RIPE 70

Connect Working Group RIPE 70
Wednesday, 13 May, 11:00-12:30
WG Co-Chairs: Remco van Mook, Florence Lavroff
Scribe: Amanda Gowland
Status: Draft

0. Opening and Welcome [1 min]

Remco welcomed attendees.

Appoint Scribe, Agenda Bashing [5 min]



2. Minutes from RIPE 69 [3 min]

There were no comments on the minutes and they were approved.

3. Update on IX Member List Schema [10 min]
Nick Hilliard, INEX

The presentation is available online at: 
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/96-inex-ripe-connectwg-amsterdam-2015-05-13.pdf

There were no questions.

4. European IXP Topography [10 min]
Kurt Erik Lindqvist, Netnod

The presentation is available at: 
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/97-IXP-Topograhpy.pdf

There were no questions.

5. Update on CDN Best Practices [10 min]
Florence Lavroff, Google

The presentation is available at: 
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/101-RIPE-70-Connect-Working-Group-May-13th-2015-Follow-up-Working-with-CDNs-towards-BCOP..pdf (file not available)

Nina Bargisen, Netflix, commented that if people are interested and find it useful then they should take their requests for features and what they need to know to the mailing list. They have a lot of information to share.

6. Open-IX – Building a New Community Event [10 min]
Keith Mitchell, Open-IX

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/78-RIPE70-ConnectWG-Open_IX.pdf

Andrei Robachevsky, ISOC, asked Keith to elaborate on how OIX standards were developed.

Keith replied it is a bottom-up process done by members that volunteered to be on the committee. The committee is refreshed to make ensure that there is active engagement. Standards are written by the members and reviewed by the community and then feedback is implemented and the board endorses the standards. There's talk of an IX “light” standard, which has been a frequent request. They are open to proposals and discussions.

Andrei asked if it was documented on the website. Keith confirmed that it was.

Remco commented that OIX organised America's interconnection summit.

Keith said nearly 200 people took part and it was a successful event with two days of presentations and meeting sessions for networking.

7. IXPs in Developing Markets

Euro-IX Support Programs [10 min]
Bijal Sanghani

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/104-support_programs_ripe70.pdf

There were no questions.

ISOC IXP Development Program [10 min]
Jane Coffin, ISOC

The presentation is available at: 
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/99-ISOC_RIPE-70_Internet-Environ-13-May-Jane-Coffin.pdf

Will Hargrave, LONAP, comment that the problem with traffic graphs is that the wrong value is on the Y-axis and that the megabit figure needs to be replaced by a dollar sign. Then the graphs will look very different in Africa and people in the West tend to forget that.

Jane replied that they are looking at working on this in that region and she agreed that it needs to be seen from a “what's in it for you” perspective and to highlight the benefits. She added that it's also about quality of service, latency would go down, traffic would go up and this has been seen time and time again. It would also benefit the human ecosystem, attract better engineers, etc.

Jane added that she'd like to stress that when CDNs are trying to work with an IXP to encourage them to bring in their cache. It's very helpful because sometimes they don't understand and ISOC would rather make sure that the configurations they're giving them are going to last more than a year.

African Innovation [10 min]
Andrew Owen, NAPAfrica

The presentation is available at: 
https://ripe70.ripe.net/presentations/102-RIPE_2015.pdf

John Souter, LINX, asked if he could have a magic wish for what the more developed IXP community could do for them, what would it be?

Andrew said that it's different per area, the trend is to give them kit but it's not about switches, it's about helping to understand the community, building trusted sources, training, ongoing communication. Giving them an idea of what their goal should be.

Joshua Sahala, Microsoft, asked if there was any consistency or effort to improve the use of route servers in Africa. He said that the route servers are usually administered with odd routes and that Microsoft won't go to a route server unless it's absolutely necessary because it causes performance issues and routing problems.

Andrew said that it's a discussion in the community, lots of route server issues but infrastructure was put in a long time ago and quickly. Back then you had three or four members at the IX and it was a case of knowing someone and not filtering them based on that. He added that they are aware of the issue and that there doing work to make it better.

Josh said that it makes it simpler if they are rewriting next hops or inserting ASes but they are making it worse for themselves in the long run.

Andrew said they are aware of it but that people see it as a quicker way to grow.

Will Hargrave, LONAP, asked if there was a best practice document needed. He added that even the status of quality and filtering in Europe is terrible.

Keith Mitchell, OIX, asked Andrew to explain what he meant by “council power”.

Andrew said they have one provider that sells power to municipalities that then distribute locally.

Short Panel Session with Presenters [10 min]

Remco asked all three presenters if the deregulation of telecoms helps and if the first to deregulate in a region is the winner when it comes to interconnection.

Jane said they are seeing a shift in emerging markets. They are trying to promote the idea that as a regular player, you are trying to promote investment, connectivity, remove barriers, submarine cables, etc, fibre, infrastructure. She added that regulation complications things. What ISOC has been doing is to suggest that IXPs reach out to governments to get them involved in the process to help with the knee-jerk reaction to regulate.

Remco asked Andrew how the quick deregulation of the telecoms industry in South Africa affected things.

Andrew said a specific group took regulators to court and for awhile the court was stonewalling the process but then basically had to make a decision and deregulated overnight. Suddenly hundreds of registered providers were putting their own fibre into the ground. He added that 80% of internet exchange traffic in Africa comes from South Africa, it's the hub into the continent.

Salam Yamout, speaking as the founder of the Beirut IX in 2007, agreed with Jane's earlier comments about regulation and emphasised that the technical experts need to start talking to each other.

8. Feedback: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly [5 min]

Remco asked attendees for feedback on how the Connect Working Group is going so far.

Peter Hessler, Hostserver GmbH, said it's not clear how they can best cooperate with this WG as a smaller player.

Remco replied that the smaller players should tell the Working Group what they expect from it.

Anders Mundt Due, DeIC / I2 / DIX,said he thinks it's going in the right direction.

9. AOB

Marco Hogenwoning, RIPE NCC, gave a very brief update on EuroDIG and asked for feedback on net neutrality.

10. Close