------------------------------------------------------------------- APNIC Document identity Title: Asia Pacific Network Information Center Pilot Project Midterm Status Report Short title: project-midterm-report Document ref: APNIC-006 Version: 001 Date of original publication: 10 December 1993 Date of this version: 10 December 1993 Review scheduled: n/a Obsoletes: n/a Status: Historical Comments: n/a -------------------------------------------------------------------- APNIC-006.0 APNIC Staff Informational Document 10 December 1993 Asia Pacific Network Information Center Pilot Project Midterm Status Report Issued: December 10, 1993 Expires: Not Applicable 1. Introduction On September 1, 1993, the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) pilot project, initiated in January, 1993 [1] entered a new phase, one which has made some aspects of the future APNIC publicly accessible to the Internet. As one of the milestones in the pilot pro- ject proposal submitted to the APCCIRN during the Inet '93 conference [2], this report details the current status of the prototype APNIC, results obtained so far, and conclusions that have been reached in the APNIC pilot project near the midpoint of the pilot project's lifetime. 2. Background At the first APCCIRN meeting at Honolulu in January, 1993, one item on the agenda was the establishment of an Asia Pacific Network Informa- tion Center which would provide information and registration services to networking organizations in the Asia Pacific region [3]. Following the August, 1993 Inet '93 meeting in San Francisco, the implementation plan of the APNIC pilot project was fleshed out and the public phase of the project began on September 1, 1993. The APNIC pilot project is being funded in its entirety by the Japanese national Network Information Center, JPNIC. JPNIC has gen- erously donated 10% of its 1993 budget to help the APNIC pilot project in its endeavors. The goals of the APNIC pilot project as documented in the pilot project proposal presented at the Inet '93 meeting are to provide a testbed for experimentation into the area of network coordination in the Asia Pacific region. The two key areas of study are: 1) Appropriate functions for the APNIC 2) Requirements for the establishment and operation of the APNIC Thus, the APNIC pilot project is intended to evaluate the aspects necessary to insure the establishment and continued operation of a per- manent Network Information Center for the Asia Pacific region. APNIC Staff [Page 1] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 3. Current Status After three months of operation, the APNIC pilot project is pro- gressing quite smoothly. The first accomplishment of the project was to establish a machine and the domain name APNIC.NET which allows elec- tronic communication between the Internet and the APNIC pilot project. APNIC.NET is physically located at the University of Tokyo, co-resident with the JPNIC, but the actual operation of the pilot project is done nearly exclusively on electronic mailing lists run from APNIC.NET. Three mailing lists have been set up: o APNIC-MEMBER - The political contacts for the APNIC, to be consulted on politically sensitive issues o APNIC-STAFF - The APNIC pilot project implementation team o APNIC-ALL - Anyone interested in issues relating to the APNIC The members of the three lists are included in appendix A. Of these lists, the APNIC-STAFF list has been the most active and has been instrumental in the smooth operation of the APNIC pilot project. 3.1. Network Services In addition to the above mailing lists, members of the APNIC-STAFF list set up various prototype services on APNIC.NET. These services include: o FTP server o Gohper server o RIPE Whois database and server As these servers are still in prototype phase, the data the servers have available are limited and/or of questionable use. For example, the whois server on APNIC.NET currently contains a copy of the RIPE database from Europe and has no information on networks in the Asia Pacific region. With this being the case, however, the servers do provide some immediate use, namely all APNIC documents mentioned in this paper are available via anonymous FTP or Gopher from APNIC.NET. It is assumed that these servers will be populated during the second half of the APNIC pilot project. 