RIPE position paper - The RARE view

Dear colleagues,

   the RIPE document "RIPE position paper" which has been discussed during
   the last two RIPE meetings, has been sent to the RARE CoA.

   At its meeting of August 25, the RARE Executive discussed the RIPE
   document, and formulated its reaction. The document below is the the RARE
   document as it has been sent to the RARE CoA for discussion at their next
   meeting (September 24-25).

   The document below is the full, unabridged and un-commented document for
   your information. In a next message I will give my remarks and comments,
   not in the first place as the chairman of RIPE, but as an active
   participant in RIPE. I invite you all to give your own comments, I will
   collect them, summarise them, and produce a 'RIPE view' to be used in
   further discussions.

Greetings,

   Rob

NOTE: the document has been received September 8, 1992.

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COA (92)080
T.Kalin
24.8.92



			RARE and RIPE / RIPE - NCC


1. INTRODUCTION


There are some recent technical, organisational and political developments
in Europe and in the Internet world at large which are rapidly changing the
whole networking scene in Europe and globally:

   establishment of EBONE
   pending establishment of the Operational Unit
   signature of the IXI - PS contract
   ECFRN initiative

and

   NSFNET backbone/NAP solicitation
   GIX concept introduced by IEPG in Tokyo
   proposed architectural changes in draft  IPv7


Taking the above developments into account one should re-evaluate the ways
and means how to improve the services provided to the European R&D
community by fully utilising the vast pool of expertise available in
Europe.


2.  RIPE and RIPE NCC


RIPE has now been in operation, following an initiative by D. Karrenberg
and R. Blokzijl,  for three years as  the organisation forum  where most of
the European  IP networks meet to discuss issues of common interest.
Currently over 60 networking organisations  participate in the work of
RIPE.

Its terms of reference as defined in November 1989 are:


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:

 + RIPE acts as a forum for the exchange of technical information and the
   creation of expertise on IP networking.

 + the area of relevance for RIPE is Europe.

 + all parties operating wide area IP networks are encouraged to
   participate.

 + RIPE promotes and coordinates interconnection of IP networks within
   Europe and to other continents.

 + RIPE establishes agreement on common network management practices and
   the operational management of the interconnected networks.

 + RIPE serves as a focal point for other common activities of the
   participants related to IP networking.

 + all documents produced by RIPE will be publicly available.

 + RIPE is not a network service provider. IP networks collaborating in
   RIPE remain under the executive authority of their respective
   organisations.


During the CoA meting in Killarney in May 1990, the decision was made: 

16-13"to adopt RIPE as the coordinating body for the TCP/IP with the terms
      of reference as published and to confirm Rob Blokzijl as its first
      chairman." 

Its status was defined as:

"......The RIPE status within RARE is foreseen as a coordinating body,
which shall be treated as a Working Group in the sense of support provided
and invitations to CoA and WG Chair-REC meetings...."

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

   Network information services
   Domain Name system
   Routing
   Network monitoring and statistics
   Network maps
   European connectivity
   RIPE database
   Relationship between Academic & Research networks and Commercial
      networks


It is safe to claim that RIPE did fulfil its objectives and contributed
extensively to the growth and success of the European IP networks, we are
experiencing now.




In April 1992 RIPE NCC started its operation to provide day to day
functions of more administrative nature.  The main services are:


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

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

 + coordinated network statistics gathering

 + domain name system (DNS) coordination

 + graphical maps of IP networks (planned)

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

 + RIPE document store

 + interactive information service

RIPE - NCC   is part of the RARE Secretariat. Funding for the first year of
operation of the NCC is provided by the full national members of RARE, Israel,
EARN and EUnet.
The NCC will together with the RARE treasurer report to the funding
organisations on the NCC financial matters.


The reporting scheme as defined in Innsbruck CoA:

   RIPE, on behalf of RARE, defines the tasks and functions of the NCC
   the NCC reports to RIPE on operational matters
   the NCC reports to RARE on the organisational matters
   RIPE, on behalf of RARE, regularly reviews the operations of the NCC
   RIPE copies its definitions of NCC tasks and functions to RTC
   NCC copies all its reports on operational matters to RTC
   RIPE reports its findings on the operations of the NCC to RTC


As far as the execution of the above reporting scheme is concerned, some
unfortunate blunders occurred, giving rise to strong reactions from some of
the CoA members.



