This RIPE Document

The RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that services a membership base of around 4,500 members in more than 65 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The RIPE NCC operates under its principles of openness, transparency, neutrality and impartiality. All member and coordination services offered by the RIPE NCC are based on the input and needs of the RIPE NCC members and the RIPE community.

For nearly fifteen years, the RIPE NCC has been successful in providing administrative and technical coordination to the Internet community. An important aspect of this technical coordination is the reliable and stable allocation of Internet number resources to RIPE NCC members. The RIPE NCC will make continued improvements to the quality of the registration processes and the data related to allocating Internet number resources to its members.
The RIPE NCC will continue to take a leading role in the technical coordination of IP networking by adapting to meet the changing needs of its members and other stakeholders. The RIPE NCC will enhance the quality of the services it provides by improving their resilience, user-interfaces and value for operators and the global Internet community.

An important aspect of this work will be the secure provision of Internet number resources and related services. The RIPE NCC will work to ensure the reliable allocation of Internet number resources, the security of the processes associated with coordinating these resources as well as the security of the Internet's routing system as a whole.

The RIPE NCC will further develop relations with a growing community of stakeholders, industry bodies and government representatives. By demonstrating the proven success of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) process and their communities, the RIPE NCC will secure continued support for the existing self-regulatory structures.

2. RIPE NCC Focus Points

Reliable and Stable Technical Coordination of Internet Number Resources

The RIPE NCC will improve the consistency and strengthen the stability of the processes for distributing Internet number resources to members. This will enable the RIPE NCC to allocate Internet number resources with stable service time and improved data accuracy.

There will be a specific focus on the public registration data stored in the RIPE Network Management Database. The aim will be to improve the accuracy, consistency and completeness of the data related to Internet number resource distribution.

Support for Internet Number Resource Certification

The RIPE NCC will actively work to help ISPs improve routing security by continuing proof-of-concept work related to issuing certificates for Internet number resources. The focus will be on investigating the technological, administrative and procedural elements necessary to produce a production prototype for certifying Internet number resources.

• More information can be found below in the New or Significantly Developed Activities Link: #new section.

RIPE NCC Customer Service Desk

The RIPE NCC aims for excellence in service provision and Internet coordination. As part of its focus on a consistently high level of membership service, the RIPE NCC is concentrating efforts to provide an improved customer experience. A key element of these efforts is the continuing development of the RIPE NCC Customer Service Desk.

The technical infrastructure for this has already been developed. In 2007, the focus will be on building an improved user-interface that will allow members to quickly and easily communicate with the RIPE NCC.

• More information can be found below in the New or Significantly Developed Activities Link: #new section.

High Quality Services for Operators and the Internet Community

The RIPE NCC maintains high-quality, scalable services that are resilient to a high volume of usage and responsive to the changing needs of the Internet community. The RIPE NCC will focus on improving the user-interfaces and written documentation of these services.

As a neutral, credible and authoritative source of network and Internet-related information, the RIPE NCC will continue to supply timely, accurate and tailored Information Services. The Information Services provided by the RIPE NCC are not only relevant to operators and the Internet community but also to a range of audiences including governments, regulators and journalists.

The RIPE NCC will focus on enhancing its Information Services. Building on a tried and tested technical infrastructure, the RIPE NCC will continue to develop simple and ready-to-use services. These services will be brought into an integrated Information Services portfolio providing easy-to-access information in the form of analytical white papers, incident reports, trend descriptions and factual data.

Part of the development of Information Services is to encourage enhanced co-operation between public and private sectors by providing reliable and ready-to-use information about Internet number resource distribution and Internet performance and development. This information can be used in many contexts and can be of significant value to parties discussing local and regional policy development.

Public Affairs

The RIPE NCC has received positive recognition for its contributions to the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The WSIS experience demonstrated that the RIPE NCC's public affairs contributions are valuable and should continue. The RIPE NCC has employed a Public Affairs Officer to coordinate these efforts. The focus is on enhancing public/private sector dialogue, demonstrating the importance of the RIR system to the public and private sectors and promoting enhanced co-operation between these sectors.

The RIPE NCC has been called upon by different entities in the public sector (ranging from individual governments to the United Nations) to continue providing support for the technical coordination of the Internet. As a result, the RIPE NCC will continue its successful coordination work with the other RIRs, industry bodies and governments.

