Minutes of Meeting

[Vincent Kaabunga <kavin@uol.co.ug>]

2nd IXP TWG MEETING
Held at the Coffee Terrace, Grand Imperial Hotel on 18th April 2001


Members Present:
Lunghabo Wire James		
Lule Tommy			
Steven Mujuubwa			
Nsubuga Edward			
Rob Gipman			
Vincent Kaabunga
Andrew Kataryeba



Proceedings began at 3:30 pm


IXP-TWG 005:
	On commencement of proceedings, members acknowledged receipt of 
	communications from Rob Gipman (MTN), James Lunghabo (Wilken-Afsat) 
	and Vincent Kaabunga regarding IXPs, and observed that the material 
	they had been presented with was quite complex and members had not
	had enogh time to internalise all the information. It was agreed
	that members should continue to share any IXP material that they  
	may have with the other members and that all members shall
	endeavour to read and understand as much material on the subject
	as possible.


IXP-TWG 006:
	On the costs of setting up the IXP, concerns were raised by  
	Andrew Kataryeba (The Source) on capital contributions the 
	ISPs would have to make in the implementation of the IXP, 
	including purchase of routers, premises, utilities, 
	air-conditioning, etc.
	
	Rob Gipman (MTN) indicated that MTN is willing to avail space in
	its state-of-the-art facilities in Mbuya to house the IXP at no
	cost and asked what if the other ISPs would be willing to be part 
	of an IXP that would be set up by MTN, UTL and CelTel as part of 
	their license requirements to interconnect for data.
	
	Vincent Kaabunga pointed out that it is usually in the interests
	of all IXP partners to have the IXP housed at a neutral location 
	in a De-militarised Zone. He also mentioned that there are donors 
	who are willing to provide the core equipment for the IXP, but the
	ISPs would still have to provide their own and utilities would 
	still have to be covered by the IXP association. 
	James Lunghabo (Wilken-Afsat) shared the same view and mentioned
	that most ISPs are not comfortable having their equipment at
	another's premises. 

	It was agreed my the members present to have the IXP at a neutral
	location, and all members were to inquire from their respective
	management about the capital investment that they could put into
	the IXP. 


IXP-TWG 007:
	James Lunghabo (Wilken-Afsat) and Edward Nsubuga (Sanyutel) inquired 
	as to whether ISPs should be required to connect to the IXP using
	leased lines or could use their own infrastructure instead of 
	having to pay another provider to link them to the IXP.

	Rob Gipman (MTN) pointed out the need for reliability and
	redundancy in the medium that is used to connect the ISP to the
	IXP. He mentioned that a medium like fiber or leased line could be
	chosen, and regulation put in place that set a subsidised rental
	for service and protected the ISPs against any change in price. He
	cited the example of the Amsterdam IXP, where such a scheme has
	been used successfully for over 10 years. 

	The members present agreed with Mr. Gipman's suggestion, but chose
	to have ISPs cut their running costs for connecting to the
	IXP by using their own infrastructure provided it meets the
	standards for reliability and availability, which will be laid out 
	at a later date. 

IXP-TWG 008:
	It was unanimously agreed by the members present that the initial
	membership of the IXP shall be for owners of International Data 
	Gateways.

	Membership for any other category of users shall be subject to
	review by the Management Working Group.

IXP-TWG 009:
	With a vision of Internet growth in the country, members
	unanimously chose to operate all peering activity at the IXP
	using BGP4, citing its scalability. 

	The IXP network implementation was not decided and was left for 
	next meeting when members have received feedback on what
	capital investments the prospective partners are willing to make.

IXP-TWG 010:
	Members present suggested that the Management WG and the UCC be
	kept abreast of developments in the Technical WG.
	It was suggested that both be asked to send a representative to
	attend the proceedings of the Technical WG 


The meeting was adjourned at 5.15pm until Wednesday 25 April 3.00pm.