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1 Introduction

This document describes the Data Disclosure Policy (also referred to as the acceptable use policy or AUP) for the the data collected by the RIPE NCC Test Traffic Measurement Service (TTM) [1 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html#r:ripe158 ]. It data-disclosure policy for the Test-Traffic Project [1]. This policy describes who can access the data from this service, the project, what one can do with the data and conditions that which conditions must be fulfilled before the data can be published outside the RIPE Test Traffic Working Group (TT-WG) Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/tt/index.html and the organisations hosting the test boxes.

RIPE-meetings and working groups.

This policy is based on discussion in the RIPE TT-WG. It replaces the old policy as described in [2 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html#r:ripe180 ]. Existing users of the service will be asked to confirm that they the ideas described in [1] and has been extensively discussed in a BoF at RIPE-30. Drafts of this document have been circulated amongst the ISP's who participated in the project in May 1998. It is assumed that ISP's who will join the project after May 1998, agree with this change in policy. New test boxes will only be installed if the hosts agree with this version of the policy.

2 General principles

This policy is based on 2 principles:

  • Avoid abuse while giving as much freedom as possible to use the data.
  • A simple procedure that describes the basic idea and is easy to follow rather than a heavy document that attempts to describe every possible case.
policy before deciding to join the project.

Collecting data with the test-boxes means collecting data about organisations ISP's and the performance of their networks. This We realize that this is a delicate matter as nobody no ISP wants to see an analysis that puts the performance of his networks in a bad light, particularly daylight, in particular if the scientific merits of the analysis cannot be proven. On the other hand, the results of TTM the test-traffic project can be a valuable tool for day-to-day operations, long-term planning and scientific research. One does both day-to-day operations as well as long term planning, we certainly do not want to be too restrictive about what can be done with the data.

To implement these principles, 3 basic rules are set:

  • The RIPE NCC controls the distribution of the data.
  • All data analysis should be peer reviewed before publication.
  • All reports should include a pointer to the official description of the data as well as appropriate credit and copyright statements.

These basic rules are discussed in the next sections for two cases: section 3 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:host discusses the situation for the owners of a test-box and their customers, section 4 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:other for all others. The latter category generally consists of researchers doing scientific analysis of the data in order to better understand the behaviour of the Internet.

3 Participating Organisations

This section deals with organisations that own a Test Box and participate in the service, and their customers. Customers are loosely defined as any organization that uses the network of the test box host in order to connect to the rest of the Internet. There may or may not be a formal business relation. Sites owning a Test Box are called ``test box hosts'' in the remainder of this document,

1

The basis of our data-disclosure policy is that, at the moment, the test-traffic project should be considered a scientific experiment. We do measurements and collect data that we believe is correct. The analysis focusses on describing the data and finding parameters that describe the overall network performance. However, we have not proven this (yet) and until such time, one should not use the data to judge the performance of an

ISP.

2 Access to the data

There are several

2.1 Participating ISP's

As stated in an earlier document [1], each ISP hosting a test-box will have access to the data collected with the test-box at his site. There will be two ways in which a test box host the ISP can access the data:

  1. Through an interface on the test box. This shows the data Using a telnet connection to the test-box. This method gives the ISP access to the delay and routing information as it is being
  2. collected, with a delay of only a few minutes. Access to this interface is restricted to IP addresses specified by the test box host and allocated to the host or its customers. The host will make the customer aware of this policy.
  3. Through the RIPE NCC website. Processed data (plots, summaries) will be put on the RIPE NCC web site without password restrictions (but see section 4 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:other below). Plots can be copied to another, internal web site if necessary, provided that proper credits are given and the test box host makes the users of that site aware of this policy.
    4. Through the RIPE NCC ftp-site. Unprocessed data will be put on an ftp-server on request. The URL will recorded by the test-box within seconds after the data has been taken. However, as we explained in [1] each test-box can only record incoming delay measurements and outgoing routing vectors. No information about outgoing delay measurements will be available.
  4. Access to the data-base. This method will give access to the results of both incoming and outgoing delay measurements and routing vectors. However, this requires that the data is first collected and processed at a central point, so the data will not be available immediately.