3. New or Significantly Developed Activities for 2007

i) Support for Internet Number Resource Certification

Building on the Proof-of-Concept work already completed, the RIPE NCC will direct resources toward developing the production systems and a prototype of the service for issuing certificates for Internet number resources.

This activity builds on the RIPE NCC's work on routing security over 2006. The core of the work will be based on developing the technological infrastructure needed to create production prototypes of a service for issuing certificates.

The RIPE NCC will continue to look at relevant routing security and certification proposal in consultation with the other RIRs and the RIPE community. This work will be periodically presented to RIPE NCC members and the RIPE community. The RIPE NCC will gather their feedback and incorporate their input and expertise into the continued work towards supporting Internet number resource certification.

ii) RIPE NCC Customer Service Desk

The aim of the RIPE NCC Customer Service Desk is to provide members with any additional help necessary to resolve queries involving RIPE NCC services, including Registration Services, the RIPE Network Management Database and RIPE NCC billing. The desk will be available through e-mail and direct phone contact.

iii) Business Continuity Plan

The RIPE NCC has drafted an emergency plan for the organisation. This outlines the contingency measures that would be followed in the event of an emergency situation. Working together with consultants, the RIPE NCC will develop this plan and incorporate it into a formalised and comprehensive business continuity plan. The purpose of this plan is to ensure the stable continuation of services provided to RIPE NCC members
and the Internet community.

4. Closure or Reduction of Activities

The RIPE NCC will stop providing secondary DNS name service for well-established ccTLDs. However, to support the stability of the global DNS, the RIPE NCC will continue to offer a secondary DNS name service to developing ccTLD operators that require it.

5. RIPE NCC Ongoing Activities

Information on the RIPE NCC's ongoing activities (Membership Services, Coordination Activities and Information Services) is available in Section B of this document, RIPE NCC Ongoing Activities Link: #ongoing .

6. Unforeseen Activities

The RIPE NCC will keep a reserve of resources to take up any activities that appear necessary during the course of the year. These activities are entirely unforeseen at the time of writing the RIPE NCC Activity Plan 2007 or have started recently and are not at the stage where they can be quantified as a budgeted activity. A quick, well-focused reaction to the changing environment and new requirements of the RIPE NCC members and other stakeholders has always been a strong point of the RIPE NCC.

Section B: RIPE NCC Ongoing Activities

1. Membership Services

1.1 Distribution and Management of Internet Number Resources

In its role as a Regional Internet Registry (RIR), the RIPE NCC provides allocation and registration services to Local Internet Registries (LIRs) in its service region. This service region covers Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The overall goal of the RIPE NCC's allocation and registration services is to provide fair, impartial and stable distribution of Internet number resources in its service region. The specific goals for the distribution of IP address space are:

• Uniqueness of IP addresses
• Aggregation of routing information
• Conservation of IP address space
• Procedure and policy definition for IP address space
• Registration of network management and contact information
  
  The key function of the RIPE NCC Membership Services is the fair distribution of Internet number resources to network operators as requested by RIPE NCC members.

1.1.1 IPv4 / IPv6 Address Space and Autonomous System (AS) Numbers

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC allocates and assigns Internet number resources according to RIPE community policy.

The RIPE NCC allocates and assigns IPv4 and IPv6 address space to RIPE NCC members and other network operators. The RIPE NCC also assigns AS Numbers and registers these numbers and the initial associated routing policy, ensuring the uniqueness of AS Numbers and collecting data for the Routing Registry. From 2007, the RIPE NCC will assign AS Numbers from both the 16-bit and 32-bit pools.

The RIPE NCC develops and maintains tools to support the allocation process.

Goal of Activity:

• To ensure the fair distribution of Internet Number Resources
• To ensure the efficient use of IP address space and AS Numbers
• To facilitate the optimal aggregation of routing information

1.1.2 Consistency, Auditing and Data Accuracy

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC actively checks the quality and validity of Internet resource registry data. To ensure fair address space distribution, the RIPE NCC checks that appropriate assignment decisions are made. The RIPE NCC also makes regular reports on these activities to the RIPE community as well as producing statistics on address space usage.