3.2. Contact Information With the establishment of an Internet presence, The APNIC pilot project has been in contact and has coordinated with the InterNIC, the IANA, RIPE, JPNIC, and KRNIC. In communicating with the InterNIC and RIPE, it became necessary to obtain a postal and electronic mail address, a telephone number and a fax number. Thus, the APNIC pilot APNIC Staff [Page 2] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 project has established a temporary mailing address, fax and telephone number as below: Asia Pacific Network Information Center c/o Computer Center, The University of Tokyo 2-11-16, Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113 JAPAN Email: hostmaster@apnic.net Telephone: +81-3-5684-7747 Fax: +81-3-5688-7256 Thus, the APNIC pilot project has created a prototype Asia Pacific Network Information Center, with both a physical and a network presence and with this existence continues to operate smoothly. 4. APNIC Results This section describes some of the more significant results of the APNIC pilot project to date. As the APNIC pilot project has become a contributing member of the Internet, these results have been obtained due to operational requirements of either the APNIC pilot project or the future operation of the Internet as a whole. 4.1. APNIC.NET As mentioned in the previous section, the APNIC pilot project has set up a machine APNIC.NET to provide services to the Asia Pacific net- working community. The machine is a Sun Sparcstation shared with JPNIC. It's internet address is 192.41.192.2 and is fully connected to the Internet. 4.2. APNIC.NET Services As also mentioned previously, APNIC.NET provides several network services to the global Internet. These services include: o FTP o Gopher o Whois Further services such as WAIS and World Wide Web will be available in the near future. 4.3. APNIC Address Allocation Request Form The APNIC pilot project has produced a form that will allow organi- zations within the Asia Pacific region to request network addresses. This form, based on the RIPE address allocation request form [4], is APNIC Staff [Page 3] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 intended to be accepted by all Internet registries in the Asia Pacific region. The allocation request form has been broken up into two parts, a description of the form, its fields and general hints on filling out the form (known as APNIC-001), and the actual application form itself (known as APNIC-002). The allocation request forms can be obtained via anonymous FTP as: apnic.net:/apnic/docs/apnic-001.txt apnic.net:/apnic/docs/apnic-002.txt 4.4. Coordination with RIPE, InterNIC and the IANA The APNIC Pilot Project has contacted RIPE, the InterNIC, and the IANA in order to initiate the global coordination of information and services necessary to create a regional Network Information Center. This contact has been through electronic mail, phone calls and meetings. In all three cases APNIC personnel established a good working relation- ship with the other organizations. 4.5. Membership in the Shared Whois Project (SWIP) Currently RIPE-NCC, Merit, and InterNIC are in the process of defining a set of protocols for the exchange of information between NICs called the Shared Whois Project. The APNIC pilot project has become an active member of this project and will be involved in experimentation with the protocols, grammars and tools in the near future. 