Réseaux IP Européens
Network Coordination Centre
FoundedApril 1992 (1992-04)
FocusAllocation and registration of IP address space
Location
Websitewww.ripe.net

RIPE NCC (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre) is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a branch office in Dubai, UAE.[1]

A RIR oversees the allocation and registration of Internet number resources (IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses and autonomous system numbers) in a specific region.

The RIPE NCC supports the technical and administrative coordination of the infrastructure of the Internet. It is a not-for-profit membership organisation with over 10,000 (as of March 2014[2]) members located in over 76 countries in its service region.[3]

Any individual or organisation can become a member of the RIPE NCC. The membership consists mainly of Internet service providers (ISPs), telecommunication organisations, educational institutions, governments, regulatory agencies, and large corporations.

The RIPE NCC also provides technical and administrative support to Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet.

History

The RIPE NCC began its operations in April 1992 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Initial funding was provided by the academic networks Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne (RARE) members, EARN, and EUnet. The RIPE NCC was formally established when the Dutch version of the Articles of Association was deposited with the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce on 12 November 1997.[4] The first RIPE NCC Activity Plan[5] was published in May 1991.

On 25 November 2019, RIPE NCC announced[6] that it had made its “final /22 IPv4 allocation from the last remaining addresses in our available pool. We have now run out of IPv4 addresses.” RIPE NCC will continue to allocate IPv4 addresses, but only “from organisations that have gone out of business or are closed, or from networks that return addresses they no longer need. These addresses will be allocated to our members (LIRs) according to their position on a new waiting list ….” The announcement also called for support for the implementation of the IPv6 roll-out.

Activities

Promo stickers of RIPE NCC activities, structures and values

The RIPE NCC support technical coordination of the Internet infrastructure in its service region[7] and beyond. It undertakes many activities in this area, including:

The allocation of IP addresses is important for several reasons. Public addresses need to be unique; if duplicate internet addresses existed on a network, network traffic could be delivered to the wrong host. The RIRs make sure that public addresses are given to one organisation. The RIPE NCC does this for its own service region. Worldwide, IANA assigns blocks of addresses to the RIRs and they distribute these to end users via the LIRs (normally ISPs). Beside making sure that IP addresses and AS Numbers are only allocated to one user, the shortage of IPv4 addresses makes it important that the remaining addresses are allocated in an organised manner. For many years, the RIPE NCC has followed strict guidelines on how to assign IPv4 addresses according to policy developed by the RIPE Community, as outlined in the RIPE Document ripe-498.[10] As the last /8 block has been assigned from IANA to all the RIRs, the RIPE NCC will only have new IPv4 addresses available for allocation for a certain amount of time.[14][15]
  • Development, operation and maintenance of the RIPE Database.[16][17]
  • Development, operation and maintenance of the RIPE Routing Registry.[18]
  • Operation of K-root, one of the world's root name servers.[19]
  • Coordination support for ENUM delegations .
  • Collection and publication of neutral statistics on Internet development and performance, notable via the RIPE Atlas global measurement network and RIPEstat,[20] a web-based interface providing information about IP address space, autonomous system numbers, and related information for hostnames and countries.

Structure

The RIPE NCC is governed by Dutch law. Its legal form is a “vereniging” (association).

Organisational

The RIPE NCC consists of:

Members
Members can directly influence the RIPE NCC’s activities and services. Members are responsible for nominating and electing candidates to the RIPE NCC executive board and for accepting the RIPE NCC charging scheme and approving the RIPE NCC financial report each year. Members also give input to, and feedback on, the activities carried out and the services provided by the RIPE NCC.
Executive board
RIPE NCC members nominate and elect the executive board. The board consists of between three and seven members and is responsible for appointing the RIPE NCC's managing director, for the overall financial situation of the RIPE NCC and for keeping records that allow the financial situation of the organisation to be evaluated at any time.
RIPE NCC staff
Staff members perform the activities of the RIPE NCC, provide services to its members and provide administrative support to RIPE.

The RIPE NCC and RIPE

RIPE#86 in Rotterdam, in May 2023

Réseaux IP Européens is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. Although similar in name, RIPE and the RIPE NCC are separate entities. However, they are highly interdependent. The RIPE NCC provides administrative support to RIPE, such as the facilitation of RIPE Meetings[21] and giving administrative support to RIPE Working Groups.[22]

Fees and IPv4 Transfer Market

The RIPE NCC charges members an annual membership fee.[23] Since 2012 this fee has been equal for all members and is unrelated to resource holdings. A separate charge is made for each Provider Independent number resource associated with customers of members.


