RIPE NCC Regional Meeting Minutes

Istanbul 22-23 October 2010

Some Recent Interesting Observations about the Internet

Daniel Karrenberg (Chief Scientist, RIPE NCC)

Daniel spoke on the RIPE NCC’s Internet measurements and statistics and what they mean for the community.

Daniel included information on the RIPE NCC’s Membership history and number resources; Middle East membership history; predictions on IPv4 resource depletion; IPv6 uptake and allocation rates; and the “RIPEness” of countries and economies.

Daniel previewed the RIPE Atlas project, a new measurement service for real-time operational use that will be formally launched at RIPE 61 in Rome. The service employs measurement probes deployed by hosts in the RIPE NCC service region for the mapping of shared data.

Daniel noted the ease of installing the probes, designed to run behind home routers and require a local IP address, with an Internet connection to a serial line. He added that the rate of traffic from each probe is configurable.

He said that there is no cost to probe but there is a fee to host the service.

Daniel made a call for hosts and for financial sponsors.


RIPE NCC Activities and Services

Axel Pawlik (Managing Director, RIPE NCC)

Axel spoke about the RIPE NCC organisation; its history, activities and services; its position as the secretariat for the RIPE community; the strategy of the RIPE NCC in a post-IPv4 world; a return to its core focus as a network coordination center; its three strategic pillars for the year: resource lifecycle management, reliable source of data, and developing the role of the RIPE NCC that includes addressing non-traditional communities such as governments and legal authorities; policy and registration services update; RIPE NCC membership and charging scheme update; Information Services and measurement activities; Communications and External Relations update including RIPE Labs and outreach. Axel invited meeting attendees to attend RIPE 61 in Rome.

Comment: Paul Rendek added that the RIPE NCC Roundtable Meetings are traditionally held in Amsterdam. He said that the RIPE NCC is now extending these meetings to the Middle East and he invited telecommunications regulatory authorities to act as hosts or sponsors for the RIPE NCC Roundtable Meetings.

Comment: Mirjam Kuhne noted that remote participation is available for RIPE Meetings, including RIPE 61, for those who cannot join in person.


Certification

Oleg Muravskiy (RIPE NCC)

Oleg presented on the certification of Internet number resources project being developed by the RIPE NCC for deployment in 2011. Oleg noted the fragility of routing and the need for added routing security, which certification will help to provide by validating information on the source of resources.

He explained how certification of Internet resources will work; what a certificate is and is not; the benefits of certifying resources; automated provisioning using Route Origin Authorisation (ROA); and he defined what a “resource authority” is and its role and responsibilities in the certification of resources. He explained the methodology of how RIPE NCC members would certify their resources using the secure portal.

Oleg noted that the certification system developed at the RIPE NCC has been active for about a year and that certification will evolve over time, with more work on secure protocols being developed in the IETF.

Oleg noted that certification will become a production system in January 2011 and he encouraged attendees to test the system and provide feedback.


Resource Statistics (Middle East)

Elvis Velea (RIPE NCC)

Elvis presented IPv4 and IPv6 resource statistics from the RIPE NCC, focusing on the Middle East region, including membership statistics, resource statistics and the support provided by the RIPE NCC Service Centre. He noted that, as of the date of this presentation, the IPv4 address pool has less than five percent remaining and that depletion is imminent.


Policy Update

Emilio Madaio (RIPE NCC)

Emilio spoke on RIPE Policy updates, including an explanation of the policy development process in the RIPE NCC service region; present policies under consideration in the RIPE community; global policies; and he encouraged the audience to take part in policy discussions, highlighting that it is the community that forms policies that the RIPE NCC implements.


RIPE Labs

Mirjam Kühne (RIPE NCC)

Mirjam presented on the latest articles and developments on RIPE Labs, a web site that operates as a platform and as a tool for the community to test new ideas and prototypes in the Internet community, and to provide research results and data. She highlighted recent projects posted on Labs and examples of community involvement and regional studies, speaking specifically on the “RIPEness“ project and the new RIPE Atlas prototype service.

Mirjam noted continuing efforts to reach out to the community for data and she welcomed participation from the MENOG meeting attendees.