4.6. Interim CIDR Blocks One pressing problem in the global Internet is the IP address space issues documented in RFC 1466 [5]. In order to help the CIDR temporary solution to the addressing crisis, the APNIC pilot project proposed a plan whereby the InterNIC would allocate a block of 256 class C networks to countries requesting addresses. The InterNIC would then allocate the requests from the country blocks. This proposal was accepted by the IANA and the InterNIC and has been put in place. The following blocks have been allocated by the InterNIC and CIDRizable allocations are occurring from them: Australia*: 203.0.0.0 - 203.63.255.0 Japan*: (several) Korea*: 202.30.0.0 - 202.31.255.0 Thailand*: 202.28.0.0 - 202.29.255.0 New Zealand: 202.36.0.0 - 202.37.255.0 China: 202.38.0.0 - 202.38.255.0 Taiwan: 202.39.0.0 - 202.39.255.0 Hong Kong: 202.40.0.0 - 202.40.255.0 APNIC Staff [Page 4] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 (*) The blocks allocated have been delegated to national NICs of these countries In addition, as countries not listed above request addresses, the InterNIC will assign a block 256 class C networks and allocate out of that block until the APNIC receives full delegation of the 202 and 203 blocks. 4.7. Examination of the Scope of the APNIC RFC 1466 designates the address blocks 202 and 203 to the "Pacific Rim" region. Since the APNIC will provide services for both the Pacific Rim region and the Asia region, APNIC pilot project personnel contacted the IANA and Elise Gerich, the author of RFC 1466 to discuss the issue of support for Asia. After some discussion, the IANA decided RFC 1466 would be amended to include Asia into the 202 and 203 blocks. If this address space nears exhaustion, the Asia Pacific region will receive an additional delegation of the 204 address block. The discussion relating to the what comprises the Asia Pacific region resulted in a request from the IANA for a definition of the area which the APNIC would be willing to support, with the provisos that the list would be "extra-inclusive" and subject to change. This question was also posed to RIPE. Included in appendix B are the responses to this request from both the APNIC pilot project and RIPE. 4.8. APNIC Proposals Thus far, the APNIC pilot project has obtained enough information to provide the APCCIRN with a set of proposals intended to solidify the operational requirements and responsibilities of the full APNIC when it becomes established. These proposals are set forth in a companion docu- ment[6]. It is hoped these proposals will provide the APCCIRN with solid footing to aide in the establishment of the full APNIC. 4.9. Summary The following bullets of the original APNIC experiments document can be summarized as follows: o Guidelines for establishment of Country NICS - Some preliminary steps have already been taken by the IANA and InterNIC and APNIC will be a contributing member in future discussions. o APNIC database format - APNIC will initially use the RIPE database format. APNIC Staff [Page 5] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 o APNIC transactions - APNIC pilot project staff have created forms for use by organizations applying for IP network numbers. o APNIC-CountryNIC transactions - APNIC will be involved in the SWIP project which will define protocols for these transactions. o APNIC-InterNIC transactions - APNIC will be involved in the SWIP project which will define protocols for these transactions. o APNIC-NCC transactions - APNIC will be involved in the SWIP project which will define protocols for these transactions. o Services to access the database - APNIC will initially use the RIPE whois database server and tools. o Information archiving - APNIC pilot project staff have created an information archive that is accessible via FTP and Gopher. It will soon be accessible via WAIS and WWW in the near future. o Routing preference issues - APNIC pilot project staff have discussed with RIPE-NCC the details involved in setting up a routing registry and route server. Since these issues are not of significant concern within the Asia Pacific region at this time, APNIC plans on installing the routing preference facilities in the near future for use in experimentation. o Organizational issues - APNIC pilot project staff have prepared a document (apnic-005.txt) which discusses some of the issues related to organizing and funding the APNIC. 