Internet Governance and Coordination

Filiz YilmazSNE Colloquium, University of Amsterdam

October 2013

koalafil@gmail.com

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

Wednesday 9 October 13

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

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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

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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

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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

Wednesday 9 October 13

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

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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

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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/

Wednesday 9 October 13

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