Draft: The Relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC

Author(s): Daniel Karrenberg

Date: October 2024

1. Introduction and Scope

This document describes the relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC as it has evolved from 1992 until the present time. We document current practices specifically to record RIPE community consensus about them and also for the sake of those who have not witnessed the evolution of this relationship. This document describes the status quo that exists and is not intended to propose anything new.

2. About RIPE

RIPE began as a community of European individuals interested in the operation of TCP/IP networks. It has since expanded. The purpose of RIPE is to bring people together, to exchange experiences, make operational recommendations [ripe-001]. RIPE is open to everyone wishing to participate; there is no membership or other formality needed. Most notably this low threshold to participate lends credibility to the process of developing Internet number distribution policies.

RIPE was established in 1989 and has continuously evolved since then. Today RIPE Meetings are held twice a year and draw 500-800 people from all over the world. There are 12 working groups, ranging from 'Address Policy' to 'Routing' [ripe-wgs]. At the time of writing, RIPE has produced some 826 documents, including recommendations and Internet number policies [ripe-docs].

RIPE works by consensus and does its work in working groups, task forces and plenary discussions. In between RIPE Meetings, work is continued on the mailing lists. There are also regional meetings and sometimes interim meetings of working groups and task forces. RIPE participants adhere to a code of conduct [ripe-766]. Working groups are chartered by community consensus and select their own chairs who organise and facilitate the work. In turn, the RIPE Chair ensures that RIPE as a whole functions well [ripe-714]. The RIPE Chair is selected by a nominating committee [ripe-787]. RIPE has a tradition of being pragmatic and avoiding formality as much as possible. RIPE participants wish to maintain this informal nature of RIPE with no barriers for anyone to participate other than the willingness to cooperate constructively. However, in order to function well and be more accessible to newcomers, RIPE has recently documented more of its governance [ripe-714][ripe-723][ripe-787]; this document is part of that effort.

In summary: RIPE is an open, inclusive and largely informal community of people with common interests and common purposes.

From its earliest days, RIPE has recognised that some of its activities cannot not be performed well just by volunteers. In 1990, RIPE proposed the RIPE NCC as an activity under the guidance of RIPE but funded and governed separately [ripe-019].

3. About the RIPE NCC

The RIPE NCC began operations in April 1992 on the initiative of RIPE [ripe-019]. Its purposes are:

to support the work of RIPE,
to act as a Regional Internet Registry for the distribution and registration of Internet numbers, and
to execute activities for the common benefit of its members and the RIPE community in general.

Besides technical expertise, the most important asset of the RIPE NCC is its neutrality vis-a-vis individual members and the resulting trust from both membership and community. The RIPE NCC is a neutral and independent home for activities that benefit the whole community.

Since 1998, the RIPE NCC has been organised as an association under Dutch law funded by its members and governed by a board elected by the membership. This structure was chosen by the community because of '... its democratic character and its ability to resist unwelcome takeovers.' [ripe-161].

The governance of the RIPE NCC is quite straightforward: the members provide the funding and elect a board. The board determines the activity plan and hires a management to execute it. The membership decides how to divide the costs based on recommendations from the board [ripe-818].

At the end of the year 2023, the association had 20,077 members from 119 countries, a staff of 182 FTEs with 42 nationalities and operating expenses of more than 32 million euro. The legal seat and main office are located in Amsterdam [ripe-820].

In summary: the RIPE NCC is a not-for-profit association with members, a board and staff that supports the activities of RIPE, acts as a Regional Internet Registry, and performs activities for the benefit of the RIPE community.

4. The Relationship

Why Separate Organisations?

Maintaining two separate organisations with common goals and significant overlap has a purpose. The two have been kept separate first and foremost in order to keep alive the open, low threshold and informal bottom-up character of RIPE. Governing the RIPE NCC, an operational organisation with staff and budget, requires more formality and a different focus than running an open community. Keeping the roles separate even when filled by largely the same group of people has provided a clear separation of roles while maintaining coherence and stability. With the evolution of the Internet industry and the growth of the RIPE NCC membership over the last 30 years, this overlap has diminished somewhat. For details of the history, see Appendix H.

Aspects

The relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC has three main aspects:

The RIPE NCC supports RIPE; it is the 'secretariat' of RIPE.
RIPE develops regional policies for Internet number distribution and registration; the RIPE NCC acts as a Regional Internet Registry and implements these policies.
The RIPE NCC performs activities for the benefit of the RIPE community, which includes RIPE NCC members; RIPE provides guidance to the RIPE NCC concerning these activities.

This arrangement ensures that RIPE NCC activities are open and transparent to the community at large and even beyond while also giving the community substantial influence on what the RIPE NCC does. The continued support of the RIPE community in turn provides added legitimacy and standing to the RIPE NCC and its activities.

