[ncc-services-wg] Re: AP2005 New Activities

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for the feedback you have provided to the email announcement
of RIPE NCC New Activities for 2005 (sent 12 July 2004). I have provided
a response to the queries brought forward in the text below.


>>Please find attached a list of new RIPE NCC activities scheduled
>>for 2005 and activities that represent a significant change in resource
>>allotment from 2004.
>
>In all sections, can you indicate if the cost includes all components
>such as manpower, hardware, software, etc.?

Yes. In all cases the full cost such as manpower, hardware, software, etc.
are included, and are based on capital expenditure as opposed to yearly
depreciation.


>1) RIPE NCC Member Service Desk
>If today RIPE NCC members contact either a Hostmaster or the
>RIPE DBM or some other person, either via email or phone, won't the
>level of tickets be reduced for those staff?  I ask since it would appear
>to me that existing staff can be merely reassigned to handle this new
>function with 2-3 PCs, and therefore I don't understand why the financial
>impact should be significant.

Yes, in principle this service is designed to decrease the load of relevant
help queries sent to Hostmaster and RIPE DBM. The financial impact
was calculated to include one new FTE plus hardware/software. Other
staff needed would re-assigned as you state. A significant amount of
the cost brought forward is to cover a new PABX needed to run such
a service. It is important to note that this item includes the full capital
expenditure of the switch, although it will benefit the entire organisation.


>2) Further Deployment of Mirror Instances of the K-root Nameserver
>
>Why does K root have to pay for this if F root does it all for free:
>http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/ops/f-root/sites.php

For stability reasons the operation of K global nodes are fully funded
by the RIPE NCC. K local nodes are sponsored by the local community.
For both classes of nodes the RIPE NCC retains full operational
responsibility and control.

The global nodes form the core of K-root availability and service.
Two of those are currently operational in Europe and two more are
planned, most likely one will be deployed in North America and one
in Asia.  For these nodes long-term operational stability is the primary
concern.  Long-term contractual arrangements for all operational aspects
including facilities management and connectivity are essential to achieve
this. Thus for the global nodes all capital and operating expenses are
budgeted.

In our judgement the expenses budgeted are reasonable to provide
the stability of K-root service that is in the interest of the RIPE NCC
membership. Should sponsorship opportunities arise that do not
compromise the stability goals set out above we will of course
pursue them in order to minimise the burden on the RIPE NCC
membership.

Other root server operators use different ways of deployment and
cost recovery. Such diversity is good, because diversity increases
the strength of the root server system.


> > 3) Improving Data Integrity
> >
>Will this include some method to cleanup/identify abuse contacts
>for spam, attack mitigation etc ? What about some abuse-c tag
>for the database ?

This issue is currently being discussed in the DB Working Group.
We see this as part of the ongoing maintenance and development of
the Database and therefore have not listed this as a new activity.


> > 7) Deployment of Anti-SPAM Measures and SPAM Abuse Policies
> >
> > The RIPE NCC will deploy technical facilities to minimise the effect
> > of SPAM and SPAM abuse towards the RIPE NCC and the mailing
>lists it provides for members and the RIPE community.
>
>The abuse-c database work might as well be done under this heading,
>or it might be under its own heading, but as far as I understand,
>it's not listed anywhere here ?
>
>If RIPE has for some reason choosen to abstain from abuse coordination
>issues, can you point me into some direction which *does* correlate
>IP to contact information, hopefully under a global scale ?
>
>Which is the reason for RIPE to keep away from this ?

We have not actively decided "to keep away from it", rather we have not
seen strong demand for the RIPE NCC to become active in this area.

I hope that I have answered your questions sufficiently and look
forward to any further discussion.

kind regards,

Axel Pawlik