RIPE 56 began on Monday with 297 attendees checked in by the end of the day. We also welcomed 99 first-time attendees on the first day of the meeting. Highlights of Monday's Plenary sessions were Anja Feldmann's (I-Labs/TU-Berlin) presentation on a new system for managing P2P traffic in ISP networks that prompted lengthy discussion, and the various analyses produced by the RIPE NCC's Science Group and ROMA Tre University, using tools from the RIPE NCC Information Services suite.
The Certification Task Force met on Monday to discuss the status of the project to develop a resource certification system for the RIPE NCC service region. Results of these discussions were presented during the Plenary session on Tuesday afternoon and in the Address Policy Working Group session on Wednesday morning.
The Enhanced Cooperation Task Force held a meeting on Monday to discuss its progress so far and the work remaining to complete its tasks as agreed at RIPE 55. The results of this discussion were presented to the community during the Closing Plenary on Friday morning.
The Services Centre opened early on Monday to welcome RIPE NCC members and non-members to talk with RIPE NCC staff about IP resource allocations, membership, billing and RIPE NCC services.
The first full day of RIPE 56 got off to a lively start with a day of Plenary presentations.
With a total of 343 attendees checked in, the sessions were full and there was plenty of discussion. One of the day's highlights was the presentation from Detlef Eckert, European Comission (EC), on IPv6 Deployment in the European Union. Detlef gave an overview of the EU action plan for IPv6 deployment and his presentation provoked much discussion in the community. Rob Blokzijl, RIPE Chair, also asked Detlef to return to future RIPE Meetings to report on the EC's progress.
In preparation for Wednesday's Special IPv6 Plenary Session, several of Tuesday's presentations were focused on IPv6. Jean Camp (Indiana University School of Informatics) presented "IPv6 Adoption Through the Lens of Economics of Security", Bernard Schmidt (Leibniz-Rechenzentrum) gave a talk on "Problems in the Current Global IPv6 Routing System" and Gert Doering (SpaceNet AG) gave an overview on the IPv6 Routing Table.
In order to introduce first-time RIPE Meeting attendees to the RIPE Working Group Chairs and other key players in the RIPE community, the Newcomers' Welcome Drinks were held on Tuesday evening for the 119 first-time meeting attendees registered so far. This event, together with the daily newcomers' lunches, was successful in helping first-time attendees, familiarise themselves with the RIPE Meeting format and the RIPE community.
Wednesday morning saw the IPv4 wireless network disabled for an hour for the special IPv6 Plenary Session. Shortly after, there were 120 users, almost every attendee in the session, connected to an IPv6-only network. The majority of these users completed an online survey, entering their details into a prize draw. The presentations, all of which were related to IPv6 adoption or IPv4 depletion, sparked lively debate that carried over to the RIPE IPv6 Working Group Session later in the day.
The following proposals were discussed during Wednesday's Address Policy Working Group session:
ROSIE, the RIPE Meeting website proved popular. Over 1,200 unique visitors accessed the site over the first three days of the meeting. 35% of those using ROSIE accessed it over IPv6 networks, effectively making it a site with one of the highest percentage of IPv6 users in the world (with the exception of those sites dedicated to IPv6 use only).
With eight working group sessions taking place, Thursday was one of the busiest days of the week at RIPE 56. For the first time in RIPE Meeting history, the number of attendees checked-in reached over 400, making RIPE 56 the biggest meeting so far. There were plenty of presentations and discussions throughout the day.
The following proposals were discussed in Thursday's Address Policy Working Group Session:
The RIPE 56 Meeting was called to an end on Friday by RIPE Chair, Rob Blokzijl. With a total of 404 attendees from 46 countries, this event was the biggest meeting so far.
The meeting host, DE-CIX, and all of the sponsors were thanked for their support.
Highlights from Friday included a presentation given in the Routing Working Group about the beta version of the RIPE NCC's new Information Services Alarms System. The Closing Plenary featured an overview of the work of various Network Operations Groups (NOGs) from around the world and reports from the Data Protection Task Force, the DNSSEC Trust Anchor Repository Task Force and the Enhanced Cooperation Task Force.
There was much discussion about the Enhanced Cooperation Task Force. There was consensus reached in the Closing Plenary that the task force should evolve into a Working Group. The draft charter for this new working group will be published shortly after the RIPE 56 Meeting ends and there will be a four-week comment period immediately following.
Paul Wilson, Director General APNIC, appealed for donations of money and equipment to support the deployment of Digital Ubiquitous Mobile Broadband OLSR (DUMBO) in cyclone-hit Myanmar.
Presentations from the meeting, webcast and podcast files, jabber transcripts and minutes are available in the Sessions Archive.
The next RIPE Meeting, RIPE 57, takes place in Dubai, UAE, on 26 - 30 October 2008. This is the first time a RIPE Meeting has been held in the Middle East and we look forward to seeing you there. Please note that RIPE 57 begins on Sunday and ends on Thursday and you are urged to register for the meeting and book your flights to Dubai as early as possible.