Executive Summary

The AfriNIC-15 Public Policy Meeting was held from 19 to 25 November 2011 in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Trainings were conducted from 19 to 22 November and plenaries were held from 22 to 24 November 2011.

The event was co-hosted by the Ministry of Higher Education, Institute for Digital University Governance and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Cameroon and sponsored by Internet Society (ISOC), MTN, CAMTEL, OIF and Ringo. On an average, the plenary sessions were attended by 156 participants. The majority of the attendees were from the Education and Telecommunication sectors. Detailed statistics for AfriNIC-15 are available at Appendix A.

During this meeting, there were three (3) days of technical training attended by over 170 participants in addition to three (3) days of plenary sessions.

The main themes of the AfriNIC-15 plenary sessions were: IPv6 deployment, Interconnecting Africa, Internet Governance and Cyber Security.

The meeting was followed by a one-day closed governmental meeting, the African Government Working Group (25 November 2011), where governmental officials discussed issues raised during the meeting.

Trainings

The AfriNIC-15 training workshops were held from 19 to 22 November and covered a range of Internet technical issues.

IPv6 workshop

IPv6 workshop for managers was a new course conducted by AfriNIC aimed at non technical IP managers and regulators. The workshop was attended by 58 participants.

IPv6 Technical training

IPv6 Technical training is the basic course that AfriNIC runs by default at all locations where training is done for the first time. The IPv6 Technical training aims network engineers and systems administrators who are comfortable with implementing and managing IPv4 networks. The course was attended by 38 participants.

Internet resource management training

The Internet resource management training course conducted by AfriNIC introduced participants to the fundamentals of Internet number resource management and how to deal with AfriNIC in getting and managing their Internet resources. Participants were also introduced to the Policy Development Process. The course was attended by 17 participants.

DNSSEC training

The DNSSEC training was aimed at Operators interested in deploying DNS SECurity as part of their security infrastructure and people with a general interest in DNSSEC, and those planning to deploy DNSSEC in their organisation. The course was attended by 65 participants.

Africa CERT workshop

This was a one-day workshop where presentations and demonstrations on topics relevant to CERTs, information security and hacking were discussed. The workshop was attended by 58 participants.

CERT advance web security

It was a two-day workshop focused on advance web security. This session covered the basic knowledge of network monitoring. This training course provided participants with hands-on experience on analysing traffic generated by malware, botnet and other malicious tools. The course was attended by 47 participants.

CSIRT course for managers

CSIRT Course for Managers was a one-day workshop designed for professionals managing a CSIRT. The course was attended by 21 participants.

Plenary Day 1

Newcomers session

The session highlighted the AfriNIC's main areas of operation, services and position in the global Internet governance ecosystem and the need to devise and discuss policies for managing internet addresses at regional and global levels to benefit the community.

The audience was also introduced to the resources that AfriNIC manages and the steps involved in the Policy Development Process. Presentations which followed gave an overview of the AfriNIC Registration Services, the whois database and also one of RS main functions which is to ensure that each request for resources is policy-compliant. AfriNIC IPv6 activities in the region were highlighted, including the setting up of an IPv6 tunnel called the Tinga Tinga and an African IPv6 Task Force.

Opening ceremony

Adiel Akplogan, AfriNIC's CEO in his opening address stated that there is a social, economic, technical and a political dimension to the Internet but importance should be given to its cultural aspect. AfriNIC will continue to support its stakeholders through training, awareness, capacity building on internet related issues. AfriNIC relies on the support of the community to develop the Internet and set the policies that will help manage Internet resources in the region.

Ndéye Maimouna Diop Diagne, AfriNIC's chair, said this meeting is a proof that AfriNIC's role in the development of the Internet is being recognised in the region. One of AfriNIC's priorities is to restructure the Board in addition to augment its staff for increased efficiency.

Prof. Dominique Mvogo, Secretary General from the Ministry of Higher Education of Cameroon spoke on the challenges that Cameroon faces in the ICT sector and infrastructure development in the region. He also stated that Cameroon is already committed to IPv6 adoption. He further affirmed that IPv6 should be included in the curriculum of universities and Cameroon has been privileged to have experts providing training in internet technical issues and encouraged everyone present to take this opportunity to participate in the AfriNIC-15 plenary sessions.