5. Future Work The APNIC pilot project has determined the highest priority issues to resolve are those of an address partitioning model and a funding model. The address partitioning model proposal in the proposals docu- ment would address the first issue. The second issue is much more chal- lenging and will require much discussion and consultation. To aid the discussion on this last issue, the APNIC pilot project has compiled a document [7] describing some of the various options available for fund- ing the APNIC. It is hoped this document will provide the APCCIRN food for thought when considering the APNIC funding issue. In addition to the issues mentioned above, the APNIC pilot project APNIC Staff [Page 6] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 intends on implementing or putting in place mechanisms to allow for the implementation of the proposals mentioned in the proposals document. 6. Conclusions The APNIC pilot project has progressed significantly in its quest to provide a Network Information Center for the Asia Pacific region. A machine has been set up and has begun providing services for members of the Asia Pacific networking community, contacts have been made with various organizations both in the Asia Pacific region and in the Inter- net community at large, and significant progress has been made at put- ting in place the policies and procedures necessary for the delegation of the 202 and 203. In conclusion then, the APNIC pilot project is run- ning smoothly and is beginning to provide significant results. 7. References [1] Chon, K., "Minutes of the January 1993 Honolulu APCCIRN Meeting", nic.nm.kr:/apccirn/021.minute.Jan93, January 1993. [2] Murai, J., and Conrad, D., "Asia Pacific Network Information Center Pilot Project Proposal", apnic.net:/apnic/docs/english/apnic-003.txt, August 1993. [3] Murai, J., and Hirabaru, M., "A Proposal for APNIC Experiments", nic.nm.kr:/apccirn/020.apnic.proposal, January 1993. [4] Karrenberg, D., et. al, "European IP Network Number Application Form and Supporting Notes", ripe.net:/ripe/docs/ripe-docs/ripe-83.txt, March 1993. [5] Gerich, E., "Guidelines for Management of IP Address Space", RFC 1466, CNRI, May 1993. [6] APNIC Staff, "Various Proposals for the Asia Pacific Network Information Center", apnic.net:/apnic/docs/english/apnic-004.txt, November 1993. [7] APNIC Staff, "Asia Pacific Network Information Center Organizational Proposals and a Preliminary Budget", apnic.net:/apnic/docs/english/apnic-005.txt, December 1993. APNIC Staff [Page 7] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 Appendix A - APNIC Pilot Project Mailing lists The APNIC-MEMBER list is intended to provide a mailing list of pol- itical contacts who will be consulted on issues of a politically sensi- tive nature. The general rule for this list is a single member per country. The APNIC-MEMBER list consists of: G.Huston@aarnet.edu.au (Australia, AARNet, Geoff Houston) cclaw@usthk.ust.hk (Hong Kong, HARNET, Lawrence H.Y Law) chehoocheng@cuhk.hk (Hong Kong, Cheng Che Hoo) ramki@ern.doe.ernet.in (India, ERNET, S. Ramakrishnan) nakayama@nic.ad.jp (Japan, JPNIC, Masaya Nakayama) taeha@nic.nm.kr (Korea, KRNIC, Taeha Park) rafee@jaring.ism.my (Malaysia, JARING , M. Rafee Yusoff) J.Houlker@waikato.ac.nz (New Zealand, NZREIN, John Houlker) milton@solomon.technet.sg (Singapore, Technet, Milton Choo) gihan@cse.mrt.ac.lk (Sri Lanka, University of Moratuwa, Gihan Dias) wschen@twnmoe10.bitnet (Taiwan, TANET, Wen-sung Chen) kk@cs.ait.ac.th (Thailand, AIT, Kanchana Kanchanasut) narayan@caren.net (CAREN, Devendra Narayan) chon@cosmos.kaist.ac.kr (APCCIRN Chair, Kilnam Chon) jun@wide.ad.jp (APEPG Chair, Jun Murai) qianhl%bepc2@scs.slac.stanford.edu (China, Academia Sinica, Qian Hualin) The APNIC-STAFF list is intended for people who can actively con- tribute to the establishment of the APNIC. The APNIC-STAFF list con- sists of: hi@csce.kyushu-u.ac.jp (Masaki Hirabaru, Japan) nakayama@nic.ad.jp (Masaya Nakayama, Japan) davidc@apnic.net (David Conrad, Japan) asaba@iij.ad.jp (Toshiya Asaba, Japan) taeha@nic.nm.kr (Taeha Park, Korea) uhhyung@nic.nm.kr (Uhhyung Choi, Korea) vgebes@spin.ad.jp (Vince Gebes, Japan) fyta@chula.ac.th (Yunyong Teng-Amnuay, Thailand) noi@chula.ac.th (Somjai Boonsiri, Thailand) kunchit@chula.ac.th (Kunchit Charmaraman, Thailand) a.linton@aarnet.edu.au (Andy Linton, Australia) g.huston@aarnet.edu.au (Geoff Huston, Australia) jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Jodi Chu, USA) The APNIC-ALL list is intended for discussions regarding the APNIC. There