RIPE position paper
- Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 12:35:14 +0200
- Address: Kruislaan 409, P.O. Box 41882, 1009 DB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Organisation: Nikhef-H (National Institute for Nuclear and High-Energy Physics)
- Phone: +31 20 5925102, +31 20 6924218 (home)
- Telefax: +31 20 5925155
- Telex: 10262 hef nl
Dear Colleagues,
below you will find the paper that outlines the position of RIPE
regarding the upcoming discussion in the RARE COA on the
relationship between RIPE and RARE, and RIPE and the Operational Unit.
Comments and further input are welcome!
Rob Blokzijl
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
document: ripe-draft-position-v2
date: 11 August 1992
version: 2
author: R.Blokzijl
status: for discussion
1. Introduction
RIPE, the Resaux IP Europeen, has now been in operation for three
years. From a small group of people, representing a small number
of networks, it has grown into the major European network
coordination effort.
The recent installation of the RIPE Network Coordination Center
marks a major step forward on the way towards uniform and open
European networking.
The organisational environment in which RIPE functions has also
seen major developments recently, the most prominent of which
are:
o the Ebone 92 initiative
o the restructuring of RARE
o the creation of the RARE Operational Unit
In this document we describe RIPE as it functions today, the role
of the NCC, and the relationship between RIPE and the
organisations mentioned above.
2. RIPE
The world of IP in Europe consists of the concatenation of a
large number of individual networks. These networks are of a
diverse nature:
o regional networks
o national networks
o international networks
o academic and research networks
o commercial networks
o commercial organisations
RIPE is the organisationl forum where most of these networks
meet to discuss issues of common interest. Currently over 60
networking organisations, represented by 140 people, participate
in the work of RIPE. The concatenation of these networks
connects more then 200.000 hosts today. The result of the RIPE
coordination effort is that the individual end user is presented
on his desktop with a uniform IP service all over Europe,
irrespective of the network his workstation is attached to.
The European Internet constitutes an integral part of the global
Internet; today it makes up ~20% of The Internet. The
coordination with the global Internet also takes place through
RIPE.
The ground rules of RIPE are laid down in the Terms of Reference
[ripe-1], which can be found in Appendix A. In the framework of
this document, the following points from the Terms of Reference
should be stressed:
o RIPE establishes agreement on common network management
practices and the operational management of the interconnected
networks.
o RIPE is not a network service provider. IP networks
collaborating in RIPE remain under the executive authority of
their respective organisations.
In other words, RIPE coordinates the working of the Internet
service providers (NICs and NOCs) in Europe; the actual
management of networks remains the sole responsability of
individual NOCs.
The work in RIPE is done by the technical working groups. At
present there are 8 such groups active in the following area's:
o Network information services
o Domain Name system
o Routing
o Network monitoring and statistics
o Network maps
o European connectivity
o RIPE database
o Relationship between Academic & Research networks and Commercial
networks
The working groups have well defined activity plans; the results
of the working groups are delivered in various ways:
o RIPE reports
o RIPE recommendations
o tools for common network management practices
o European wide implemented common network policies
The net result has been the creation of a European Internet, that
provides uniform IP services to individual users, irrespective of
the organisation which provides their network service.
The working groups meet during the RIPE meetings, which take
place three times per year. Currently these meetings are attended
by about 80 people, including a growing number of representatives
from networks outside Europe, specifically the USA.
It should be noted that substantial resources "in kind" (i.e. in
travel, time, machine resources, etc etc) are contributed by
participating organisations and individuals in addition to any
contributions that are made to the running of the NCC.
It should be particularly noted that RIPE is a neutral forum in
which diverse and potentially competing network providers meet to
coordinate their IP activities. If RIPE, or any of its
activities, such as the NCC, were perceived to be influenced
or controlled in any way that compromized this neutrality, then
the participating network providers could no longer trust RIPE to
perform its coordinating role, and the whole RIPE operation would
flounder to the detriment of all.