3.  RARE AND RIPE

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.

As noted before, RARE members presently finance the RIPE NCC. It seems that
the commercial networks participating in RIPE work do not regard their
direct financial contribution vital for the operation of NCC. This does of
course not reduce the value of enormous efforts that some of them have
invested in the RIPE work and to the success of EBONE.

Unfortunately, there is very little  interaction between technical bodies
of RIPE and Working Groups defined by RTC and approved by CoA, aside from
the fact that both groups are drawing from the same pool of European
experts, and therefore many experts participate in both, RIPE and RARE
Working Groups. The first attempt to consolidate and cross fertilise the
efforts, is the proposal by RTC to send a delegation to RIPE meeting in
September, with the task to report on the new  organisation of the
technical work in RARE and to examine possibilities for closer cooperation
in the interest of the European user community. RIPE chairman R. Blokzijl 
fully supported this proposal.




4. CONCLUSION: ROLE  OF RIPE AND RIPE NCC  IN THE  FUTURE     DEVELOPMENTS


One can assume, with a high probability, the following scenario for the
near term development in networking in Europe: 

 + transition to the IXI Production Service (~Winter 92)

 + commencement of the 2 Mbps EMPB (~Winter 92/93)

 + establishment of the Operational Unit (~Spring 93)

 + EBONE managed by the OU (~Spring/Summer 93)

 + full operation of European 2 Mbps multiprotocol backbone - EMPB (~End 93)

 + execution starts of ECFRNnet initiative (Mid 93)

 + upgrade EMPB to higher speeds (~End 94 ?)


Very complex and difficult management tasks which are politically and
technically dependent on full cooperation of the whole community concerned,
require:

 + an European consensus on all steps of developments

 + a strong centrally controlled management of the European multiprotocol
   backbone

 + full support in all connected networks for the commonly agreed plan and
   each step

 + active cooperation of technical experts from the RARE and RIPE members
   in the execution of the plans

The crux for the success of the task at hand  is in the last point. 

It is the responsibility of RARE community on one side and  RIPE community,
particularly RIPE chairman, on the other side, not to miss this unique
opportunity to make an important step toward harmonisation of European
networking efforts. One has to appreciate that some of the boundary
conditions in provision of the above scenario are of political nature and
can not be modified without  danger for the whole exercise. In view of this
one should not start to dig new ditches, but to get all accessible IP
expertise to work on the solutions necessary to make the services of the
multiprotocol backbone available. Nobody can gain from endless discussions
on the merits of one or another technique.

Said that, it is easy to project the roles and the positions of RIPE in
RIPE NCC within a possible future scenario:


RIPE:

   RIPE should stay a technical IP coordinating body within RARE, but 
having much more interaction with the RARE management, technical and
executive bodies (CoA, RTC, REC, Raresec) than in the past
   according to its charter, RIPE should be serving wider population than
RARE membership
   one should observe gradual merger (or at least very close cooperation)
between identical or  related Working Groups of RARE and RIPE, leading to a
coordinated management of technical activities
   RIPE should  support establishment and utilisation of the EMPB,
particulary in the pilot phase, where the its expertise is crucially needed




RIPE NCC:

One should seek to have the continuity of the services provided by NCC by
all means. To achieve this goal,  the best position of the NCC is in the
Operational Unit, the organisation managing the EMPB, subject to a
commitment by OU,  to offer adequate services, at the cost, also to
networking organisations which are not owners or customers of the OU. This
move should contribute to a better manageability of the EMPB. It  solves as
well  the problem of how to fund NCC, furthermore,  significant support
from CEC is very likely  in the starting period.


The awareness of the importance of computer networks for academic and
industrial research, has reached in Europe a point where one can hope for
substantial financial support for the establishment of a pan - European
multiprotocol network. In this vital period one must be able to consider
the real interests of the research community  as the first priority of all
concerned.


5. REFERENCES

This document is based upon the following papers:

   IEPG report, G. Huston, INET92
   IP Version 7, IAB , July 1992
   ripe-w01: Terms of reference            
   ripe-w07: RIPE NCC Activity Plan   EC(91)55        
   16. CoA Minutes COA(90)26
   RIPE, R.Blokzijl, Draft, 8 May,1992
   RIPE position paper, R. Blokzijl,  v2, 13 August 1992