are no restrictions to joining this list. The APNIC-ALL list con- sists of: APNIC Staff [Page 8] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 staff@ripe.net yin@orion.arc.nasa.gov lgamble@atlas.arc.nasa.gov aarnet@aarnet.edu.au j.houlker@waikato.ac.nz w.teahan@waikato.ac.nz nznic@waikato.ac.nz ohbyeon@garam.kreonet.re.kr chon@cosmos.kaist.ac.kr syhan@cosmos.kaist.ac.kr nic@nic.nm.kr phon@nwg.nectec.or.th cheng@nwg.nectec.or.th kk@cs.ait.ac.th prachak@chula.ac.th fyta@chula.ac.th qianhl%bepc2@scs.slac.stanford.edu haoxin%bepc2@scs.slac.stanford.edu milton@solomon.technet.sg lim@solomon.technet.sg chehoocheng@cuhk.hk philip-leung@cuhk.hk mingfung@cuhk.hk cclaw@usthk.ust.hk rafee@jaring.ism.my kumar_s@usp.ac.fj narayan@caren.net matsuzaki@vnet.ibm.com akazawa@who.ch ken@dss.com asaba@iij.ad.jp matsumoto@spin.ad.jp vgebes@spin.ad.jp asano@nacsis.ac.jp apnic-jp@nic.ad.jp zhou@bitnic.bitnet APNIC Staff [Page 9] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 Appendix B - Responses to the IANA The following are the responses given to the IANA to the question "What is your organization's area of responsibility, be extra inclusive". The IANA is aware this list is subject to change. APNIC pilot project response: (A = National APCCIRN member, a = APCCIRN contact listed, R = RIPE contact): Country/Territory ISO Code Contact --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Oceania): American Samoa AS Australia AU A Christmas Island CX Cocos (Keeling) Islands CC Cook Islands CK Fiji FJ a French Polynesia PF Guam GU a Kiribati KI Marshall Islands MH Micronesia FM Nauru NR New Caledonia NC New Zealand NZ A Niue NU Palau PW Papua New Guinea PG Samoa WS Solomon Islands SB Tonga TO Tuvalu TV Vanuatu VU (Southeast and Pacific Asia): Cambodia KH East Timor TP Indonesia ID a Korea (DPR of) KP Korea (Republic of) KR A Japan JP A Laos LA Malaysia MY A Myanmar MM Philippines PH a Singapore SG A APNIC Staff [Page 10] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 Taiwan TW A Thailand TH A Viet Nam VN A (Central Asia): Afghanistan AF China CN A Hong Kong HK A Macau MO Mongolia MN Bangladesh BD Bhutan BT Brunei Darussalam BN India IN A Maldives MV Nepal NP Pakistan PK a Sri Lanka LK A (Western Asia): Armenia AM Azerbaijan AZ Iran IR R Iraq IQ Kazakhstan KZ Kyrgyzstan KG Tajikistan TJ Turkmenistan TM Uzbekistan UZ (Middle East): Bahrain BH Israel IL R Jordan JO Kuwait KW R Lebanon LB R Oman OM Qatar QA Saudi Arabia SA Syria SY United Arab Emirates AE Yemen YE RIPE response: The following countries are included in the RIPE NCC service area. Countries served: APNIC Staff [Page 11] APNIC-006.0 December 1993 AD ANDORRA AL ALBANIA AM ARMENIA AT AUSTRIA AZ AZERBAIJAN BA BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA BE BELGIUM BG BULGARIA BY BELARUS CH SWITZERLAND CS CZECHOSLOVAKIA CY CYPRUS DE GERMANY DK DENMARK EE ESTONIA ES SPAIN FI FINLAND FR FRANCE GB UNITED KINGDOM GE GEORGIA GI GIBRALTAR GR GREECE HR CROATIA (local name: Hrvatska) HU HUNGARY IE IRELAND IL ISRAEL IS ICELAND IT ITALY KZ KAZAKHSTAN LI LIECHTENSTEIN LT LITHUANIA LU LUXEMBOURG LV LATVIA MC MONACO MD MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC OF MS MONTSERRAT MT MALTA NL NETHERLANDS NO NORWAY PL POLAND PT PORTUGAL RO ROMANIA RU RUSSIAN FEDERATION SE SWEDEN SI SLOVENIA SM SAN MARINO SU USSR TJ TAJIKISTAN TR TURKEY UA UKRAINIAN SSR UZ UZBEKISTAN VA VATICAN CITY STATE (HOLY SEE) YU YUGOSLAVIA Countries RIPE is willing to help: AE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AN NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AW ARUBA BH BAHRAIN CI COTE D'IVOIRE DZ ALGERIA EG EGYPT FK FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS) FO FAROE ISLANDS GF FRENCH GUIANA GL GREENLAND IO BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY KW KUWAIT LB LEBANON MA MOROCCO OM OMAN PF FRENCH POLYNESIA QA QATAR SA SAUDI ARABIA SR SURINAME TF FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES TN TUNISIA VG VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH) [NB: While RIPE-NCC it is willing to help the countries listed above, contact may not necessarily been made to organizations within those countries] APNIC Staff [Page 12]