part of this project will include the
investigation and, possibly, initial deployment of a Certification
Authority at the RIPE NCC.

Goal:

This activity aims at allowing access to the LIRs to securely access
and eventually update some of the information the RIPE NCC keeps in
its internal services regarding the LIR. It also includes front ends
for other RIPE NCC systems such as the RIPE Database. During 2003,
this activity will concentrate on the deployment of a production
service.


C - Co-ordination Activities

The activities performed in this area must be accessible to the users
of the Internet and the general public to be effective. Their common
purpose is to support the coherent operation of the Internet in the
RIPE NCC service region.

C1 RIPE Database Maintenance and Development

Description: 

The RIPE Database is the core software on which the Regional IP
Registry and the RIPE Routing Registry are based. Reliability and rich
functionality of the RIPE Database are essential for the RIPE NCC, the
LIRs in the RIPE NCC service region and the Internet. By maintaining
public releases, the RIPE NCC hopes to encourage all LIRs to make use
of the software and to acquire the newest improvements. This
encourages data exchange and co-operation among LIRs.

The RIPE NCC will ensure the reliability of the RIPE Database and
extend its functionality as needed.

This set of activities is designed to provide consistent support and
provide a reliable service both in the short and long term, and to
continue developments according to the needs of the RIPE community.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database-WG 


C1.1 User Support and Software Maintenance

Description:

The RIPE NCC manages a role mailbox for questions and comments and
address user questions promptly.

The RIPE NCC will also perform basic software maintenance activities
including bug fixes and minor modifications. All the results of these
software development efforts will be made publicly available.

This activity includes the maintenance and improvement of the system's
documentation.

Goal:

This activity is intended to provide a timely response to user
enquiries. It also helps assure the smooth operation of the Internet
Registry System.

Related Activity:
C1.4

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database-WG 


C1.2 Consistency 

Description:

The RIPE NCC works to prevent inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the
RIPE Database contents by improving syntax checks, modifying contact
reference mechanisms and educating users.

The RIPE NCC helps users perform data maintenance activities to
improve the quality of data already in the RIPE Database. This
includes reporting problems to contacts where possible and providing
tools that enable users to correct and clean up their data. The RIPE
NCC also produces regular "State of the Database Reports" to monitor
the quality of data over time.

Goal:

The value of the RIPE Database for its users depends on the quality of
the data. The goal of this activity is to monitor and improve the
consistency and accuracy of the data maintained in the RIPE Database.

Related Activity:
C1.6 

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE Database-WG 


C1.3 Database Availability and Exchange 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC provides access to the RIPE Database via Whois servers
and by supporting other sites in mirroring the data. For example,
support is given to other registries in setting up secondary database
servers. The RIPE NCC actively pursues and co-ordinates data exchange
both with other RIRs and other Routing Registries.

Goal: 

This activity is intended to enable RIPE Database users to acquire the
information they need quickly and to help those outside the RIPE
region acquire information in the RIPE Database as easily as
possible. This is essential for both the IP and the Routing
Registries.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database-WG, RIPE Routing-WG 


C1.4 New Database Features 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC designs and implements new database features as requested
by the user community or proposed by the RIPE NCC. It performs the
development work based on the priorities established in the
appropriate RIPE Working Groups.

The RIPE NCC also reports at these working groups about the results of
co-operation with other RIRs at a global level.

Goal:

The purpose of this activity is to provide new functionality to the RIPE Database as the user community expresses the need for it.

Related Activities:
C1.1 

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE Database-WG 


C1.5 RPSLng

Description:

The RIPE NCC will contribute to ongoing efforts in the IETF that aim
at extending the functionality of Routing Policy Specification
Language (RPSL) in order to support IPv6 and multicast routing, as
well as the necessary evolution of the standard in order to ensure
inter-operability of new functionality with other Routing Registry
systems.

Goal:

Expand RPSL where necessary and evolve the standard in an
inter-operable way.