There is also an active market in IPv4 address transfers[24] and these relate to registration in the RIRs' databases rather than the addresses themselves. The RIPE NCC has a formal transfer process.[25] Members must pay their annual fees before they can transfer resources away.[26]

Databases

The RIPE Database

The RIPE Database[16] is a public database containing registration details of the IP addresses and AS numbers originally allocated to members by the RIPE NCC. It shows which organisations or individuals currently hold which Internet number resources, when the allocations were made and contact details. The organisations or individuals that hold these resources are responsible for updating information in the database.

As of March 2008, the database contents are available for near real-time mirroring (NRTM).[27]

RIPE Routing Registry

The RIPE Routing Registry (RR)[28] is a sub-set of the RIPE Database[16] and holds routing information in RPSL. The RIPE RR[28] is a part of the Internet RR, a collection of databases that mirror each other. Information about domain names in the RIPE Database[16] is for reference only. It is not the domain name registry that is run by the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) administrators of Europe and surrounding areas.

Service regions

The RIPE NCC service region[3] consists of countries in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. RIPE NCC services are available to users outside this region through Local Internet Registries; these entities must have a valid legal address inside the service region but can offer their services to anyone.[7]

Asia

Southwest Asia[29]

Central Asia[30]

Europe[31]

North America[31]

Former service regions

Prior to the formation of AFRINIC, the RIPE NCC served the following countries:[32]

ICANN assigns blocks of Internet resources (IP Resources and AS Numbers) to the RIPE NCC and the other RIRs.
The NRO is made up of the five RIRs: AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the RIPE NCC. It carries out the joint activities of the RIRs including joint technical projects, liaison activities and policy coordination.
The NRO also performs the function of the ASO, one of the supporting organisations called for by the ICANN bylaws. The ASO reviews and develops recommendations on Internet Policy relating to the system of IP addressing and advises the ICANN Board on these matters.
As part of the NRO, the RIPE NCC was actively involved in the WSIS.
As part of the NRO, the RIPE NCC is actively involved in the IGF.

References

  1. ↑ Contact Information. RIPE NCC. Retrieved on 10 February 2009.
  2. ↑ "RIPE NCC Update". March 27, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "RIPE NCC Members Europe". www.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2004-10-24.
  4. ↑ "ripe.net". Archived from the original on June 15, 2007.
  5. ↑ https://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-035.txt
  6. ↑ The RIPE NCC has run out of IPv4 Addresses, RIPE NCC, 2019-11-25
  7. 1 2 "Members ordered by country code". RIPE Network Coordination Centre.
  8. ↑ "Global Policy for the Allocation of IPv4 Blocks To Regional Internet Registries". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 11 August 2010.
  9. ↑ "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Policies For Allocation of IPv4 Blocks to Regional Internet Registries". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 19 April 2005.
  10. 1 2 "IPv4 Address Allocation and Assignment Policies for the RIPE NCC Service Region". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 11 October 2010.
  11. ↑ "IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 10 September 2009.
  12. ↑ "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Policy for Allocation of ASN Blocks to Regional Internet Registries". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 9 September 2010.
  13. ↑ "Autonomous System (AS) Number Assignment Policies". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 7 August 2010.
  14. ↑ "RIPE NCC IPv4 Available Pool - Graph — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". www.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2011-04-09.
  15. ↑ "RIPE NCC FAQ on exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, visited 16 April 2011".
  16. 1 2 3 4 "RIPE Database". RIPE Network Coordination Centre.
  17. ↑ "Database documents RIPE Document store". Archived from the original on November 26, 2010.
  18. ↑ "The RIPE Routing Registry — Welcome to the RIPE Network Coordination Centre". www.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2011-02-13.
  19. ↑ "Root Server Technical Operations Assn". root-servers.org.
  20. ↑ "RIPEstat". stat.ripe.net.
  21. ↑ "RIPE Meetings FAQ". January 20, 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-01-20.
  22. ↑ "RIPE Working Groups". www.ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2000-06-03.
  23. ↑ "RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2013". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. 3 October 2012.
  24. ↑ "Internet Number Resource Report – Q2 June 2023" (PDF). The Number Number Resources Organization. 2023-08-14. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  25. ↑ Oct 2023, Created: 28 May 2020-Last updated: 05. "Transfer of IP Addresses and AS Numbers". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. Retrieved 2023-11-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  26. ↑ billing, Created: 22 Dec 2022-. "RIPE NCC Billing Procedure 2023". RIPE Network Coordination Centre. Retrieved 2023-11-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  27. ↑ RIPE Database Near Real Time Mirroring (NRTM)
  28. 1 2 "RIPE Routing Registry". April 27, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-04-27.
  29. ↑ "LIRs in the Middle East, RIPE NCC".
  30. ↑ "LIRs in Central Asia, RIPE NCC".
  31. 1 2 "LIRs in Europe, RIPE NCC".
  32. ↑ "RIPE LIR's in Africa". March 4, 2003. Archived from the original on 2003-03-04.


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