Goal of Activity:

• To promote a consistent and fair application of assignment criteria relating to the conservation of address space and aggregation of routing information
• To identify and improve any parts of the registration procedure that cause problems in order to improve service levels and response times
• To implement mechanisms to improve the quality, range and accessibility of the data the RIPE NCC provides relating to its allocation of Internet number resources to its members
• To provide high quality data on the allocation of Internet number resources that can reliably be used in the daily operations of ISPs
• To develop metrics that can be used to objectively measure the quality of Internet number resource registration data and the results of efforts to improve data accuracy

1.2 RIPE NCC Interaction Mechanisms

The RIPE NCC provides flexible and convenient ways for LIRs and others from the Internet community to interact with the RIPE NCC's systems. There is a specific focus on the security aspects of such interactions to ensure privacy and authentication wherever needed.

1.2.1 RIPE NCC LIR Portal

Description of Activity:
The purpose of the LIR Portal is to give LIRs an easy-to-use web interface for accessing RIPE NCC services, for managing their registry's data and for making queries and updates. The LIR Portal is also used by the RIPE NCC to make important announcements to RIPE NCC Members and for collection of valuable feedback through a range of member surveys.

Goal of Activity:

• To enable members to receive Internet number resources in a timely fashion by improving the request, evaluation and approval process
• To enable members to manage their registry data and make queries and updates

1.3 Initial Support for New LIRs

The RIPE NCC gives initial support to LIRs during their set-up phase. Information and support is also extended to potential LIRs.

The RIPE NCC provides initial support to new, or potential LIRs, in order to:

• Support new LIRs during their set-up phase by introducing them to the relevant tools, procedures and guidelines
• Give potential LIRs enough information to make an informed choice as to whether or not they become an LIR
• Prepare LIRs so that they are able to make use of the RIPE NCC's services

1.4 Training Courses

The RIPE NCC provides a range of courses to members and non-members, using a variety of teacher-based courses and additional training strategies.

The RIPE NCC makes continued efforts to reach a broader audience, particularly members who are unable to attend RIPE NCC training courses due to geographical, financial, scheduling or other constraints. These efforts include developing online modules that cover a range of RIPE NCC procedures and the RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP).

The RIPE NCC provides the following courses to its members for free:

• LIR Training Course
• DNS for LIRs Training Course
• Routing Registry Training Course

1.4.1 LIR Training Course

Description of Activity:
The Local Internet Registry (LIR) Training Course is a one-day introduction to procedures and policies related to obtaining and distributing Internet number resources from the RIPE NCC, operating an LIR and using the RIPE Database. The training material is regularly updated to make sure that LIRs are aware of any recent policy changes decided by the RIPE community.

Goal of Activity:

• To help members send correctly prepared Internet number resource requests to the RIPE NCC
• To help ensure a more timely completion of these requests
• To explain the correct procedure for registering and updating registry data relating to Internet number resources
• Create awareness for the RIPE Policy Development Process

1.4.2 DNS for LIRs Training Course

Description of Activity:
This course provides an introduction to reverse DNS (rDNS) procedures and checks, as well as giving information about DNS Monitoring (DNSMON), K-root and anycasting. The course also covers DNSSEC and the specific procedures set up by the RIPE NCC to secure the in-addr.arpa zones.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide LIRs with information about the different DNS related services offered by the RIPE NCC

1.4.3 Routing Registry Training Course

Description of Activity:
The Routing Registry Training Course covers Internet Routing Registry (IRR) usage, related tools and Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL).

Goal of Activity:

• To provide an introduction to the Internet Routing Registry (IRR) usage, related tools, Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL) and the RIPE NCC Routing Information Service (RIS)

1.5 Membership Liaison

The RIPE NCC develops liaison activities and regional support. These play significant roles in involving RIPE NCC members, the RIPE community and other stakeholders in the open policy-making process and in defining the activities and services of the RIPE NCC.

1.5.1 Regional Support

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC organises Regional Meetings that provide a focused effort to proactively encourage feedback from RIPE NCC members and the RIPE community.

Goal of Activity:

• To promote local contact with members
• To provide a forum for discussing issues relevant to a specific area of its service region
• To enable the RIPE NCC to continuously evaluate and address the changing needs of RIPE NCC members

2. Coordination Activities

2.1 RIPE Database: Maintenance and Development

The RIPE Database contains registration details of IP addresses and AS Numbers used by networks based in the RIPE NCC service region.

It shows the organisations that hold the resources, where the allocations were made and contact details for the networks. The organisations that hold those resources are responsible for updating their information in the RIPE Database.

An Internet Routing Registry (IRR), primarily for the RIPE NCC region, is also part of the RIPE Database.