Related Activities:
C1.1, C1.4

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE Routing-WG, RIPE Database-WG 


C1.6 Routing Registry Tool Deployment and Training 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC works to create support tools such as RR tools and the
RAToolset. These tools will be made available to members of the RIPE
community. The RIPE NCC will deliver training courses to teach the
RPSL language and the use of the RR tools in configuring routers and
examining policies and routing in the Internet.

Goal:

The RIPE NCC will take on further development of the RAToolset after
completion of its transition from the Information Sciences Institute
of the University of Southern California.

This toolkit allows router configurations to be generated and/or
verified from the contents of the RR as well as sanity checking of the
information registered at the RR. The goal of this activity is to
enable members of the RIPE community to exploit RPSL and define the
development of new RR tools.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing-WG 


C1.7 Routing Registry Consistency 

Description: 

This activity seeks to improve data quality in the Routing Registry as
a public source of intended routing information (as described by the
maintainers of the data, the ISPs). It also aims to improve data
accessibility and processing capabilities to enable users to extract
the largest possible benefit from this information source.

Goal:

The objective of this activity is to provide a public, accurate and
reliable source of information about public routing information in the
RIPE NCC service region, comparing the intended routing policies as
described in the RR to the information actually exchanged by routing
protocols. A coupling to the RIPE NCC address assignment activities is
also an objective.

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE Routing-WG 


C1.8 Security Mechanisms of the RIPE Database 

Description: 

This activity has traditionally been part of general RIPE Database
development. However, in today's world, a more dedicated focus on data
access and maintenance is required.

Goal: 

This activity seeks to deploy secure methods of accessing and
maintaining data in the RIPE Database. It will interface with a more
general increase in awareness of security matters in all interactions
between the RIPE NCC and other parties.

Related Activities:
M5 

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Database-WG 


C2 Information Services, Communication and Education 

This set of activities ensures information flow between the RIPE NCC
and the RIPE community as well as between these and other parties
involved in the Internet.


C2.1 Mailing List Management 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC maintains high quality mailing lists for exchanging
information among members of the RIPE community. Efforts are made to
prevent spam (unsolicited advertising) on the mailing lists, to
improve the quality of the address lists in order to minimise bounces,
and to support subscribers with problems. The processing of mailing
list traffic is constantly monitored.

Goal: 

The goal is to ensure the exchange of information among members of the
RIPE community and to provide support for subscribers of RIPE mailing
lists.


C2.2 Maintenance of Information Services 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC maintains a WWW and ftp server at:

http://www.ripe.net/

and

ftp://ftp.ripe.net/

There is also an accompanying <webmaster@ripe.net> role mailbox to
provide help and information to users. This includes:

- Continuous modification and restructuring of the information on the
  WWW server providing the best structure for ease of use to visitors
  of the site.

- Monitoring of the content of the servers to assure accuracy, consistency and a user-friendly environment.

Goal: 

The purpose of this activity is to ensure that the information and
services on the RIPE NCC servers are up-to-date and working well and
that responses to user needs are provided in a timely manner.

Related Activities:
C2.3

RIPE Working Group Advising:
All 


C2.3 Public Relations and Outreach 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC has established an extensive network in the Internet
community and with existing and new players in the industry. This will
continue and be intensified.

In the past, all issues related to the RIPE NCC activities and IP
address distribution were brought up in the RIPE community. Today
there are other groups and forums that deal with Internet and IP
issues. The RIPE NCC needs to make contact with those organisations
and ensure that RIPE and the RIPE NCC are properly represented in all
forums dealing with issues that affect Internet administration. The
open structures and processes in which RIPE and the RIPE NCC operate
need to be promoted and new players must be encouraged to participate
actively.

Focused effort must remain on new players, new technologies and
governments showing an interest in Internet administration and
governance.

