Internet Governance and Coordination
Filiz YilmazSNE Colloquium, University of Amsterdam
October 2013
Wednesday 9 October 13
Overview
• Who am I, why am I here?
• Brief History of Internet
• Internet Eco System: Organizations, Forums, Groups, Standard Bodies
• How it all comes together?
• Current Issues, hot topics
• What is it to you?
• Open mic: What do YOU think?
Wednesday 9 October 13
Who am I, why am I here?
• Independent Internet Governance Consultant
• RIPE Program Committee Chair
• Former ICANN Sr Director of Participation and Engagement
• Former RIPE NCC Policy Development Officer
• Very former software developer
• ISOC TR Founding member
• Overall active Internet citizen
Wednesday 9 October 13
Brief History of Internet
• Early 60s, academia “packet switching”
• Late 60s, ARPANET is developed, supported by US gov
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Protocol Wars: 70s-80s
Among others...
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
versus
OSI (Open Systems Interconnect)
TCP/IP differs from the OSI model in that it combines the session, presentation, and application layers into a single application layer.
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http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/networking/19/376
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/networking/19/376/2326
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80s
Eventually TCP/IP found to be more pragmatic
ARPANET switches to TCP/IP
Beginning of the Internet as we know today
Both technically and governance-wise
Wednesday 9 October 13
80s
• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
• DNS (Domain Name System)
• First .com domain registered (symbolics.com)
• IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
• BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
• FIXes (Federal Internet Exchange)
Wednesday 9 October 13
Early 90s
• Internet is more and more liked
• Demand for commercialization, privatization and broader access
• First commercial ISPs providing access to public
• (CIX) Commercial Internet Exchange Point
• Gopher, World Wide Web, Search engines
• Internet is more and more seen as a self-governed technology
• ISOC (Internet Society), NANOG (North American Network Operators Groups), RIRs (Regional Internet Registries)
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Self-governance?
We reject kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in rough consensus and running code.
David Clark at a 1992 talk describing the Internet Engineering Task Force
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Late 90s
• Demand for broader access
• Wireless networks
• Need for more identifiers: IPv6
• Need for better security: DNSSEC
• Better coordination demand: ICANN is established
Wednesday 9 October 13
2000s
• Dot-com bubble: real economical impact
• Internet Governance Forum (IGF) established
• Routing security: Resource Public Key Infrastructure
• Internationalized country code TLDs (IDN ccTLDs)
• New gTLDs
• Skype, youtube, iTunes Store, Facebook, Twitter...
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Where are we today?
Wednesday 9 October 13
Domain Name Space
By Dec. 31, 2012 more than 252 million domain names
More than 6 million in 2012 Q4
Source: VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief, April 2013
Wednesday 9 October 13
Internet Protocol (IPv4) Number Space
http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/plotend.png09-Oct-2013
Wednesday 9 October 13
Internet Protocol (IPv4) Number Space
IANA Unallocated Address Pool Exhaustion: 03-Feb-2011
Projected RIR Address Pool Exhaustion Dates (in /8s):
APNIC: 19-Apr-2011 (actual): 0.8311
RIPE NCC: 14-Sep-2012 (actual): 0.8624
ARIN: 16-Jan-2015: 1.7434
LACNIC: 26-Apr-2015: 1.8914
AFRINIC: 4-Aug-2022: 3.5642
http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/
Wednesday 9 October 13
Who is in charge of Internet
Governed through a distributed system
Not governed by one single group or entity
Several actors play crucial roles and work together to keep it going
Bottom-up decision making processes in place
This is called multi-stakeholder model
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http://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/assets/governance-2500x1664-21mar13-en.png
Wednesday 9 October 13
Internet Eco System
Internet Governance Forum
Regional Internet Registries
NOGs and NOFs
Law Enforcement Agencies
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Multi-stakeholder Model
Unique form of governance
Global reach and outlook
Bottom-up decision making
Decentralized control
Inclusive & participative processes
Attention to voices of the community as much as voices of power
Voluntary involvement
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OrganizationsICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Holds IANA function, registering Internet protocol (IP) addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers
Domain names (system referred to as DNS)
The operation of the DNS root name server system
Coordinates the policy development related to these technical functions through its Community
Wednesday 9 October 13
How does it work?
Wednesday 9 October 13
A Real life Example• 2004:
New gTLD issue raised in GNSO, a PDP (Policy Development Process) was initiated
• 2005-2007:
Discussions followed by development of policy recommendations
• 2008-2012:
Adoption of the policy by the ICANN Board, starting implementations
More discussions followed by opening of application system
• 2013: ~2000 applications
124 withdrawn, 35 still in Extended Evaluation, 10 in Initial Evaluation, 2 not approved
Expected to go live before end of 2013
Wednesday 9 October 13
New gTLDs
Pro Arguments
• Less expensive solution for smaller business
• More choice for everyone
• Less speculation in domain name business
• Trademark Clearing House
• Local language (IDNs)
Con Arguments
• String confusion
• Political & cultural dispute over strings
• Offline/Online leaks (.home .corp)
• No extra value, but more income for IP lawyers
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Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)
• Not-for-profit membership organisations that support the infrastructure of the Internet through technical coordination in their service regions
• Responsible of registration of IPv4, IPv6 and AS Number resources to their members
• Coordinate the policy development related to these resources through their Community
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RIRs
• AfriNIC: Africa
• ARIN: North America, Caribbean and North Atlantic islands
• APNIC: Asia Pasific
• LACNIC: Latin America and Caribbean
• RIPE NCC: Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia
• NRO: Number Resource Organization
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Distribution of Number Resources
• IPv4 (exhausted), IPv4 and AS Numbers
• IANA (ICANN) to RIRs
• RIRs to RIR members (Local Internet Registries)
• RIR members to their customers
Wednesday 9 October 13
Real life Example
• RIR communities discussed how the last bits of IPv4 space should be distributed among RIRs (last /8s)
• They decided on a policy and asked IANA (ICANN) to implement
• Then they went on coming up with “regional” policies how their own /8 should be used within the region
Wednesday 9 October 13
IETF
• Internet Engineering Task Force
• More of a forum than legal entity
• Parented and supported by ISOC (Internet Society)
• Producing high quality, relevant technical documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.
