<<< Chronological >>> Author Index    Subject Index <<< Threads >>>

RIPE position paper


Dear Colleagues,

     below you will find the paper that outlines the position of RIPE
     regarding the upcoming discussion in the RARE COA on the
     relationship between RIPE and RARE, and RIPE and the Operational Unit.

     Comments and further input are welcome!

Rob Blokzijl

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


document: ripe-draft-position-v2
date:     11 August 1992
version:  2
author:   R.Blokzijl
status:   for discussion




   1. Introduction

      RIPE, the Resaux IP Europeen, has now been in operation for three
      years.  From a small group of people, representing a small number
      of networks, it has grown into the major European network
      coordination effort.

      The recent installation of the RIPE Network Coordination Center
      marks a major step forward on the way towards uniform and open
      European networking.

      The organisational environment in which RIPE functions has also
      seen major developments recently, the most prominent of which
      are:

	 o the Ebone 92 initiative

	 o the restructuring of RARE

	 o the creation of the RARE Operational Unit

      In this document we describe RIPE as it functions today, the role
      of the NCC, and the relationship between RIPE and the
      organisations mentioned above.


   2. RIPE

      The world of IP in Europe consists of the concatenation of a
      large number of individual networks. These networks are of a
      diverse nature:

	 o regional networks

	 o national networks

	 o international networks

	 o academic and research networks

	 o commercial networks

	 o commercial organisations

      RIPE is the organisationl forum  where most of these networks
      meet to discuss issues of common interest. Currently over 60
      networking organisations, represented by 140 people, participate
      in the work of RIPE.  The concatenation of these networks
      connects more then 200.000 hosts today. The result of the RIPE
      coordination effort is that the individual end user is presented
      on his desktop with a uniform IP service all over Europe,
      irrespective of the network his workstation is attached to.

      The European Internet constitutes an integral part of the global
      Internet; today it makes up ~20% of The Internet.  The
      coordination with the global Internet also takes place through
      RIPE.

      The ground rules of RIPE are laid down in  the Terms of Reference
      [ripe-1], which can be found in Appendix A. In the framework of
      this document, the following points from the Terms of Reference
      should be stressed:

        o RIPE establishes agreement on common network management
	  practices and the operational management of the interconnected
	  networks.
     
        o RIPE is not a network service provider. IP networks
	  collaborating in RIPE remain under the executive authority of
	  their respective organisations.

      In other words, RIPE coordinates the working of the Internet
      service providers (NICs and NOCs) in Europe; the actual
      management of networks remains the sole responsability of
      individual NOCs.

      The work in RIPE is done by the technical working groups. At
      present there are 8 such groups active in the following area's:

	 o Network information services

	 o Domain Name system

	 o Routing

	 o Network monitoring and statistics

	 o Network maps

	 o European connectivity

	 o RIPE database

	 o Relationship between Academic & Research networks and Commercial
	   networks

      The working groups have well defined activity plans; the results
      of the working groups are delivered in various ways:

	 o RIPE reports

	 o RIPE recommendations

	 o tools for common network management practices

	 o European wide implemented common network policies

      The net result has been the creation of a European Internet, that
      provides uniform IP services to individual users, irrespective of
      the organisation which provides their network service.

      The working groups meet during the RIPE meetings, which take
      place three times per year. Currently these meetings are attended
      by about 80 people, including a growing number of representatives
      from networks outside Europe, specifically the USA.

      It should be noted that substantial resources "in kind" (i.e. in
      travel, time, machine resources, etc etc) are contributed by
      participating organisations and individuals in addition to any
      contributions that are made to the running of the NCC.

      It should be particularly noted that RIPE is a neutral forum in
      which diverse and potentially competing network providers meet to
      coordinate their IP activities. If RIPE, or any of its
      activities, such as the NCC, were perceived to be influenced
      or controlled in any way that compromized this neutrality, then
      the participating network providers could no longer trust RIPE to
      perform its coordinating role, and the whole RIPE operation would
      flounder to the detriment of all.

      Thus, it is vital that RIPE, and all of its activites should be,
      and be seen to be strictly independent of any single interest or
      group of interests. RIPE can only benefit everyone or benefit no
      one - there is no middle alternative.



