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APNIC 23 » Minutes » IX SIG

Minutes for the IX SIG

Wednesday 28 February 2007, International Convention Centre, Bali, Indonesia

Meeting commenced: 14:00

Chair: Philip Smith
Co-chair: Che Hoo Cheng

Contents

  1. Draft SIG guidelines
  2. SIG Chair election
  3. Higher speed Ethernet update
  4. IX discussions at the IGF
  5. JPIX update
  6. JPNAP update
  7. Euro-IX
  8. Netnod update

The Chair introduced the SIG and explained the agenda, noting that this SIG was part of a larger inter-provider track within APRICOT.

  1. Draft SIG guidelines

    Philip Smith, SIG Chair

    • Presentation [pdf]

    The Chair described the draft SIG guidelines document, which was created to provide better guidance to Chairs on how to conduct a SIG. One of the issues in the guidelines highlighted was a defined process for the election and service of SIG Chairs.

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  2. SIG Chair election

    Philip Smith, SIG Chair

    The Chair explained that he had decided to step down from the position. There was a call for nominations to fill the vacant Chair position. Gaurab Upadhaya was the only nominee, and was appointed to co-chair the IX SIG with Che-Hoo Cheng for the next two years.

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  3. Higher speed Ethernet update

    Greg Hankins, Force10 Networks

    This presenter provided perspective on the forthcoming higher speed Ethernet, but stressed that he was not presenting on behalf of the IEEE. The presentation described the rationale and benefits for higher speed Ethernet and the progress of the IEEE standards development process.

    Questions and discussion

    • There was a question about full duplex being taken for granted, given the market inefficiencies that the practice can cause. It was argued that higher speed Ethernet had the advantage of not radically changing the way people did things and took advantage of the currently deployed fibre. The presenter noted that there was no discussion of not doing full duplex. It was suggested that it was likely to be much simpler to implement a single speed in both directions.
    • There was a statement that 100GigEthernet has been needed for several years already. There was a strong statement urging the IEEE to stop delaying in preparing the standards. It was also noted that there would soon be a need for a terabit standard.
    • There was another statement following the comment on using full duplex.
    • It was suggested that the best way to accelerate the IEEE standard is to send someone there to clearly communicate the need.

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  4. IX discussions at the IGF

    Bill Woodcock, PCH

    The presenter gave his perspective on the recent IGF. It was explained that there was no IX content on the agenda, a provided a summary of his general impressions of the meeting.

    It was noted that of the total attendance of approximately 600, there seemed to be only about two dozen Internet people, mostly representing the RIRs, ISOC, and ICANN. There was a lot of discussion at the IGF about the likely growth in Internet users, noting that much of the next generation of Internet users would access it via mobile phones. There was considerable discussion about the digital divide.

    The presenter noted that the IGF represented a struggle between the Internet organisations and the ITU. It was argued that intergovernmental action does not necessarily mean siding with the ITU, as many big telcos were no longer closely associated with their former governments. There was also a lot of discussion about what the future of ICANN should be. It was noted that governments think top down, whereas Internet traditions are bottom-up. The presenter warned that if governments thought of ICANN as a governing body, they would be likely to want to give it more power than it already had. This had implications for the ongoing checks and balances on ICANN.

    One of the historical reasons for supporting the US government's role in being the check on ICANN was that it had never abused its role of approving changes to the root zone. This changed last year when the US government interfered in the approval of the XXX domain. This affected European sovereignty as the Catalan domain got held up at the same time.

    The presenter noted that the IGF contained a great deal of concern about spam and malware.

    The presenter urged more participation and involvement from the Internet community in future IGF meetings.

    Questions and discussion

    • It was suggested that the lack of IGF participation may come down to fear of talking to politicians and hope that the politicians will never achieve their goals. The presenter suggested that the ITU now seems to be considered as irrelevant to the future of the Internet. However, it was suggested that if Internet people can provide answers to common concerns, then it would be valuable for them to get them into the IGF discussions.

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  5. JPIX update

    Takejiro Takabayashi, JPIX

    • Presentation [pdf]

    This presentation gave an overview of recent developments at JPIX, a commercial IX in Japan that has operated for 10 years. The presentation also included details of JPIX's main services, their experimental IPv6 switch, and current usage statistics.

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  6. JPNAP update

    Ishii Toshinori, JPNAP

    • Presentation [pdf]

    This presentation gave an overview of the services and recent developments at JPNAP, including comparisons of traffic statistics for the major IXes in Japan.

  7. Euro-IX

    Serge Radovcic, Euro-IX

    • Presentation [pdf]

    This presentation provided an update on Euro-IX, an association for Internet Exchange Points. Euro-IX was established for European IXes but later began accepting members from elsewhere. The presentation also included details of the current membership and their traffic statistics. The presenter also displayed some IXP traffic comparative statistics from Europe, Japan, and the USA.

    Questions and discussion

    • There was a question about the use of remote peering in European IXPs. The presenter noted that this was at a low level at the moment but was a growing trend.
    • There was a question about the recent dramatic growth in European traffic in the past year. It was suggested that the increased availability of home fibre, new applications and other factors could all be playing a part.
    • There was a request to see the Euro-IX activities grow throughout the rest of the world, especially Asia.

  8. Netnod update

    Kurt Erik Lindqvist, Netnod

    • Presentation [pdf]

    This presentation provided an overview of the history, services, and recent developments at Netnod in Sweden.

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    9. The Co-Chair thanked Philip Smith for his service to the SIG and congratulated Gaurab Upadhaya on his appointment as the new Chair.

    Meeting closed: 15:35

    Minuted by: Gerard Ross

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