The information in the RIPE Database is used by a range of people, including network engineers, system administrators, researchers and End Users for various purposes such as network troubleshooting or determining abuse contacts. In most cases these users are not RIPE NCC members.

The RIPE NCC regularly makes improvements to the interface for the RIPE Database in order to provide users with more useful features and easier ways to update the database. The RIPE NCC also makes continued efforts to improve the accuracy and the usefulness of the data in the RIPE Database.

The RIPE NCC implements community-driven changes as they arise, making software and system modifications in response to feedback from users and decisions made by the RIPE community.

2.1.1 User support and software maintenance

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC provides user support for the database and related services. This includes incident handling and problem resolution as well as responding to user questions and comments.

The RIPE NCC also performs regular software maintenance activities including bug fixes and minor modifications. The results of these software development efforts are made publicly available.

This activity includes the maintenance and improvement of documentation associated with the RIPE Database.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide user support for the RIPE Database and related services
• To continuously collect user feedback regarding the service
• To keep the user community informed about new developments as well as planned and emergency maintenance
• To ensure the high quality of the system software and the reliable operation of the database and related services

2.1.2 Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS)

Description of Activity:
The IRIS operates using the protocol developed by the IETF Cross Registry Information Service Protocol (CRISP) Working Group. The RIPE NCC publishes the parts of the RIPE Database related to the address registry through the IRIS server. The RIPE NCC continues to work on server implementation and client tools in coordination with other RIRs and client tool authors.

Goal of Activity:

• To support the widespread adoption of IRIS
• To allow users to look up IP address ranges or AS Numbers using a tool based on industry standards
• To facilitate development of a RIR-wide system for global address registry lookups

2.1.3 New Database Features

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC designs and implements new database features as requested by the user community or proposed by the RIPE NCC. It performs the development work based on the priorities established in the appropriate RIPE Working Groups.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide new features to the RIPE Database as the user community expresses the need for them

2.2 RIPE

The RIPE NCC supports the RIPE community through technical and administrative coordination.

2.2.1 RIPE Meetings

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC organises RIPE Meetings, providing all administrative and technical support.

Goal of Activity:

• To support the open, bottom-up, industry self-regulatory structure common to all RIR communities in managing Internet number resources
• To stimulate the participation of the RIPE community in the IP policy-making process and the technical coordination of IP networking
• To contribute to the stable operation of the RIPE NCC by allowing for guidance and advice from the RIPE Working Groups
• To enable attendees to provide input and feedback on the RIPE NCC Activity Plan

2.2.2 Supporting the RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP)

Description of Activity:
Anyone interested in the well-being of the Internet may propose a policy within the RIPE community forum and take part in the related discussions. The RIPE NCC supports the PDP by giving administrative support.

Goal of Activity:

To make the status and history of policy proposals clear

• To make it easy to follow and to participate in policy development
• To ease the process of proposing policy change
• To make it easier to understand the text of policy documents
• To support the discussions by providing relevant facts, statistics and an assessment of the work involved in implementation of a proposal

2.3 Mailing List Management

The RIPE NCC maintains a number of high volume external mailing lists. The processing of mailing list traffic is constantly monitored. Efforts are made to support subscribers with problems and to reduce or control the spam on external mailing lists so that they can be easily and efficiently moderated without losing any End User functionality.

The goal is to ensure the exchange of information among the RIPE community and the RIPE NCC membership, as well as to provide support for subscribers of the RIPE and RIPE NCC mailing lists.

2.4 Deployment of Internet Security Infrastructure (DISI)

Within DISI, the RIPE NCC supports the RIPE community in the deployment of security-relevant technologies in the Internet infrastructure. The focus is on the development and deployment of technologies that need to be coordinated globally in the Internet infrastructure. The RIPE NCC has always monitored the development of security-relevant technologies, such as DNSSEC deployment and secure routing, in order to keep the RIPE community informed about relevant developments.

The RIPE NCC also supports its members and the Internet community in securing the inter-domain routing system. This activity includes actively working with ISPs to help improve routing security by supporting and coordinating the introduction of new technologies and procedures in this area.

Most proposals for improvements to routing security focus on Internet Registries issuing some form of digital certificate to help authenticate the use of IP address blocks and AS Numbers.

The RIPE NCC works with the RIPE community to evaluate the particular technical proposals and technology designed to improve routing security. These could include, among other elements, improved routing configuration tools, possibly based on certificates and BGP protocol enhancements.

