[Atlas-anchors-pilot] RIPE Atlas Anchors to be Single-Service System

[Vesna Manojlovic]

[Apologies for duplicate emails]

Dear colleagues,

When reviewing the results of our pilot phase, we came to the conclusion that it would be better to build RIPE Atlas anchors as a single-service system than to host multiple services on the same box. Therefore, we will use more modest hardware for the anchors in the next phases of the project. We will publish the full findings from the RIPE Atlas anchors project on RIPE Labs in the coming weeks.

The reasons for the decision to use a single-service system are:
- The lower price of the smaller box will allow more hosts to participate, especially from developing countries
- Currently, we do not have an additional service to install in the boxes because no expansion is planned for K-root in the coming year
- Based on the survey from September 2012, people expressing a need for multiple services on the same box did not form a clear majority; most people were interested in the anchor service and “maybe” other services

Using the single-service system will enable us to meet our original goals, which were to:
- Provide powerful hardware that can perform more measurements
- Provide stable targets for measurements, with more bandwidth to withstand more measurements from a larger probe
- Achieve greater coverage for the RIPE Atlas network and expand globally
- Keep related logistics and operations as simple as possible

The change in hardware will not immediately affect support to anchor functionality on the current Dell servers. We will continue to provide support for the anchors currently in use for the duration of the pilot hosts’ service contracts. After that time, RIPE Atlas anchors will require the new hardware.

With this new plan, all other features and benefits of hosting the anchor remain:
- The anchor still performs as both the target and as a larger probe 
- Anchors earn extra credits for their hosts, allowing hosts to perform more of the user-defined measurements about their own network(s)

Planned additional features include:
- Anchor hosts benefiting from regional anchoring measurements 
- Packet-capturing software, which is currently being investigated

Our goal is to bring RIPE Atlas anchors to production by the RIPE 67 Meeting in October.

If you have any queries or feedback, please contact <mcb at ripe.net>.

Regards,
Vesna
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