What an exciting time it’s been since our last newsletter! We’ve run a string of events, received our new 400Gbps switches, rolled out provisioning automation, upgraded the route servers, completed WA-IX’s renumbering, announced TAS-IX, attended events and more. We’ve also announced the date of this year’s AGM and opened the Board election. If you haven’t voted yet, please have a look at the candidate statements and VOTE! We really are in a great situation with a fantastic list of strong candidates.
Our lovely new 400Gbps switches arrived recently, passed testing and are being installed into the network as I write. This will allow us to upgrade the NSW-IX core, as it was past the point where it is economical to keep adding 100Gbps links! I am truly amazed at how much grunt these boxes have, too. With such a nice sleek 1RU footprint you’d think for sure we must be hitting the limits of Moore’s Law by now.
It really is fantastic to see our first effort at automated provisioning coming along so nicely. So much effort has gone into this and at last, not only can Members edit their own MAC addresses, but also add and modify VLLs. We are still supervising these as they go in, of course, just to be sure, to be sure.
On a sadder note, however, we are announcing the date we will exit our point of origin: QV1. The lease is up for renewal by 31 July 2025 but it has become apparent that the site really doesn’t meet our standards for a data centre. The power is not redundant, the air is dusty, and quite frankly it is cramped and somewhat messy. When you compare it to the quality in all the shiny new data centres, it really doesn’t stack up. Therefore the last date for service there will be 31 March 2025. It will be sad to see the place go, but the cost to bring it up to scratch is just not the best use of member funds.
We’ve had some great events over the last few months, including our Member Forum. This gave everyone the opportunity to ask questions on our plans and operations, and for a solid download from me on all our activities. More than one Member commented on just how impressive all our work was! On top of that we ran several informative events, including more on NTP, identity theft, and a couple of great socials, too! We ran another IAA Systers workshop and had a popular booth at AusNOG, and the team rated highly at the B-Sides security challenge too! We also presented at APrIGF, NetThing and CyberOz on a range of topics from IoT, to IPv6. As I write, I’m over at Peering Asia talking to content providers and others across the sector, with a lot going on!
At long last, the NBN SAU was approved, so we will be watching the impact of the new pricing regime, as well as the recent proposals for an ISP register. While some Members have expressed support for a simple register, we remain very concerned of the associated regulation and burdens likely to be imposed. To quote one Member: “the devil is in the detail” with this one!
We’re holding our usual end of year events around the country, too. It will be great to catch up with you all then, you’ll find more details below, so sign up today for the ones you can make!
Of course, the end of year means our network change embargo is coming up, so don’t forget to get your orders in before Friday 8 December. Of course the team will be keeping a close eye on things in case of emergency and will be back on deck as usual Monday 8 January 2024.
Happy peering!
Narelle
Narelle Clark
IAA CEO
Date: Tues, 14 Nov 2023
Time: Perth 1:30pm AWST | Darwin 3:00pm ACST | Brisbane 3:30pm AEST | Adelaide 4:00pm ACDT | Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart 4:30 AEDT
Venue: Via Zoom from IAA’s Sydney HQ
We’re hosting this year’s AGM online. We hope that you can make it! Follow the links below to register and for all the information and forms you need.
Business to be considered at the meeting
At the AGM, the Board will present for consideration IAA’s Annual Financial Statements in accordance with its obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and recommend the appointment of Michael Cooper from Crunch Auditing as the auditor for the 2023-2024 financial year.
Please download the AGM pack for the following documents:
- the agenda for this meeting
- the minutes of the last AGM
- Zoom guide
The Annual Report and Annual Financial Statements will be made available to members via the IAA Member Portal closer to the AGM.
Board Elections
This year we have three seats up for election, two for three-year terms and one one-year term. Voting information has been sent to eligible voting Members via Survey Monkey. Please contact secretary@internet.asn.au if you have not received your email. Voting will close on Monday, 13 November 2023, at 5:00pm AWST / 8:00pm AEDT.