2.5 Domain Name System (DNS) Coordination

The RIPE NCC provides DNS coordination and support activities as well as reverse DNS service for IPv4 and IPv6 address space managed by the RIPE NCC.

For reverse DNS associated with address space managed by other RIRs, the RIPE NCC provides secondary DNS to support the reliability of reverse lookups.

The scalability of the DNS infrastructure for secondary, reverse and primary DNS services is improved based on the requirements specific to each of these services. The purpose of these activities is to maintain and improve the operations of an efficient, responsive and robust DNS service.

2.5.1 Reverse DNS

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC delegates reverse DNS zones for the address ranges managed by the RIPE NCC. To support this service, the RIPE NCC provides a reliable secondary name server and checks all zones under its responsibility to ensure they are properly set up and functioning correctly.

As part of its efforts in the area of DNSSEC deployment, the RIPE NCC publishes signed zones and provides tools for users to secure delegations received from the RIPE NCC. In addition, the RIPE NCC shares experience through publishing operational white papers, documentation and software toolkits.

Goal of Activity:

• To support the proper address-to-name mapping for addresses allocated to the RIPE NCC
• To provide reliable and secure reverse DNS services
• To support the operation and maintenance of DNSSEC

2.5.2 Operating the K-root Name Server

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC operates the K-root server. Root name servers are a crucial part of the Internet DNS infrastructure. The RIPE NCC has operated the K-root server since 1997 when the first server was installed at the London Internet Exchange (LINX) in London, UK.

Since 2003, the RIPE NCC has been deploying anycast instances of the K-root server with local reachability. The RIPE NCC has also deployed five global nodes of the K-root name server. The RIPE NCC collects and analyses data to determine the performance of the K-root anycast nodes that have been deployed.

Goal of Activity:

• To improve the resiliency, efficiency, security and quality of the K-root service
• To isolate the impact of an "external" Denial of Service (DoS) attack and localise the impact of a "local" DoS attack
• To efficiently maintain the network of anycast instances of K-root by monitoring network and instance problems, performing trend analysis and determining if, and where, other anycast nodes should be deployed

2.5.3 Secondary DNS Service

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC offers a secondary name service to some country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) administrators, although it no longer provides this service to well-established ccTLDs.

Goal of Activity:

• To support the stability of the global DNS by offering a professional and stable service to developing ccTLD operators that require it

2.5.4 DNS Services in the e164.arpa Domain

Description of Activity:
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has an agreement with the RIPE NCC under which the RIPE NCC provides technical operation of the e164.arpa domain. This domain implements support in the DNS for the ENUM protocol, allowing mapping of telephone numbers to domain names in order to help facilitate such services as Voice over IP (VoIP).

Goal of Activity:

• To support operations of one of the systems required for the deployment of the ENUM protocol, promoting increased integration between the Internet and services provided through the traditional telephony infrastructure

2.6 Reporting on RIPE NCC and RIPE Activities and Developments

The RIPE NCC reports on its activities and RIPE developments using a variety of media:

• The RIPE NCC website
• The RIPE NCC Annual Report, including financial statements
• The RIPE NCC Member Update newsletter (distributed to the membership one month prior to each RIPE Meeting)
• E-mail reporting to RIPE NCC members and interested parties

The goal of the RIPE NCC's reporting activities is to provide the membership and other interested parties with open, detailed information about the ongoing activities of the RIPE NCC and its role in Internet administration. It also furthers the RIPE NCC's efforts to communicate more effectively with its membership and stakeholders and to increase participation in RIPE.

2.6.1 Annual Report

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC Annual Report, including financial statements, is published in advance of the RIPE NCC General Meeting (GM).

Goal of Activity:

• To provide a full account of the RIPE NCC's activities in the previous year and audited financial statements for RIPE NCC members to vote on at the GM

2.6.2 Minutes and Reports from RIPE Meetings

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC provides minutes of RIPE Working Group and Plenary sessions at RIPE Meetings, including links to relevant presentations.

In addition, the RIPE NCC provides reports after each RIPE Meeting that summarise the highlights and actions that came out of the meeting.

Goal of Activity:

• To keep the RIPE community, the RIPE NCC membership and other interested parties up-to-date with the decisions and discussions that took place at the previous RIPE Meeting

2.6.3 RIPE NCC Member Update

Description of Activity:
The Member Update publication fulfils a request made by members in the 2002 RIPE NCC Membership Survey by providing information on the RIPE NCC and the development and performance of its services to the membership. It also provides updates on policy development issues affecting the RIPE community.