AfriNIC IPv6 session

Presenters for this session were Adiel Akplogan, CEO of AfriNIC and Hisham Ibrahim, IPv6 Programme Manager at AfriNIC who respectively presented on IPv6 deployment from a registry perspective and IPv6 in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.

The main points stated were the promotion of IPv6 planning at an early stage as it was useless to strategically think about IPv4 since this system is not sustainable. The use and the detrimental effect of NAT on the internet infrastructure was also highlighted. Planning for IPv6 deployment in Africa is essential as developing countries need to strategically focus on IPv6 adoption.

The community was requested to reflect on IPv6 from a challenge or an opportunity perspective according to their respective region and context. Hisham Ibrahim stated that Africa has the potential for IPv6 deployment, as a result of its size, population and many countries in the region having positive GDP. This was supported by statistics showing the growing IPv6 allocations trend and mobile internet traffic in the region despite the operational cost for IPv6 deployment.

IPv6 global session

An International panel consisting of members from the government, academic and private sectors each contributed to this panel. They were Tahar Sahar IPv6 consultant for the German government, Prof. Kilnam Chon from Keio University, Anton Holleman from Infoblox as a remote participant and Dawit Bekele from ISOC.

IPv6 deployment was explained mainly through the setting up of an IPv6 working group in Germany. The Research and Development Project for German administration and a pilot project coordinated by German government for the IPv6 upgrade for e-government services in Europe, the GEN6 (government enabled with v6) involving six other European countries were also highlighted.

Essentials steps for an effective IPv6 planning with shared experiences and plan of action were explained by Anton Holleman from Infoblox. The importance of addressing security issues with IPv6 networks, the steps to migrate to IPv6, the need for a routing hierarchy plan, the use of a virtual lab for simulation and tool automation were the important aspects discussed for IPv6 deployment.

A one-week IPv6 migration experiment in the WIDE Camp in Japan in an IPv6 only environment was explained through three phases: experiment - migration - transition by Prof. Chon who stated that IPv6 migration occurs with no return to IPv4. After one week of migration, in the WIDE project, there was a permanent transition. Prof Chon proposed that by next November, Africa should be ready for IPv6 migration and preparation for this is key. Examples of successful IPv6 programmes in China, Malaysia and APNIC were also shared. Prof Chon concluded by saying that there should be a closer collaboration between Asia and Africa in IPv6 deployment.

ISOC's programme to democratise IPv6 in the region was outlined. The World IPv6 Day was a collaborative effort coordinated by the Internet Society and developed as a result of many content providers fearing IPv6 adoption. There have been other local initiatives but the World IPv6 Day was the main event with nearly 400 participants. The next World IPv6 Day is planned for June 2012.

African IPv6 initiatives

Members of different IPv6 national task force shared their relevant experience with IPv6 deployment. The panel consisted of Mark Elkins, Hytham el Nakhal, and Sami Salih. The session was moderated by Hisham Ibrahim.

Mark Elkins, AfriNIC board member shared the South African IPv6 experience from a personal perspective, as a member of the Community, as a South African ISP, as a Member of the South African Task Force and as an AfriNIC member. Mark provided some insightful statistics for members peering on IPv6 networks in South Africa.

Hytham el Nakhal shared the historical overview of IPv6 in Egypt and explained that the Egyptian Task force was launched in 2004 at a time when there was no Internet providers supporting IPv6 in the region.

Focus is now on building awareness through events and by providing training. The first IPv6 training in Africa was undertaken in Cairo 2005 with the support of AfriNIC. Hytham el Nakhal stated the main factors impeding IPv6 deployment in Egypt.

Sami Salih from NTC Sudan explained the case of Sudan's largest operator experimenting with IPv6 but not able to fully deploy IPv6. A national plan has been developed with the aim of dual stacking throughout the country by the end of 2015. The country now has four blocks of IPv6 and one of these blocks is as big as all the IPv4 in the country.