    5. The data that is available to participating ISP's will include IP-numbers of the test-boxes that the box communicated with, their position and other details like that.

    Instructions for accessing the data are available from http://www.ripe.net/test-traffic/Host_testbox/access.html . As a security feature, data will only be made available to

    the test box host and/or its customers.

    Data can be downloaded and the host can share the data with its customers. The host is responsible for making the customer aware of this policy. Redistribution of the data to any other party in any form is not allowed.


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machines with IP-numbers that have been specified by the ISP in advance.

2.2 Others

All others will have access to an anonymous version of the data, that is data where IP-numbers, location of the test-boxes and all other information that can be used to trace where the boxes are located has been removed from the data.

Again, details on how to access the data will be available from http://www.ripe.net/test-traffic/Host_testbox/access.html .

2.2.1 At a later stage

It has been suggested that, at a later stage, old data should be available to everybody without restrictions. If this suggestion is approved, everybody can access data that has been taken at least N months ago, including information about the location of test-boxes.

The idea behind this proposal is that it gives everybody a chance to analyze the data and test ideas on how to improve the Internet using old data. If N is sufficiently high (at least several months, perhaps even a year), then there will have been so many changes in the networks that information about networks is probably outdated and certainly not confidential anymore.

Note that this idea is only a suggestion and will not be implemented in the near future without prior consultation with the sites hosting the test-boxes.

3 Analysis and publication of the data

The data can be used freely for any analysis. The host can freely discuss the results with its customers or present the results to the RIPE NCC TT-WG. Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/tt/index.html

analysis that one considers interesting. One is free to discuss the analysis inside the organization that did the analysis or the relevant RIPE working groups.

Before an analysis is presented to the outside world, the analysis will have to be verified. This means that the organisation (including the RIPE NCC Link: http://www.ripe.net/info/ncc/aboutncc.html organization (including the RIPE-NCC ) that did the analysis analysis, will have to provide a write-up of the analysis that includes enough detail for anybody to independently re-implement the analysis and verify its conclusions. This write-up will be circulated amongst all hosts (a subset of) the ISP's participating in the project for a peer review. This review period will last 2 weeks and a mailing list for comments will be made available.

If there are objections to an analysis, they it will be discussed with the authors and the authors will be invited to submit a new version. When a new version is published, another 2 week review period will start. If a host what changes in the analysis will have to be made in order to make it acceptable. If an ISP still disagrees, they can ask that data related to their site is removed from the analysis. However, no single host ISP can veto the publication of an analysis by another

host or the RIPE NCC.When

ISP or the RIPE-NCC . If data is published, it should include as few little references to names of other sites, ISP's, IP-addresses of test-boxes and routers etc. while keeping the document readable (for example, by calling the hosting sites ISP-A, ISP-B, etc.). routers, and the like. Note that it will never be possible to make the data completely

anonymous.The RIPE NCC will take care of the administrative aspects of setting up a peer review, such as the distribution of draft papers and providing a mailing list for comments. anonymously.

Most request for publishing data anonymously comes from the for-profit community. In the non-profit community, there appears to be far less resistance against publications where data can be traced back to specific sites.

It should be noted that the review process takes time. Anybody planning to present data at a conference should keep this in mind.

Once a document is published, the authors of the document should provide the RIPE NCC with a copy of the final paper. The RIPE NCC will maintain a list of published papers on its website.


3 Credits.

In any publication, appropriate credit to the source of the data should be given. The ``official'' reference for the TTM service is:

F.Georgatos et al,
``Providing Active Measurements as a Regular Service for ISP's''.
In: Proceedings of the Passive and Active Measurements Workshop PAM2001, Amsterdam, April 2001.
http://www.ripe.net/ttm Link: http://www.ripe.net/ttm

For the data, the reference is:

Data from the RIPE NCC TTM service, ©RIPE NCC, 2003, all rights reserved. Data may not be redistributed without prior approval of the RIPE NCC. Please see http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html for details.