Nominations
The nomination period closed on Monday, 16 October 2023, at 5:00pm AWST / 8:00pm AEDT. The following nominations were received, (in order of receipt):
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Find out more about the candidates on the IAA website:
Proxies
As per section 8.2 of the IAA Ltd Constitution, members may appoint a proxy to attend, speak and vote at a General Meeting in their place. To appoint a proxy, please complete the online Proxy Form. Proxies must be received no later than Monday, 13 November 2023, 5:00pm AWST / 8:00pm AEDT.
We hope to see you all at the 2023 Annual General Meeting.
Registrations are now open to IAA Members and your guests to celebrate the end of the year with us. We have fabulous events lined up for you across Australia and we hope you can make at least one of them!
 SYDNEY – FORTRESS
Date: Wed 15 Nov 2023 Are you ready to play? IAA Members and your guests are invited to join us to celebrate 2023 at Fortress, Sydney’s gaming paradise. Come enjoy an evening of great food, drinks and company – and the best games in town! |
 ADELAIDE – THE HOWLING OWL
Date: Tues 21 Nov 2023 We think Adelaide’s premier gin bar is the perfect place to celebrate 2023. IAA Members and your guests are invited to join us for an evening of good food, good drinks and good times. With over 220 small batch gin varieties, you’ll be spoilt for choice! |
 MELBOURNE – GARDEN STATE HOTEL
Date: Tues, 28 Nov 2023 Let’s celebrate 2023 at one of the best pubs in Melbourne’s CBD. We invite IAA Members and your guests to join us for fabulous food, drinks and fun times at this famous Flinders Street favourite. |
 PERTH – FLIGHT CLUB
Date: Thurs 30 Nov 2023 What better way to celebrate 2023 than by throwing sharp metal objects? IAA Members and their guests are invited to join us for social darts and delicious food and drinks. We hope you can make it – game on! |
 BRISBANE – OCHE
Date: Wed 13 Dec 2023 We invite IAA members and your guests to celebrate 2023 and enjoy Australia’s fastest growing pub sport – SHUFL. Join us to eat, drink and play the evening away. We look forward to seeing you there! |
Members may like to make a note of our end-of-year embargo period. This time it will run from from Friday 22 December 2023 to Sunday 7 January 2024 (inclusive).
During this time we will not be provisioning any new services or cancelling existing services. Rest assured, support staff will be on call if any urgent issues or network emergencies arise.
Any new orders or cancellation requests submitted after Friday 8 December 2023 will be actioned following the embargo period.
We rounded off the IAA Convergent Hybrid Conferences with more fun socials and fascinating talks. Since last we updated you, we’ve held two in-person and two online events.
In Perth we hosted a Whisk(e)y social at Helvetica Bar in the City, where Members gathered for some tasty food and a whisk(e)y tasting session. It was an excellent opportunity to network, share what’s happening with IAA and catch up with all of your news.
In Brisbane, Dr David Lacey provided an important and timely presentation on cybersecurity. Entitled ‘The human behind the hack’ David put a human face to the many victims of identity theft, and talked about IDCare’s outreach programs to assist and educate people. We felt this talk was so important that we recently repeated as an online event. If you didn’t make it, you can watch it via the IAA YouTube channel.
Our other Online IAA Convergent Event was ‘LED there be Lights! A techie’s guide to holiday illumination’. In his insightful presentation, Pierre Beukes shared the method behind the magic of his Alkimos Beach Lights show. Synchronised to music, his fully animated Christmas light show is truly amazing. If you missed it, you can still learn his secrets and get inspired via our YouTube Channel link.
That brings the IAA Convergent series to an end for this year, but we look forward to bringing you more events next year and are already making plans!
This year’s IAASysters was hosted at the Sea World Conference Centre on the Gold Coast. We created the IAASysters program to help support women in the Internet industry. Now in its third year, the program once again comprised a one-day workshop focusing on career enhancement strategies and two days of technical training via the AusNOG conference.