   3. The RIPE NCC

      The RIPE structure is very well suited for development type of
      work.  It is less well suited for the day to day work that is of
      a more administrative nature.  These tasks are handled by a
      dedicated technical staff that form the RIPE Network Coordination
      Center (NCC).

      The RIPE NCC provides neither end-user support services nor
      network operation functions.  These functions are performed by
      the network operation staffs of the RIPE member organisations.
      The RIPE NCC performs the necessary support and coordination to
      enable the RIPE member NOC staffs to provide these services.

      The Network Coordination Center is 'embedded' in RIPE:

      o RIPE defines the tasks and functions of the NCC

      o the NCC reports to RIPE on all technical issues

      o RIPE organisations participate in the work of the NCC

      o RIPE regularly reviews the operations of the NCC

      All technical reports of the NCC will be publicly available and
      distributed to other interested organisations and bodies.  One of
      these is the RARE TC.

      Currently RARE provides the formal framework for the NCC.
      Funding for the first year of operation of the NCC is provided by
      the full national members of RARE, Israel, EARN and EUnet.  Thus
      the NCC will report to the RARE secretary general on
      organisational and formal issues.  The NCC will together with the
      RARE treasurer report to the funding organisations on financial
      matters.

      The services provided by the NCC are detailed in the RIPE NCC
      Activity Plan [ripe-35]. The main services are:

      o network management database containing information about IP
        networks, DNS domains, IP routing policies and contact
	information

      o delegated Internet registry, a clearing house 
        distributing IP network numbers

      o coordinated network statistics gathering

      o domain name system (DNS) coordination

      o graphical maps of IP networks (planned)

      o repository for network operations software 
        This includes evaluating publicly available software 
        and making the RIPE community aware of suitable tools.

      o RIPE document store

      o interactive information service

      The RIPE NCC provides services for all Internet service providers
      in Europe.  It is therefor advisable that the costs of the NCC
      will be covered by contributions from all of the RIPE
      participating organisations.


   4. RIPE and RARE

      RIPE was conceived originally as an activity seperate from RARE.
      There existed at that time sound reasons for RARE not to be
      involved with large scale IP networking in Europe. However, we
      all live in a rapidly changing world.

      The fact that most of the RARE member organisations were offering
      IP services, and thus became active participants in RIPE, caused
      RARE to reconsider its position versus RIPE.

      At present RARE members form an important part of RIPE. The RARE
      member organisations operate most of the IP networks that serve
      the academic community. By their technical expertise they have
      made valuable contributions to European IP coordination. It is
      through the good work of their experts that RARE members play an
      important role in RIPE. And this is the only way, in the current
      practice of concensus finding, for any organisation or group of
      organisations, to exercise influance in RIPE: technical
      expertise, not political power play.

      So today we see that RARE, through its members, plays an
      important role in RIPE. RARE may take even a leading role, based
      on technical expertise and hard work. RIPE technical groups will
      work in the closest possible cooperation and coordination with
      the RARE Technical Program.  Duplication of effort on a European
      scale must be avoided wherever possible. But, RARE must never be
      perceived as the governing body of RIPE; this would break and
      fragment the IP coordination in Europe.

      Presently, RARE members fund the RIPE NCC. This, at least partially,
      reflects the reality that the greater part of European IP
      networking is operated by RARE members. However, as noted in
      section 2, RIPE and its NCC, by its terms of reference, offer
      services to all IP providers, including many outside RARE, and
      including organizations that are already, or may soon be, in
      direct commercial competition. Thus, it is vital for the good of
      all IP users that RIPE remains, and is seen to remain,
      independent of all individual organizations or groups of
      organizations, including RARE.

      The vital neutrality of RIPE would be enhanced if RIPE member
      organizations which are not in RARE would also contribute to the
      costs of the NCC in addition to participating in RIPE itself.