Goal:

This activity aims to increase the awareness of RIPE and the RIPE NCC
with existing and new players in the Internet community, and to ensure
that the RIPE NCC continues to play an effective role in the further
formalisation of Internet administration.


C2.4 Reporting 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC reports about its activities to its membership, the RIPE
community and the general public on the network and at RIPE
Meetings. The RIPE NCC publishes an annual report, including financial
statements, for distribution to its membership, suppliers, the mass
media, and interested members of the public. Continuous efforts are
made in developing the web site to provide up-to-date and informative
documentation essential to the RIPE NCC membership and RIPE community.

Goal:

This activity provides the RIPE NCC membership and other interested
parties with open, detailed information about the ongoing RIPE NCC
activities and its position in the Internet community.

Related Activities:
C2.3, C4 


C3 DNS Co-ordination 

The RIPE NCC does not provide domain name registration services. It
does, however, provide DNS co-ordination and support activities as
well as registration of reverse address mapping domain registrations,
currently within the in-addr.arpa and ip6.arpa domains (while ensuring
a transition as smooth as possible from the ip6.int domain).


C3.1 European Root Name Servers 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC supports the operation of the root name servers located
in the RIPE NCC service region. In particular, it operates the server
currently located at the LINX in London (k.root-servers.net). In 2003,
the RIPE NCC will invest resources in investigating and deploying ways
to increase even further the responsiveness of the service (e.g. using
"anycast" type routing).

Goal: 

Those few DNS name servers serving the "." (root) zone are critical
elements of the Internet infrastructure that should be operated in a
neutral and professional way. The goal of this activity is to ensure
that this happens.

RIPE Working Group Advising: 
RIPE DNS-WG 


C3.2 Secondary DNS Service

Description:

The RIPE NCC provides secondary name service and limited support to
those country TLD administrators that wish to use it. The RIPE NCC
assists ICANN in the administration of those TLDs as described in RFC
1591.

Goal:

Internet users depend on DNS name servers serving the zones of two-
letter ISO3166 country code top-level domains. Name service for these
zones should be reliable. New countries should be supported to
establish their country code TLDs. Reverse zones are served in a
secondary capacity to assist in ensuring the reliability of reverse
lookups.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS-WG


C3.3 DNS Hostcount 

Description: 

The RIPE NCC provides monthly statistics on the number of hosts
connected to the Internet in the RIPE NCC service region. The
statistics are gathered in collaboration with numerous organisations
doing local counts per country.

Goal: 

The goal of this activity is to collect and publish uniform time
series data about the growth of the Internet in the RIPE NCC service
region. This is a continuation of data collection on Internet growth
started in October 1990. The information and statistics are used
extensively by LIRs and organisations operating in the RIPE NCC
service region and beyond.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS-WG


C3.4 ENUM DNS services

Description:

The RIPE NCC has an outsourcing agreement with the IAB under which it
is responsible for providing DNS services in the e164.arpa
domain. This domain implements support in the DNS for the ENUM
protocol, allowing mapping of telephony services into the Internet.

Goal:

The goal of this activity is to support operations of one of the
systems required for the deployment of the ENUM protocol, promoting
increased integration between the Internet and services provided
through traditional telephony infrastructure.


C4 RIPE Meetings

Description:

The RIPE NCC organises RIPE Meetings, providing all administrative and
technical support. These RIPE Meetings take place three times a year
and are open to the public. Most costs regarding venue, equipment
hire, etc., are recouped by charging an attendance fee, as well as
through corporate sponsorship. The RIPE NCC subsidises any deficit.

Goal:

To provide support for an infrastructure whereby the RIPE Meetings can
be held. Guidance and advice from the RIPE Working Groups and
membership is invaluable to the RIPE NCC in supporting its effective
role in further formalising Internet administration. RIPE also plays
an influential role in defining the annual activity plan and these
meetings are therefore essential to the stable operations of the RIPE
NCC.


