- Legend
- Added
- Deleted
Definition:
A RIPE task force is a group of RIPE community members formed to study and report on a specific topic or issue within the RIPE community as input to community discussion.
Creation and prerequisites:
When an issue is outside the scope of any RIPE working group or requires more in-depth analysis, the RIPE Chair can decide to form a new task force.
Before appointing task force members, the RIPE Chair consults with the community, defines the following elements, and announces them on the RIPE Discussion List:
- Rationale
- Charter
- Scope
- Methodology
- Provisional timeline
These elements provide the basic structure of the task force’s work.
Appointment and composition:
The RIPE Chair issues a call for volunteers or directly selects members from the community to form a new RIPE task force. Task force members are selected based on their experience, expertise and background. Intending task force members are expected to make the RIPE Chair aware of any relevant potential conflicts of interest.
RIPE task forces are usually composed of a relatively small number of community members. This can vary depending on the scope of the work at hand.
The task force should designate one or more chairs who are responsible for making sure that
RIPE tasks are structured in two ways: time frame and task group.
The task groups will be assigned to task forces, which are groups of individuals having a vital interest to achieve the tasks. The task forces will designate a coordinator whose responsibility it is to make sure
Responsibilities:
When agreeing to join a RIPE task force, each member is required to be available for regular meetings and to be actively involved in the process. Being part of a task force can require a significant time commitment, especially around RIPE Meetings and other important deadlines.
RIPE NCC staff support:
If appropriate and needed, a RIPE task force may be assigned specific RIPE NCC staff to help them in their work.
The role of RIPE NCC staff is to provide communications support and professional advice on technical issues. RIPE NCC staff can also help to capture meeting minutes and assist the task force in drafting its final output.
Output:
The output of a RIPE task force is defined in its charter, and usually takes the form of a report containing analysis and recommending actions for the community to consider, or a draft document for review and possible adoption.
In the former case, the task force should publish one or more preliminary drafts of its report, so that the RIPE community has a chance to give feedback. In the latter, and depending on its charter, the task force may have responsibility for successive re-drafting of the document to take account of community feedback.
Each task will be assigned to a number of task force members. A date for completion and for a first report will be set and agreed by the task force and especially by those to work on the task. Reports are used to monitor a tasks progress and keep other RIPE members interested in it informed.
Reports can be very informal.
It is important that a task force identifies alternative approaches considered and also any questions on which it was unable to agree a recommendation, whether due to internal dissent or to incomplete information.
Implementation:
Responsibility for the implementation of the output of a task force lies with the community rather than with the task force itself.
The RIPE Chair receives the report or draft produced by the task force and takes responsibility for guiding evaluation and building consensus on what is to be done. This may include requesting the task force to do more work or else assigning responsibility to one or more RIPE working groups, follow-up task forces or the RIPE NCC.
Time frame:
When created, a RIPE task force is given a provisional timeline for its work. At its initial meeting, the task force prepares its work plan and either confirms this timeline or proposes one which seems more realistic. The task force may wish to indicate what it expects it can achieve within the provisional timeline, as well as the time it considers necessary to complete its task. When a work plan and timeline are confirmed, or subsequently revised, the RIPE Chair will acknowledge this on the RIPE Discussion List.
Reporting to the community:
A RIPE task force should report on its progress regularly to the community and provide opportunities for the community to give feedback on its work.
This includes:
- Having a mailing list where the community can give input or feedback
- Publishing minutes of meetings
- Scheduling BoFs or other feedback sessions with the community
- Giving regular updates to the RIPE Chair
- Keeping the task force’s web page up to date
Provenance:
This document updates and expands on the information on RIPE task forces contained in Part II, Chapter 4 of the RIPE Enhanced Cooperation Task Force Link: /publications/docs/ripe-464/ report.
Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to thank all who gave suggestions and feedback during the preparation of this document, including Fergal Cunningham, Daniel Karrenberg, Markus de Brün, Peter Koch, Jordi Palet Martínez, Leo Vegoda, Vesna Manojlović, Randy Bush, Cynthia Revström, Rob Evans, Denis Walker, Gert Döring, Desiree Miloshevic, Sander Steffann, Nigel Titley, João Luis Silva Damas, Antony Gollan, and Boris Duval. Additional thanks are due to Antony and Boris for their excellent editorial support, and to Marita Phelan for making the document ready for publication. the task gets done, not the reports.
Note that the name task force implies that tasks are clearly defined and should be achievable within a set time frame.
