RARE --- RARE is the European Association of research networking organisations and their users and was founded in 1986. RARE carries out technical activities and provides a platform for discussion and education to encourage the development of a high-quality computer networking infrastructure for the European research community. RARE's aim is to overcome national boundaries in research networking to enable researchers to communicate, to use information and to access computer resources throughout Europe and in other continents. To achieve its aims RARE has set up a Technical Committee which defines and manages the RARE Technical Programme (RTP). A number of Working Groups and Task Forces carry out the Technical Programme. Another field of activity is the organization of conferences and symposia. In May 1994 the 5th Joint European Networking Conference combined with INET 94 will take place in Prague, Czech Republic. Furthermore RARE has established liaison with major Information Technology & Telecommunications standardization and political bodies. Organizational Structure: All RARE members are represented in the Council of Administration (CoA), which governs the RARE Association. Its responsibilities include: determining RARE's policies and priorities, adopting the budget and the annual accounts and the setting up and monitoring of RARE working bodies. The RARE Executive Committee (REC) is concerned with the management of the Association. The RARE Secretariat, headed by Secretary General, provides general support to the work of the Association and is responsible for general coordination and publicity. RESEAUX IP EUROPEENS NETWORK COORDINATION CENTER (RIPE NCC) ----------------------------------------------------------- RIPE, Reseaux IP Europeens, is a collaboration of European network operators using the Internet protocol suite. Experience in the RIPE community, and in the Internet community at large, has shown that certain information and coordination services are needed for the proper functioning of the Internet. The current RIPE structure is very well suited for coordinating type of work. It is less well suited for the day to day work that is of a more administrative nature. These tasks will be handled by dedicated technical staff that form the RIPE Network Coordination Center (NCC). In accordance with the Terms of Reference, the main objective of the RIPE NCC is to give support to the networking organisations that cooperate in RIPE. RARE as the association of research networks in Europe houses the RIPE NCC which is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The RIPE NCC does not provide end user support services. Also network operation functions will not be provided by the RIPE NCC as these functions are performed by the network operation staff of the RIPE member organisations. The RIPE NCC will however provide the necessary support and coordination to enable the RIPE member NOC staff to provide these services. The RIPE NCC activities are divided in four main areas: - Technical Coordination Activities - Technical Development Activities - Administrative - RIPE Activity Support -Administrative - Reporting A detailed description of these activities has been published as RIPE document ripe-w07. This document can be obtained from the RIPE document store (ftp.ripe.net), or from the address below. The activity plan is currently being revised. The Network Coordination Center works in close cooperation with RIPE: - RIPE, on behalf of RARE, defines the tasks and functions of the NCC - the NCC reports to RIPE on operational matters - the NCC reports to RARE on organisational matters - RIPE organisations participate in the work of the NCC - RIPE, on behalf of RARE, regularly reviews the operations of the NCC The RIPE NCC is currently staffed by 3 full time employees: one NCC manager one NCC technical staff one NCC administrative staff In addition there is one full time engineer working at the RIPE NCC on development projects within the RTP. DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS ------------------- Basic agreement between RARE and RIPE foresees the division between service provision performed by RIPE NCC and development work which is organised within the RARE Technical Programme (RTP). To assure the synergetic effect, it has been decided to locate RARE staff working on the IP related development projects on the RIPE NCC premises and to utilize the expertise of RIPE NCC staff with their part-time participation in the projects in the roles of project managers or RARE Project Development Officers. This was the case of the "Route Server Project", managed by B.Stockman and D.Karrenberg, the RIPE NCC Manager. There is a new, larger, project PRIDE, ("Policy based Routing Implementation and Development in Europe") in the start-up phase. Financial resources are provided to RARE to run the project by a number of national and international organisations, from Europe and USA. The PRIDE project will further implementation and deployment of policy based routing in the European Internet. This project combines implementation work with the production and delivery of documentation and training materials.A detailed project description is available upon request. The project has been proposed and will be managed by D.Karrenberg. Dr. T. Kalin RARE Secretary General RARE Secretariat Singel 466 - 468 NL-1017 AW Amsterdam kalin@rare.nl .