Hisham Ibrahim from AfriNIC stated that an IPv6 African Task Force should be a collaborative effort comprising of governments, regulators, ISPs, Technical/Civil society and anyone who owns a network. A popular concern is that telecoms are not ready for IPv6 but it was stated as not being a reason for not experimenting with IPv6. It was also outlined that tunnelling is necessary if native IPv6 is not available. Additionally, AfriNIC will be promoting countries that show high IPv6 deployment record. AfriNIC through the AfGWG will also provide training to national IPv6 task forces via a mailing list for knowledge and best practice sharing.

Plenary Day 2

AfriNIC corporate and operational updates

Sessions involved AfriNIC Financial updates followed by AfriNIC Human Resources updates for 2011. Priorities as well as challenges were identified and statistics were discussed from each area. From the Registration Services, there was an update on RS activities and a 3-year overview of membership and resources statistics. These sessions were followed by a presentation of AfriNIC's CEO on AfriNIC Corporate update and Bylaws Review Working Group report. AfriNIC bylaws was explained from a historical perspective and with recent amendments to the document. The key Findings of the Committee and way forward were exposed to the audience. The AfriNIC Election process update by Mark Elkins, AfriNIC board member followed and provided information on the composition of the Election committee, the steps leading to Election day, constituents of the NomCom, different voting methods and rules for counting and announcement that govern the Election process.

AfriNIC technical operational updates were mainly conducted by Alain Aina, Special Projects Manager at AfriNIC who gave the RPKI, DNSSEC and My AfriNIC updates. The updates covered the deployment plan, system outline and new features in the pipeline. Alain Aina invited the community to participate on the various projects aiming to improve AfriNIC services to the community by providing ideas and suggestions. Nishal Goburdhan, from AfriNIC, gave the operational updates on three distinct and separate DNS programmes - African Root Server Copy, AfriNIC supported RFC5855 servers and the African DNS Support Programme. Nishal Goburdhan explained the functions of each programme and their benefits to the regional community.

Interconnecting Africa session

Professionals and academics from the global Internet industry were represented by Mathieu Paonessa from Jaguar Network, Fredy Kuenzler from Init7, Michuki Mwangi from ISOC, Dr Yves Emvudu, from the Ministry of Higher Education Cameroon, Aline Flore Jounewe Koumessi from MTN Cameroon. The session was moderated by Dr Nii Quaynor.

Prevailing high cost of Internet traffic in Africa and means of reducing network costs in Africa were discussed namely through the use of an IP router by co-location and peering with other networks. Several aspects of BGP routing calling for aggregation of prefixes when using BGP were also highlighted. Dr Yves Emvudu provided a detailed execution plan of a project interconnecting universities in Cameroon. This project will help Cameroonian universities to be connected to global networks for Education and Research. Aline Flore Jounewe Koumessi provided a background of MTN with the opportunities and challenges that MTN faced in Africa. MTN initiatives in the African region were also outlined.

Policies

The main topic for policy discussion at AfriNIC-15 was the amendment of the Policy Development Process. AfriNIC's policy liaison Mukom Tamon presented a list of issues that needed clarification for the PDP to be more effective. He also suggested staff recommendations to each of these issues with a view to soliciting inputs from the community on aspects that needed more clarity.

The options for improving the current PDP according to discussions were as follows:

(i) A totally new policy

(ii) A PDWG charter to be used as a working document with the current PDP

(iii) Guidelines for co-chairs

The option chosen by show of hands from the audience was (iii).

Please read the full minutes (subject to comments) of the policy discussions at Appendix B.

Plenary Day 3

Internet Governance session

The panel was composed of Alice Munyua from the Kenyan ICT Ministry, Anne Rachel Inne from ICANN and Dr Nii Quaynor, retired engineer. The session was moderated by Mark Elkins, AfriNIC Board member.

Anne Rachel Inne gave an update on upcoming ICANN events and new services through ICANN's new gtld Service Center, New Applicant gtld Guidebook, IDN guidelines and selection of the 2012 ICANN NomCom.