The time frames for RIPE tasks are:
- short term (a few weeks to two months)
- long term (a few months)
- ongoing (this is something that needs to be done continuously, in this case the task force's task is to define a way to do the ongoing activity, get it started and monitor it's progress)
The task groups are:
- Connectivity and Routing
- Network Management and Operations
- Domain Name System
- Formal Coordination
The outcome of a task force consists of a report with recommendations. The recommendations will be discussed in the RIPE framework, and when concensus has been reached will be implemented.
Task Force 1: Connectivity and Routing
IP connectivity in Europe is not based on a strong backbone network such as NSFnet or EARN. It is not clear whether such a backbone will be feasible in the forseeable future. This makes IP connectivity problems much harder to solve technically, operationally and politically. This task force will be assigned all the tasks relating to the technical and design problems of achieving optimum connectivity.
Quite some input should be generated to task force 2 (Network Management and Operations) so that it can plan how to master the operational problems and can give feedback about problems that can be overcome by a different design. Also input should be generated to task force 4 (Fromal Coordination) on the necessary formal agreements for the use of infrastructures owned by the RIPE member organisations. How to get these agreements is a task of TF 4.
Task 1-1: Make an inventory of international IP connectivity in Europe and from Europe to other continents.
Term: Dec89
Task 1-2: Make an inventory of national IP infrastructures not yet interconnected.
Term: Jan90
Task 1-3: Make a plan for connectivity between IP networks of RIPE members and to other continents.
Term: Mar90, first report Jan90
Task 1-4: Design a routing scheme to be used on the international infrastructure coordinated by RIPE (EGP, BGP ....).
Term: Mar90, first report Jan90
Task 1-5: Monitor the setting up of RIPE coordinated routing and adapt the design if necessary.
Term: ongoing
Task Force 2: Network Management and Operations
European IP traffic is carried by a multitude of different infrastructures. The resulting pan-European IP infrastructure needs to be well managed in coordination with the managements of the underlying infrastructures. Currently this works well enough. With the expected growth a generally agreed management coordination is needed.
This task force should develop a managament framework and collect the necessary management information.
Coordination with all other task forces activities is needed.
Task 2-1: Create and maintain a (`whois') database about RIPE IP networks and their management information.
Term: Ongoing, reports monthly, first Dec89
Task 2-2: Create an infrastructure of operational contacts via various means of communication.
Term: Jan90
Task 2-3: Create a procedure for notification of security relevant problems assuming that the networks itself are unusable.
Term: Jan90
Task 2-4: Develop procedures for common network operations. These can be loosely agreed and need not be formally specified. Topics: Use of SNMP, reciprocal logins for testing purposes etc.
Term: Mid90, first rep Jan90
Task 2-5: Gather operating statistics. Traffic volume. Number of networks, hosts. etc. These are useful for planning and external publicity.
Term: Ongoing, first rep Jan90
Task 2-6: Set up a European NIC which makes available the results of tasks 2-1 to 2-5 to all interested parties.
Term: End90, first rep Mar90
Task 2-7: Maintenance and distribution of sets of common utilities, needed for the execution of the tasks 2-1 to 2-5.
Term: ongoing.
Task 2-8: Create and maintain centers of expertise in certain areas: router hardware and software, NSS, IBM software, etc.
Term: ongoing.
Task Force 3: Domain Name System
Europe needs a set of well coordinated nameservers. Europe also needs a set of nameservers that is resistent to partial loss of connectivity, especially with the US.
Task 3-1: Create a database containing namespace administration data: who administers top level domains and first level subdomains. This is for management purposes.
Term: Jan90
Task 3-2: Coordinate backup nameservers (secondaries) within RIPE and within the Internet.
Term: Jan90
Task 3-3: Design a framework of DNS backup servers within RIPE and get backup for root nameservice to Europe.
Term: Mar90
Task 3-4: Maintain a list of recommended DNS software and known bugs.
Term: ongoing, Jan90
Task 3-5: Study mailrouting and MX records.
Term: ongoing, first report Mar90.
Task Force 4: Formal Coordination
To make IP in Europe work we need formal agreements between the different networks. We also need to represent the RIPE activity to the outside world.
This should be done by a separate task force but in very close coordination with the other RIPE task forces.
Task 4-1: Propose a template agreement on IP cooperation.
Term: Jan90
Task 4-2: Maintain contacts with CCIRN and FRICC directly.
Term: ongoing
Task 4-3: Start formal contacts with other organisations as necessary.
Term: Ongoing
Task 4-4: Investigate and propose a possible legal status for RIPE.
Term: Mar90.
Amsterdam
29 November 1989