Thus, it is vital that RIPE, and all of its activites should be,
and be seen to be strictly independent of any single interest or
group of interests. RIPE can only benefit everyone or benefit no
one - there is no middle alternative.
3. The RIPE NCC
The RIPE structure is very well suited for development type of
work. It is less well suited for the day to day work that is of
a more administrative nature. These tasks are handled by a
dedicated technical staff that form the RIPE Network Coordination
Center (NCC).
The RIPE NCC provides neither end-user support services nor
network operation functions. These functions are performed by
the network operation staffs of the RIPE member organisations.
The RIPE NCC performs the necessary support and coordination to
enable the RIPE member NOC staffs to provide these services.
The Network Coordination Center is 'embedded' in RIPE:
o RIPE defines the tasks and functions of the NCC
o the NCC reports to RIPE on all technical issues
o RIPE organisations participate in the work of the NCC
o RIPE regularly reviews the operations of the NCC
All technical reports of the NCC will be publicly available and
distributed to other interested organisations and bodies. One of
these is the RARE TC.
Currently RARE provides the formal framework for the NCC.
Funding for the first year of operation of the NCC is provided by
the full national members of RARE, Israel, EARN and EUnet. Thus
the NCC will report to the RARE secretary general on
organisational and formal issues. The NCC will together with the
RARE treasurer report to the funding organisations on financial
matters.
The services provided by the NCC are detailed in the RIPE NCC
Activity Plan [ripe-35]. The main services are:
o network management database containing information about IP
networks, DNS domains, IP routing policies and contact
information
o delegated Internet registry, a clearing house
distributing IP network numbers
o coordinated network statistics gathering
o domain name system (DNS) coordination
o graphical maps of IP networks (planned)
o repository for network operations software
This includes evaluating publicly available software
and making the RIPE community aware of suitable tools.
o RIPE document store
o interactive information service
The RIPE NCC provides services for all Internet service providers
in Europe. It is therefor advisable that the costs of the NCC
will be covered by contributions from all of the RIPE
participating organisations.
4. RIPE and RARE
RIPE was conceived originally as an activity seperate from RARE.
There existed at that time sound reasons for RARE not to be
involved with large scale IP networking in Europe. However, we
all live in a rapidly changing world.
The fact that most of the RARE member organisations were offering
IP services, and thus became active participants in RIPE, caused
RARE to reconsider its position versus RIPE.
At present RARE members form an important part of RIPE. The RARE
member organisations operate most of the IP networks that serve
the academic community. By their technical expertise they have
made valuable contributions to European IP coordination. It is
through the good work of their experts that RARE members play an
important role in RIPE. And this is the only way, in the current
practice of concensus finding, for any organisation or group of
organisations, to exercise influance in RIPE: technical
expertise, not political power play.
So today we see that RARE, through its members, plays an
important role in RIPE. RARE may take even a leading role, based
on technical expertise and hard work. RIPE technical groups will
work in the closest possible cooperation and coordination with
the RARE Technical Program. Duplication of effort on a European
scale must be avoided wherever possible. But, RARE must never be
perceived as the governing body of RIPE; this would break and
fragment the IP coordination in Europe.
Presently, RARE members fund the RIPE NCC. This, at least partially,
reflects the reality that the greater part of European IP
networking is operated by RARE members. However, as noted in
section 2, RIPE and its NCC, by its terms of reference, offer
services to all IP providers, including many outside RARE, and
including organizations that are already, or may soon be, in
direct commercial competition. Thus, it is vital for the good of
all IP users that RIPE remains, and is seen to remain,
independent of all individual organizations or groups of
organizations, including RARE.
The vital neutrality of RIPE would be enhanced if RIPE member
organizations which are not in RARE would also contribute to the
costs of the NCC in addition to participating in RIPE itself.