Implementation Details

RIPE NCC Membership Meetings

RIPE NCC membership meetings make governance decisions about the RIPE NCC. These are formal meetings, open to RIPE NCC members only, where the board is elected and financial things such as the charging scheme are decided. The membership meetings are run according to the RIPE NCC Articles of Association [ripe-818].

RIPE NCC Services Working Group (of RIPE)

The 'NCC Services WG' is the *RIPE* working group where RIPE provides general guidance to the RIPE NCC. The RIPE NCC management gives reports about relevant activities. Participants can comment and the working group establishes consensus where appropriate. These meetings, like all WG meetings, are open to all RIPE participants and are run according to the RIPE Code of Conduct [ripe-766] and other RIPE practices.

The RIPE NCC Services WG meeting is usually held just before the RIPE NCC membership meeting and the relevant reports are considered part of both meetings in order to avoid repetition.

Address Policy Working Group (of RIPE)

The address policy working group develops policies for the distribution and registration of Internet numbers in the RIPE region. These policies govern the operation of the Regional Internet Registry operated by RIPE. This arrangement ensures that all interested parties and individuals, including those who are not members of the RIPE NCC, can participate in the development of these policies. Policies are developed according to a process [ripe-781] that stresses transparency and ensures that operational considerations raised by the RIPE NCC are taken into account.

Other Working Groups

Some of the other working groups may give specific guidance to the RIPE NCC under their specific charters. For example, the RIPE Database Working Group provides guidance to the RIPE NCC about functionality and operation of the RIPE Database, the public part of the RIPE Internet Number Registry. The MAT (Measurements, Analysis and Tools) WG provides guidance about the Internet measurement activities of the RIPE NCC.

Participation of RIPE NCC Staff in RIPE

RIPE NCC staff participating in RIPE provide invaluable knowledge and expertise. At the same time, there is a big potential for confusing roles since RIPE provides guidance to the RIPE NCC about specific activities. This issue has been recognised and RIPE has established consensus about "RIPE NCC Staff Participation in the RIPE Community" [ripe-810]. The RIPE NCC has also published its internal rules and procedures about this.

RIPE Chair Selection

The process of selecting the RIPE Chair has been closely modelled on the practices of the IETF at the time [ripe-788]. This process is bootstrapped by selecting the non-voting chair of the Nominating Committee who then takes over and runs the process. The IETF relies on the Internet Society to select this person and to safeguard that the process is run properly. RIPE relies on the RIPE NCC board for these things.

Risks

The division of tasks and governance between RIPE and the RIPE NCC has all the desired features described above. This comes at the cost of potential friction in case the goals of the organisations or people involved turn out to diverge. Friction may even develop just because of misunderstandings. Up to the present time this has not been a significant issue because the people involved keep communicating. Processes and customs have developed over time to support this communication. The policy development process [ripe-781] for instance has an 'impact analysis' that ensures that the community is well aware of any operational considerations from the RIPE NCC before coming to consensus on Internet Number policies. All this so far has resulted in everything being well-aligned.

However, it is entirely possible, for example, for RIPE to set address policy or give guidance that is either impossible or prohibitively expensive to implement for the RIPE NCC. The RIPE NCC on the other hand could possibly make entirely reasonable operational decisions that are against the spirit and consensus of RIPE as a bottom-up, self-governing community.

The only way to prevent this from happening is constant communication and checking of mutual expectations as well as a healthy overlap in the people involved. At the time of writing, this arrangement has worked quite well for more than 30 years.

5. Summary

RIPE and the RIPE NCC are different structures with common purposes. RIPE is a community of individuals open to anyone. The RIPE NCC is an association with members providing funding for operations that support RIPE and the Regional Internet Registry. Maintaining two separate organisations with common goals and significant overlap has a purpose. RIPE and the RIPE NCC have developed customs and procedures to cooperate effectively in order to reach their common goals. These have served the Internet community in our region for more than 30 years.

6. About the Author

Daniel Karrenberg is one of the founders of, and a continuous participant in RIPE; he was also the first CEO of the RIPE NCC, and is an advisor to the current CEO.

7. Appendix H – Provenance and Rationale

*To be completed later*

This Appendix provides some personal recollections of the author on how the relationship described here has come to exist. This appendix is intended to serve as background information on how we got to the status quo that exists. It is not intended to add substance to the description of the status quo in the document itself.

Creation of RIPE

Creation of the RIPE NCC as Activity of RARE

Contributors Committee

Internet Boom and Growth of RIPE NCC

Incorporation of RIPE NCC Association

ICANN, ASO and Internet Governance Landscape

Membership Growth due to IPv4 Scarcity