Goal of Activity:

• To publish and distribute the latest Member Update at least four weeks prior to each RIPE Meeting

2.7 RIPE NCC External Relations

The purpose of the RIPE NCC's external relations activities is to:

• Support and represent the interests of the RIPE NCC's membership and the RIPE community
• Communicate the RIPE NCC's role in IP address management and the technical coordination of the Internet
• Win continued support for RIPE's long-established, bottom-up, industry self-regulation and promote the open structures and processes in which RIPE and the RIPE NCC operate
• Ensure that the RIPE NCC and the RIPE community continue to play an effective role in the further formalisation of Internet administration, particularly technical coordination and the development of policy related to Internet number resource distribution

2.7.1 Coordination with Governments and Regulators

Description of Activity:
Building on its position as a neutral and trusted organisation with proven expertise in the technical coordination of IP networking, the RIPE NCC continues to develop relations with government and regulator representatives. This is part of continued efforts to enhance the co-operation between the public and private sector regarding Internet management issues.

The RIPE NCC facilitates Roundtable Meetings to discuss Internet management issues relevant to governments and regulators. The Roundtable Meetings provide a chance for attendees to learn more about how to participate in IP address management policy-making. High-level discussions of topics such as IP address space management and root server operations also provide attendees with an overview of the main elements involved in the technical coordination of the Internet.

Goal of Activity:

• To develop close contact with governments and regulators with an interest in the technical coordination of IP networking
• To explain the proven, long-standing industry self-regulatory structures of the RIRs and secure continued support for the existing registry process
• To communicate the principles of Internet industry self-regulation to policy makers in the public and the private sector, and to encourage well-informed decisions
• To encourage the participation of public and private sectors in the formation of policies related to Internet number resource distribution
• To bring together the public and private sector to discuss IP networking issues

2.7.2 Coordination with Industry Bodies

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC continues to support and represent the interests of its membership and the RIPE community to Internet industry groups. The main goals of these outreach activities remains the promotion of the open, bottom-up, industry self-regulatory structure common to all RIR communities in managing Internet number resources as well as the general technical coordination needed to support the stable operation of the Internet.

The RIPE NCC represents the interest of its members and the RIPE community by actively participating in various industry-related forums and meetings.

Goal of Activity:

• To increase the awareness of RIPE and the RIPE NCC with existing and new players in the Internet community
• To ensure that the RIPE NCC continues to play an effective role in the further formalisation of Internet administration

2.7.3 RIPE NCC E-Learning Centre

The RIPE NCC provides a range of courses to members and non-members, using a variety of teacher-based courses and additional training strategies.

The RIPE NCC provides an E-Learning Centre, a free resource available to both members and non-members allowing them to access online modules on a variety of topics. Topics covered include Internet Administration, the RIPE Policy Development Process, the RIPE Database and member-based information on billing and the DNS.

2.8 RIR Coordination

The RIPE NCC participates in coordination activities with the other RIRs. These coordination activities include:

• High-quality, consistent services
• The consistent application of approved policy
• Joint technical and communication projects
• Liaison activities
• The presentation of a global view of IP address management

The RIRs work together through the Number Resource Organization (NRO) to develop and implement formalised coordination activities that are of relevance to all RIR communities.

The NRO facilitates RIR coordination, provides third parties with a convenient single contact point to the RIR system and acts as a body capable of safeguarding the unallocated Internet number resource pool.

The NRO also develops relationships with government, regulators and industry partners to ensure they have an informed understanding of how Internet address space management and distribution works and why it has proven so successful. The focus of these activities is to win continued support for the industry self-regulatory structures of the RIRs and the existing registry process.

3. Information Services

The RIPE NCC provides a range of data and analysis on Internet infrastructure, measurement and usage. The RIPE NCC continues to integrate new and existing services into its service portfolio while developing overviews that explain how these services can be used and the benefits they offer.

3.1 Routing Information Service (RIS)

The Routing Information Service (RIS) provides an integrated view of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing information collected at multiple locations worldwide. The service integrates multiple views, provides information about the routing state at specific times in the past and enables users of the service to monitor their Internet address space.