Wednesday 9 October 13
IETF, ICANN, RIR, Operational Community interaction
IETF sets standards and best common practices
Once a standard is recognized, IANA and/or RIRs implement
Operational community also puts it in practice
Examples:
• RFC 4632: Classless Inter-domain Routing (CIDR): The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation Plan
• RFC 4291: IP Version6 Addressing Architecture
• RFC 5398: Autonomous System (AS) Number Reservation for Documentation Use
Wednesday 9 October 13
ISOC
• Supports IETF
• Runs PIR Registry (.org)
• Advocates for equal access to the Internet
• Promotes the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet
• Heavily involved with capacity building and policy issues
Wednesday 9 October 13
Some Others
• Network Operator Groups and Forums (NOGs and NOFs)
RIPE, NANOG, APRICOT, SANOG, UKNOF, etc etc
Volunteer regional collaboration groups
• Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)
Current next big thing; enhancing and making connections cheaper
Peering Forums
Wednesday 9 October 13
RIPE
• European Network Community
• Meetings twice a year
• Plenary sessions: For general audience
IPv6 deployment
Managing IPv4 scarcity in operations
Commercial transactions of IPv4 addresses
Data center technologies
Network and DNS operations
Internet governance and regulatory practices
Network and routing security
Content delivery
Internet peering and mobile data exchange
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RIPE Working Groups
• Producing content and decision making on best common practices
• Address Policy, Database, DNS, IPv6, RIPE NCC Services, EIX, Cooperation, Routing, MAT, ENUM, Anti-Abuse
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Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
• Initiated by United Nations in 2006
• Initial confusion on the scope and goal with perceived government control and considered non-inclusive of technical community/view
• Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) advising on program and scheduling
• Discussing critical internet resources, capacity building, security, access, internalization
• RIRs, ICANN and their communities heavily involved in IGF
Wednesday 9 October 13
Current Issues, hot topics
• IETF and ISOC: Bridging the gap between operators and standard setters
• ICANN: New gTLDs
Concerns on state of Internet with the new TLDs, business, impact on brand owners and consumer confusion
• RIRs: Transfers, IPv4 market, Brokers
IPv4 is still needed by new entry ISPs, they get it from where they can if not their RIR
Wednesday 9 October 13
Current Issues, hot topics
• RIRs: Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI)
Preventing mainly route hijacking
Should the RIRs be Certificate Authority?
Concerns on revocation practices
SURFNET Dashboard: http://rpki.surfnet.nl/
• RIRs, ISOC: IPv6, promoting deployment and awareness
Wednesday 9 October 13
Current Issues, hot topics
• ICANN and IETF: DNSSEC deployment
• Still very slow process, awareness issues
• Does not scale if not deployed widely
• http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/dnssec/maps/
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ITU/WCIT
• ITU (International Telecommunication Union), a UN Agency
• WCIT (World Conference on International Telecommunications)
Review the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs)
Last revision back in 1988
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ITU/WCIT
• Concern that Internet issues were rushed in the last minute into the agenda in meetings that were mainly closed to non-member state participation
• 89 out of 144 countries signed the treaty
• Confusion on what the take away is and what can be implemented or how, especially on content related resolutions
Wednesday 9 October 13
Latest Revelations
• Privacy and end-to-end network principles under threat
• IETF, ISOC, ICANN, RIRs, W3C, IAB expression of concerns explicitly
• More and louder civil society involvement:
Global Network Initiative (https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/)
Wednesday 9 October 13
What is it to you?
• Operation has impact on policy and legislation
• Policy and legislation has impact on operations
• Law enforcement and governments are part of the platform
• Technical community is needed to express tech and operational needs
• Keeping dialogue is the only way for innovation and self-regulation of Internet
Wednesday 9 October 13
How to get involved• Find your interest group
security, privacy, abuse, routing, dns, open source?
• Most organizations/fora have newcomers programs
• Get introductions, connect
• Read/observe what is going on:
most engagement/participation is happening online!
• Attend to meetings; funding can be found!
• Regional NOGs often are free, ISOC and some RIRs have fellowship programs or student discounts
• If not, most groups provide remote participation tools too!
• Be bold, attend actively, join discussions and present
Wednesday 9 October 13
Open Mic
• Questions/Comments?
• What do you think about the current issues
Wednesday 9 October 13