4 Others

This section deals with all others requesting access to the data.

1 Access to the data

There are two ways in which one can access the data.

  1. Processed data on the RIPE NCC website. Plots will be visible on the RIPE NCC website without restriction. The first time the website is accessed, this policy will be explicitly shown on the screen, asking the user to confirm that he has read it before proceeding. All pages will include a reference to this document.
  2. Raw data on the RIPE NCC ftp-site. Raw data will be made available on the ftp site. The URL will only be made available after the organisation has signed a copy of the policy (see appendix A Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#appendix ). Redistribution of the data to any other party in any form is not allowed. Data should be removed when the studies have finished.

2 Analysis and publication of the data

The data can be used freely for any analysis. One is free to discuss the analysis inside the organization that did the analysis or the RIPE Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/index.html TT-WG. Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/tt/index.html

Before an analysis is presented to the outside world, the analysis will have to be verified. This means that the organisation that did the analysis, will have to provide a write-up of the analysis that includes enough detail for anybody to independently verify its conclusions. This write-up will be circulated amongst the hosts for a peer review according to the procedure described in section 3.2 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:review .

When data is published, it should include as few references to names of other ISPs, IP-addresses of test-boxes and routers etc. while keeping the document readable (for example, by calling the hosting sites ISP-A, ISP-B, etc.). Note that it will never be possible to make the data completely anonymous.

The RIPE NCC will take care of the administrative aspects of setting up a peer review (see section 3.2 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:review ).

Once a document is published, the authors of the document should provide the RIPE NCC with a copy of the final paper. The RIPE NCC will maintain a list of published papers on its website.

3 Credits.

In any publication, appropriate credit should be given (see section 3.3 Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/tt-disclosure.html#s:credit ).

5 4 Changes in the policy

As the analysis of the data moves along, we expect to get a better understanding of the correct interpretation of the data. We also plan to cross-check the results and eliminate possible sources of experimental errors. We therefor expect that the data-disclosure policy will have to be changed as the project moves along.

Changes in the data-disclosure policy can be suggested by the participating ISPs or the RIPE NCC Link: http://www.ripe.net/info/ncc/aboutncc.html ISP's or the RIPE-NCC . All changes will be discussed with test box hosts participating the sites participating in the project at that point. If all All parties agree on the change, then this document will be revised. It is our goal that the new policy will be acceptable to everybody participating in the project.

6 Concluding remarks.

The RIPE NCC will take care of the administrative details related to this policy. It will make decisions on small issues not covered in this policy. Major issues with this policy will be brought forward on the tt-wg@ripe.net mailing list.

Bibliography

The new data-disclosure policy will only apply to data taken after the change in the policy.

5 Conclusion.

This document described our data disclosure policy. When a site agrees to host a test-box, it is assumed that this site agrees with this policy. This document presumably contains all kinds of legal holes which can be exploited. The idea behind this document, however, is that one shall use the data as one would treat the output of a scientific experiment, not as a means to attack fellow ISP's.

References

1

    1. H. Uijterwaal, O. Kolkman, ``Internet Delay Measurements using Test Traffic, Test-Traffic, Design Note'', RIPE-158 Link: http://www.ripe.net/docs/ripe-158.html .

      1. H. Uijterwaal, ``Internet Delay Measurements using Test Traffic, Data disclosure policy'', RIPE-180 Link: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-180.txt .


      A. Acceptance of the Data Disclosure Policy

      Name(s):

      Email:

      Legally representing

      Name of Organisation:

      Address:

      has/have asked the RIPE NCC for access to data collected by the Test Traffic Measurement Service (TTM).

      I/We have read and understood the data disclosure policy for this service (``AUP'') as described in document RIPE-300.ps (http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html Link: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-300.html ). I/We agree to abide by these conditions.

      I/We will ensure that all other members of our organisation who will get access to the data, will be made aware of this policy.



      Name:

      Date:

      Signature(s):

      Please print a copy of this form on your organisation's stationary, sign and send a copy of this form to the RIPE NCC by post or fax.

.