The data collected by the RIS is time-stamped, stored in a database and is used as the raw data for a number of additional services provided by the RIPE NCC, such as BGPlay and MyASN. The RIPE NCC investigates and develops additional services based on analysis of this data and feedback from the Internet community.

The goals of the RIS are to:

• Collect BGP information at multiple locations worldwide and make this data available to the community
• Provide tools to access the data, further enhance these tools based on community feedback
• Investigate the behaviour of the routing system and report to the community

3.2 Active Measurement Services (AMS)

The RIPE NCC's Active Measurement Services (AMS) are based on a measurement platform currently used for the TTM and DNSMON services (see below). This platform can accommodate other measurements and be used as a platform upon which other services may be developed. The data collected from this network is available to the community for both operational and statistical analysis. The strategy behind the Active Measurement Services (AMS) is defined and evaluated in consultation with the RIPE Test Traffic (TT) Working Group so that it can be reviewed and adjusted to meet current user needs.

3.2.1 Test Traffic Measurements (TTM)

Description of Activity:
The Test Traffic Measurements (TTM) Service provides impartial measurements of the end-to-end performance characteristics of the inter-provider Internet. This is achieved by installing test-boxes at participating sites. These test-boxes send measurement traffic to each other. From this traffic, packet-losses, delays and other parameters are determined according to the metrics developed by the IETF IP Performance Working Group (IPPM WG).

Goal of Activity:

• To collect independent measurements of performance-related quantities of the Internet, particularly between the networks operated by users of the TTM service
• To provide useful trend analysis and to refine the system based on user feedback

3.2.2 DNS Monitoring (DNSMON)

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC DNS Monitoring Service (DNSMON) provides a comprehensive, objective and up-to-date overview of the quality of the service offered by certain DNS root and Top-Level Domain (TLD) name servers. DNSMON measures DNS performance between sites that take part in the TTM service and those where DNS servers are installed. The high number of probes and the method of presenting the results are unique. The information is updated every hour.

The measurements are presented at various levels of granularity, allowing users to switch between general representations and more detailed views specific to particular domains, servers, and probes for freely selectable time frames.

The RIPE NCC provides DNS Monitoring as a free service to the Internet community. For interested parties, TLD operators in particular, value added services such as monitoring of specific name servers and access to the DNSMON helpdesk are provided on a cost recovery basis.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide high-quality monitoring of important DNS servers and participating Top-Level Domain (TLD) name servers
• To allow users to view historical data, enabling a quick analysis of both past and present DNS issues

3.2.3 Additional Active Measurements

Description of Activity:
In consultation with the RIPE Test Traffic Working Group, the RIPE NCC investigates and discusses development plans for using the Active Measurements Network to make additional active measurements.

Goal of Activity:

• To respond to requests from the Internet community to investigate the possibilities for making additional active measurements
• To monitor the latest research and technical developments related to the Active Measurements Network and the measurements that can be made using this network

3.3 Reporting and Statistics Collection

The RIPE NCC provides authoritative data and reports on the development of the Internet and the consumption rate of Internet number resources. As part of this activity, the RIPE NCC also raises awareness of issues related to the consumption of Internet number resources. The purpose of this activity is to provide useful, up-to-date information relevant to a range of interested parties, including:

• Network operators
• RIPE Working Groups
• Industry bodies
• Governments and regulators
• The media

A range of statistics are gathered and incorporated in order to improve cross-checks and cross-referencing as well as to unify the presentation of statistics and to improve their accessibility.

The RIPE NCC also develops metrics that can be used to objectively measure the quality of Internet number resource registration data and the results of efforts to improve data accuracy.

3.3.1 Hostcount

Description of Activity:
The RIPE NCC region Hostcount has been performed monthly since 1992 to indicate the growth in the RIPE NCC service region.

The Hostcount provides statistics on the number of hosts connected to the Internet in Europe and surrounding areas. The statistics are gathered in collaboration with a range of organisations doing local counts per country Top-Level Domain.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide the Internet community with an up-to-date view of the number of hosts connected to the Internet in the RIPE NCC service region
• To increase the accuracy and usability of the Hostcount, and to develop the Hostcount in consultation with the Internet community

3.3.2 Information Dissemination

Description of Activity:
As a neutral source of information about the Internet, the RIPE NCC provides a selection of papers on Internet infrastructure, administration, measurement and usage.

Goal of Activity:

• To provide an overview for those unfamiliar with each topic, as well as in depth information relevant to network operators, industry bodies and other interested parties