N - New Activities 

This area represents those activities that are either unforeseen or
cannot be fully specified at the time of writing. By nature, new
activities are hard to specify in detail and priorities can change
quickly. Activities may be dropped or added as necessary. The activity
descriptions below are therefore more of a subjective statement of
direction rather than a fixed plan of action. In particular, some of
the ideas below have not yet been fully discussed in the relevant RIPE
Working Groups.


N1 Deployment of Internet Security Infrastructure (DISI)

Description:

The RIPE NCC will gather information and experience by deploying the
technologies itself and fostering their deployment in the RIPE
community through presentations, courses and workshops. ISPs and,
specifically, RIPE NCC members play a key role in deploying these
technologies. The RIPE NCC will initially focus on DNSsec and
co-operate with other organisations working in this area, such as
NLnet Labs, Nominum and others. The RIPE NCC also actively
participates in the IETF Working Groups on this topic. In the course
of 2003, the project will be expanded to other relevant technologies.

Goal:

The RIPE NCC will continue its efforts to have in-addr.arpa secured
for all address blocks allocated to the RIPE NCC. The procedures for
signing these zones have been presented at RIPE 43 and it is expected
that the first zones can be signed early in 2003. This will then be
turned into a production facility in 2003 and it should be possible
for the entire community to routinely sign zones by mid-2003. The
experience gained will be shared with the community in workshops and
white papers. After that, this part of the project will be moved from
"New Activities" to "Member Services".

Developments in the Internet security area are energetically followed
and the project will be expanded in the course of 2003, based on user
feedback and industry developments.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Techsec-WG 


N2 Routing Information Service (RIS)

The goal of the RIS is to collect Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
routing information at several major exchange points in near real time
and store it in a database. An interface similar to a "looking glass"
then provides both multiple views and information about specific times
in the past. This is very useful to ISP operations because operators
do not have to search for specific "looking glasses" covering their
area of interest. Additionally, they can query the specific time of a
problem rather than having access to just the present state of routing
information. The database is also useful for the RIPE NCC itself as it
allows Hostmasters to determine how prefixes and autonomous systems
have been used on the Internet over an extended period.

To collect the information, nine so-called Remote Route Collectors
(RRCs) have been installed worldwide. The RIPE NCC plans to evaluate
the view of the Internet available to the RIS and, if necessary,
install other RRCs to get a more comprehensive picture of BGP routing
information. Peering sessions will continue to be established with
interested ISPs.

User access to the collected data will be improved by adding
additional queries to the database. Also, a daily report with graphs
showing the development of key parameters in BGP routing has been
available and will be expanded.

There is a lot of interest in the data from the research community. We
will continue to serve them as well as feed back any interesting
research results to the RIS users.

Finally, the RIPE NCC will put more effort into communication with
present and future users of the RIS to better understand their needs
for new features based on the RIS data. Training materials showing how
to use the RIS in day-to-day operations will be developed.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE Routing-WG


N3 Name Server Daemon (nsd)

Description:

nsd is an authoritative-only, high performance, simple and open source
name server developed by the RIPE NCC and NLnet Labs in 2002.  No
major development is foreseen in 2003 but this program will be
actively supported.

Goal:

The goal of this activity is to maintain the program, keep the
specification up-to-date and perform testing on revisions of the nsd
as they are released. Based on growing demand, it is expected that
structural testing of various DNS implementations will take place to
assess performance and differences of the various DNS implementations.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
RIPE DNS-WG
RIPE Techsec-WG


N4 Unforeseen Activities

Description:

The RIPE NCC actively follows the developments in the Internet and
reacts to any requirements for new activities from the RIPE
community. In the past, the RIPE NCC has been requested to study and
implement a number of new activities at short notice.

Goal:

The goal of this activity is to ensure that the RIPE NCC continues to
react promptly to the developments and changing needs of the Internet
environment.

RIPE Working Group Advising:
Depending on the activity 