ripe-40
RIPE Database Status Report
June 10th 1991
Daniel Karrenberg
Summary
The database of RIPE network management information contin-
ues to grow exponentially. The number of entries has roughly
tripled in the last 7 months with much of the increase due
to the inclusion of domain information. The number of
registered networks has about doubled in the same period.
________________________________
|___________Nov_1990___June_1991|
| persons 643 1270 |
| nets 670 1053 |
| domains 0 845 |
|_______________________________|
|_Total_______1313_______3168___|
o Database usage by NOCs and individuals has noticeably
increased. The database is a useful tool.
o Database information maintenance needs more attention
in some parts of RIPE.
o The connectivity information about networks needs
better definition in some areas.
o The human resources necessary to keep the database
operational are increasing.
o Activities beyond maintenance of the current func-
tionality progress very slowly due to lack of
- 2 -
resources.
o A funded activity to take care of the database is
needed before the end of the year.
Maintenance and Updates
The quality of maintenance of the database information
varies drastically. This can partly be seen by comparing
the number of entries per country with the numbers one might
expect due to the size of the respective country's network-
ing activities.
______________________________
| Per Country Statistics |
|_Country___Networks___Domains|
| AT 12 0 |
| BE 4 2 |
| CH 192 16 |
| CS 1 0 |
| DE 219 149 |
| DK 5 1 |
| ES 4 0 |
| FI 15 89 |
| FR 314 114 |
| GB 59 1 |
| GR 2 0 |
| HU 0 0 |
| IE 3 0 |
| IL 0 12 |
| IS 1 31 |
| IT 31 47 |
| NL 75 143 |
| NO 7 62 |
| PL 2 0 |
| PT 16 1 |
| SE 84 176 |
| TN 1 0 |
| YU 6 0 |
|_____________________________|
I'd like to use this opportunity to remind you that all
updates should be sent to <auto-dbm@ripe.net>. Please use
the current templates accessible by anonymous FTP from
archive.ripe.net in directory ripe/dbase. Those who cannot
use anonymous FTP can request the templates by electronic
mail from <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>. Pre-checked bulk updates
from NOCs are preferred but information from any source will
be accepted.
- 3 -
Currently there are about 10 updates or additions per day on
average.
Connectivity Information for Networks
The currently valid values of the "connect" field for net-
works can be seen in the table below. Many of these values
have been defined ad-hoc. The set of well defined values
currently is:
LOCAL local network. No external connectivity. No rout-
ing information should be passed. It is recommend-
ed that international routers do not accept rout-
ing information for these networks.
RIPE network has connectivity within RIPE. RIPE routers
should allow non-transit traffic. It is recommend-
ed that international routers advertise European
networks internationally only if they show this
connectivity value.
NSF network has connectivity with the NSFnet. This
means the network is present in the NSFnet policy
routing database at MERIT or a request has been
submitted to include it.
NORDU network is NORDUnet member.
EU network is an InterEUnet member.
NOCs are encouraged to suggest more well defined values for
this field which can be used to implement or verify routing
(policies). There are currently two known international
routes which filter outgoing routing updates according to
the connect field. Good maintenance of the RIPE and LOCAL
connectivity values becomes especially important as more
international routers are going to filter routing updates
based on this value.
- 4 -
__________________________
| Connect Statistics |
|_Connectivity____Networks|
| ALT 0 |
| EU 161 |
| FNET 1 |
| FUNET 2 |
| ICS 103 |
| LOCAL 470 |
| NORDU 106 |
| NIKHEF 5 |
| NLNET 4 |
| NSF 373 |
| RIPE 539 |
| SARA 18 |
| SURF 18 |
| WCW 4 |
| WIN 23 |
|_________________________|
Miscellaneous
The SRI-NIC and NSFnet database subsets are again available
from the RIPE whois server. NSFnet has made the necessary
input files available. The SRI-NIC portion only has infor-
mation about networks with "connected status". It has been
brought to the attention of US agencies that it is desirable
to have information about all assigned network numbers
readily available.
Planning
The current central effort to maintain the database is
between 5 and 20 hours per week depending on the amount of
updates and software development going on-. This is rather
more than originally expected. Much of this is due to the
quickly increasing number of database entries and the
corresponding increase in the number of updates. These
activities are not funded and occur mostly in time donated
by individuals. This means there is a natural limit on what
can be done. A funded activity (such as the NCC) is needed
before the end of the year if the RIPE database is to remain
useful.
There are also a number things considered useful but which
currently cannot be done:
_________________________
- The rate of updates somehow increases dramatically in
the week before RIPE meetings :-).
- 5 -
o Add new object types as defined by last RIPE meeting
(see appendices).
o Develop more stringent consistency checks both inside
the RIPE database itself and with other databases such
as SRI-NIC and MERIT.
o Investigate and correct inconsistencies. Missing person
entries is currently a major problem area.
o Verify the accuracy of older data and correct if neces-
sary.
o Compile a new distribution of database software. Espe-
cially the refined tools to check format and con-
sistency need to be made available to the NOCs.
o Make performance improvements for database updates.
o Test & deploy the distributed update software so that
bulk updates by NOCs can be done with less manual
intervention.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all NOCs for their efforts to maintain
the RIPE database as a useful tool for everyone within RIPE
and elsewhere. Special thanks go to Piet Beertema who has
helped a lot with this work in the last few months. Marten
Terpstra and Arnold Nipper have helped with software and
collecting domain information respectively. We also thank
EUnet/EurOpen who provide the machine which houses the data-
base.