For IANA updates, several achievements were highlighted namely the standardisation of all IANA processes, review of key KPI indicators, setting up of new performance targets, launching of a new web interface to Root zone management operation and cooperation with the RIR on clarifying the process for IPv6 allocation requests.

Emerging issues from the IGF held in Kenya involved the following topics:

• the governance of mobile and wired internet;
• the human rights involved in Access and Diversity of the Internet;
• the inter-relatedness of issues of Privacy, Security and Openness of the Internet.

On critical internet resources, discussions focused on the role of different stakeholders on new gTLDs.

Key issues discussed during the IGF Interconnecting Africa Workshop 2011 were highlighted by Dr Nii Quaynor, namely:

• the regulatory policies in the African region;
• access to knowledge and Internet infrastructure;
• support of local content;
• growth of local traffic;
• Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs);
• importance of recognising the relationship between push and pull strategies in creating demand for the Internet and how this relates to GDP growth and regional interconnection in Africa including the relationships between content and infrastructure.

Cybersecurity session

The panel was composed of Benoit Morel from the Carnegie Mellon University, Jean Robert Hountomey coordinator of the AfricaCert initiative, and Anton Holleman from Infoblox as a remote participant. The session was moderated by Pierre Dandjinou. Threats of cybercrimes and the vulnerability of new technologies to attacks such as ghostnet were highlighted. It was concluded that there is a need for a global cybersecurity response and this can be achieved through a new and larger role for the RIRs.

Scenarios of crimes on the Internet were exemplified, moreover, it was concluded that there is a need for (1) Incident response (2) Training and awareness raising (3) Cooperation and collaboration (4) Global coordination. Jean Robert Hountomey announced the AfricaCERT law practitioners and Policymakers Committee (APLC) is the first committee for AfricaCERT law practitioners and policymakers and invited participation and initiatives to fight cybercrime from the community through CERTS mailing lists.

The benefits and implications of DNSSEC were explored in the next remote presentation. Several practical guidelines on securing DNS were also provided in Holleman's presentation.

RIR updates

The panel was composed of RIR representatives. They were namely Ingrid Wijte from the Registration Services of the RIPE NCC, Louise Flynn from APNIC Communications Area, Paul Andersen from ARIN Board, and Sofia Silva from Member Services LACNIC. The session was moderated by Ashil Oogarah from AfriNIC.

Highlights of activities and policies under discussion for each RIR in 2011 were shared. LACNIC has implemented a policy for all its members to have IPv6. An organisation requesting for an IPv4 block should already have an IPv6 assignment or else should request for an IPv6 block to obtain an IPv4 block. According to Sofia Silva, from LACNIC, this has lead many organisations to start testing IPv6 in the South American region. One of the policy discussions at APNIC 32 concerned the policy for IPv6 allocations for large networks namely the case of a request from a national internet registry from India. Ingrid Wijte from RIPE NCC provided statistics on IPv6 ripeness for the European region from LIRs and a survey showed that 46% of them were IPv6 ready. Paul Andersen from ARIN provided the 2011 focus on ARIN activities.

Elections

Election for the NRO-NC/ASO-AC seat was conducted whereby the two nominated candidates were presented before the audience, namely Douglas Onyango and Jacobus Johannes Muller but the latter withdrew at the last minute. As a result, a show of hands for and against the nomination of the candidate Douglas Onyango followed with a majority of votes for the nomination of Douglas Onyango.

Closing ceremony

Adiel Akplogan in his closing address thanked the community, the government of Cameroon, the local hosts as well as the sponsors of this event for their contribution to the success of the meeting and expressed satisfaction over AfriNIC creating awareness in internet development in the region.

Adiel Akplogan stated that Africa has a chance to catch up with the rest of the world with connectivity especially with mobile connectivity, and a lot can be achieved using this technology to improve the social environment of people.

The Director of ICT Ministry of Post and Telecommunication, Lucien Nana Yamba stated that exchanges have been rich and constructive during AfriNIC-15. Experts, researchers and students have acquired valuable knowledge in many internet related fields in the cyberworld especially in the globalisation context and AfriNIC has a crucial role to play in this process. Lucien Nana Yamba pledged all attendees to encourage the shift to IPv6 in their respective areas of operation.