5. RIPE and Ebone 92
In the framework of RIPE, Ebone 92 is an important grouping of a
large number of IP network service providers in Europe. The aim
of Ebone is to provide in 1992 a co-ordinated IP network
infrastructure, with common network operations of a set of core
routers. A more detailed description of Ebone can be found in the
Ebone Memorandum of Understanding and the Ebone technical
documents, which can be obtained from the RARE secretariat and
electronically from the RIPE Document Store.
Ebone will not be the only IP service provider in Europe, of
course. It will still be faced with co-ordination issues between
Ebone participating networks and other networking organisations.
It is on this level that Ebone is expected to work within RIPE.
As any other NOC, the Ebone NOC will make use of the standard
services as provided by the RIPE NCC, and summarised in Section 3
above. Again, as any other NOC, the Ebone NOC may feel the need
for extra services, or for modified services. The agreed upon
mechanism for such modifications is through RIPE. Based upon a
few months experience, this has been shown to work extremely
well.
6. RIPE and the RARE Operational Unit
The relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC on the one hand,
and the RARE Operational Unit (OU) on the other hand depends
strongly upon the actual nature of the OU. Since the OU is not in
existence yet, and the discussions pertaining to the exact nature
of the OU have not been finalised yet, possible models of
inter-relationship can only be based on assumptions as to the
possible nature of the OU.
The discussion seems to revolve around two fundamentally
different possibilities for the OU:
o Case A: the OU will be a buyers co-operative, that goes out to
acquire network services for its participants. These
network services can be on any desired level: raw
bandwidth, various transport services and even
application services. The fundamental role of
individual networks in serving their particular user
communities remains unchanged.
o Case B: the OU will be a seller of network services. These
will be offered in the first place to the shareholding
organisations, but others are also eligible to buy
services. As such, the OU will operate in competition
with many other network service providers in Europe.
A full description of the OU can be found in the final report
"Towards a Single European Infrastructure", obtainable from the
RARE secretariat. It is interesting to note that this report
contains elements from both Case A and Case B.
However, whatever the final nature of the OU will be, it can be
deduced in both Cases that there is no need for any special
relationship between the OU and RIPE and the RIPE NCC.
In Case A, the individual networking organisations remain in
operational control of the service provision, either as seperate
organisations, or as a co-opreative a la Ebone. Just as in the
case with Ebone, their is no special relationship needed, either
with RIPE or with the RIPE NCC.
In Case B, where the OU is one of the commercial IP service
providers in Europe, it is even more vital to avoid any special
relationship between the RIPE NCC and the RARE OU for exactly the
same reasons as before. To re-iterate: If there were such a
special relationship, then IP service providers outside RARE
would perceive that RIPE and its NCC were part of the
competition, and would feel unable to participate in the
essential coordination which is the reason for the very existance
of RIPE and its NCC. The result would be that the coordination
would cease, and European IP networking would then fall into
anarchy.
ripe-1
R I P E
Terms of Reference
Recognising that IP networks are growing beyond the LAN's in Europe,
and are extending over national and international WAN's in Europe, the
RIPE coordinating body has been created. RIPE stands for the "Reseaux
IP Europeens".
The objective of RIPE is to ensure the necessary administrative and
technical coordination to allow the operation and expansion of a pan-
European IP network.
o RIPE acts as a forum for the exchange of technical information and
the creation of expertise on IP networking.
o The area of relevance for RIPE is Europe.
o All parties operating wide area IP networks are encouraged to par-
ticipate.
o RIPE promotes and coordinates interconnection of IP networks within
Europe and to other continents.
o RIPE establishes agreement on common network management prac-
tices and the operational management of the interconnected networks.
o RIPE serves as a focal point for other common activities of the par-
ticipants related to IP networking.
o All documents produced by RIPE will be publicly available.
o RIPE is not a network service provider. IP networks collaborating in
RIPE remain under the executive authority of their respective organ-
isations.
Amsterdam
29 November 1989