   5. RIPE and Ebone 92

      In the framework of RIPE, Ebone 92 is an important grouping of a
      large number of IP network service providers in Europe. The aim
      of Ebone is to provide in 1992 a co-ordinated IP network
      infrastructure, with common network operations of a set of core
      routers. A more detailed description of Ebone can be found in the
      Ebone Memorandum of Understanding and the Ebone technical
      documents, which can be obtained from the RARE secretariat and
      electronically from the RIPE Document Store.

      Ebone will not be the only IP service provider in Europe, of
      course. It will still be faced with co-ordination issues between
      Ebone participating networks and other networking organisations.
      It is on this level that Ebone is expected to work within RIPE.

      As any other NOC, the Ebone NOC will make use of the standard
      services as provided by the RIPE NCC, and summarised in Section 3
      above. Again, as any other NOC, the Ebone NOC may feel the need
      for extra services, or for modified services. The agreed upon
      mechanism for such modifications is through RIPE. Based upon a
      few months experience, this has been shown to work extremely
      well.



   6. RIPE and the RARE Operational Unit

      The relationship between RIPE and the RIPE NCC on the one hand,
      and the RARE Operational Unit (OU) on the other hand depends
      strongly upon the actual nature of the OU. Since the OU is not in
      existence yet, and the discussions pertaining to the exact nature
      of the OU have not been finalised yet, possible models of
      inter-relationship can only be based on assumptions as to the
      possible nature of the OU.

      The discussion seems to revolve around two fundamentally
      different possibilities for the OU:

      o Case A: the OU will be a buyers co-operative, that goes out to
		acquire network services for its participants. These
		network services can be on any desired level: raw
		bandwidth, various transport services and even
		application services. The fundamental role of
		individual networks in serving their particular user
		communities remains unchanged.

      o Case B: the OU will be a seller of network services. These
		will be offered in the first place to the shareholding
		organisations, but others are also eligible to buy
		services.  As such, the OU will operate in competition
		with many other network service providers in Europe.

      A full description of the OU can be found in the final report
      "Towards a Single European Infrastructure", obtainable from the
      RARE secretariat. It is interesting to note that this report
      contains elements from both Case A and Case B.

      However, whatever the final nature of the OU will be, it can be
      deduced in both Cases that there is no need for any special
      relationship between the OU and RIPE and the RIPE NCC.

      In Case A, the individual networking organisations remain in
      operational control of the service provision, either as seperate
      organisations, or as a co-opreative a la Ebone. Just as in the
      case with Ebone, their is no special relationship needed, either
      with RIPE or with the RIPE NCC.

      In Case B, where the OU is one of the commercial IP service
      providers in Europe, it is even more vital to avoid any special
      relationship between the RIPE NCC and the RARE OU for exactly the
      same reasons as before. To re-iterate: If there were such a
      special relationship, then IP service providers outside RARE
      would perceive that RIPE and its NCC were part of the
      competition, and would feel unable to participate in the
      essential coordination which is the reason for the very existance
      of RIPE and its NCC. The result would be that the coordination
      would cease, and European IP networking would then fall into
      anarchy.



                                                                ripe-1


                          R  I  P  E


                      Terms of Reference


        Recognising that IP networks are growing beyond the LAN's in Europe,
     and are extending over national and international WAN's in Europe, the
     RIPE coordinating body has been created. RIPE stands for the "Reseaux
     IP Europeens".
     
        The objective of RIPE is to ensure the necessary administrative and
     technical coordination to allow the operation and expansion of a pan-
     European IP network.
     
     
        o RIPE acts as a forum for the exchange of technical information and
          the creation of expertise on IP networking.
     
        o The area of relevance for RIPE is Europe.
     
        o All parties operating wide area IP networks are encouraged to par-
          ticipate.
     
        o RIPE promotes and coordinates interconnection of IP networks within
          Europe and to other continents.
     
        o RIPE establishes agreement on common network management prac-
          tices and the operational management of the interconnected networks.
     
        o RIPE serves as a focal point for other common activities of the par-
          ticipants related to IP networking.
     
        o All documents produced by RIPE will be publicly available.
     
        o RIPE is not a network service provider. IP networks collaborating in
          RIPE remain under the executive authority of their respective organ-
          isations.
     
     
     Amsterdam
     29 November 1989




<<< Chronological >>> Author    Subject <<< Threads >>>