Our program gained even more momentum this year and the high quality of applicants made it difficult to choose our latest crop of IAASysters. They all rose to the challenge magnificently, participating in the highly successful workshop. It was great to see all the participants actively engaging in all sessions, making new connections, learning and developing their skills and confidence.
We had three wonderful guest speakers again this year, offering the IAASysters a wealth of insights, inspiration and industry knowledge to take their careers to the next level. Our guest speakers for 2023 included, Cheryl Alderman who specialises in leadership, communication and career development and is passionate about empowering women in the workplace. Our second guest speaker was Jill McKay. Supporting working women through advocacy, legal advice and education, Jill gave a candid presentation to our IAASysters on how to assert their rights and stay safe in the workplace. Also on the program this year was Sally Foley-Lewis. Sally’s highly interactive session helped our delegates learn how to present with confidence, manage nerves and respond to questions.
The feedback from attendees has been positive, with one participant reporting back that, “the program was engaging and helpful, especially in a field that is so male-dominated”.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors. This year’s Gold Sponsors: Aussie Broadband, Amazon Web Services, APNIC and Netcraft Australia, along with our Silver Sponsor, Vocus. Your contributions to this program and our efforts to support women in the Internet industry make IAASysters possible.
Plans are already afoot for next year’s IAASysters, which is set to take place in Sydney with a one-day workshop on 4 September 2024, followed by two days at the AusNOG conference 5-6 September 2024.
If you would like to support the next generation of women in the Internet industry or attend yourself, head over to the IAASysters page on our website to find out more. Expressions of interest to sponsor or attend are now open and you can register your interest via the IAA Website.
Register your interest to attend
This September we headed to the Sea World Conference Centre on the Gold Coast for AusNOG 2023. The IAA team sponsored, attended and hosted a booth. It was a great opportunity to learn what’s new in our industry and catch up with IAA Members, along with making some great new contacts to peer and partner with in the future.
Next year’s AusNOG is proposed to be in Sydney, 5-6 September 2023. We look forward to seeing you there!
As part of our commitment to working for the benefit of the Internet and the people who build and operate it, we are always pleased to sponsor and participate in industry related programs and events.
 In August Australia’s Internet Governance Forum, NetThing 2023, was held in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. IAA was a proud sponsor of NetThing 2023 and the IAA Policy Team attended. Our CEO Narelle Clark took part in session to discuss Building Global Trust in the Internet of Things, joined by Rajnesh Singh, Hiroshi Esaki, Maarten Botterman and Dan Caprio.
You can watch this Narelle’s thought provoking panel on APriGF’s YouTube Channel. |
 In September it was off to CyberOz 2023 at the UNSW Kensington Campus in Sydney, with IAA as Supporting Partner. Narelle gave a presentation on presentation on ‘Cybersecurity and IPv6 from an Australian Industry Perspective’, and later that day, IAA Board Chair, Matthew Enger took part in a panel discussion on ‘The State of Cybersecurity, IPv6, IoT and AI’. |
 In October, IAA’s CEO and Tech Team represented at BSides Canberra, which we further supported as Bronze Sponsor. BSides Canberra is a technical community conference, focusing on the deep understanding of cybersecurity topics.
It was a thought provoking three days of presentations and activities. For the ‘Black Bag’ exercise, our team managed to enter the room and unlock the computer, but unfortunately, got caught before they could complete the task, so no life of crime for them. However, they more than redeemed themselves by coming 22nd out of 193 for the ‘Capture the flag’ competition! |
 Finally, our CEO has just headed to Korea for Peering Asia 5.0. This is Asia Pacific’s annual open peering event, which aims to encourage and promote peering and interconnection in the region. Narelle enjoyed two intense days of presentations and networking, representing IAA and IX Australia. |
Amidst all the events going on over the past few months, our Policy Team has remained busy – attending the regional, and Australian Internet governance forums, meeting with government bodies and regulators on upcoming policy matters, and holding PPAP meetings of our own!
It may be of some satisfaction, or relief that the NBN Co SAU review is finally over. After years of discussing sticking points and compromises, we hope that this SAU will deliver real benefits to you, and to your end-users. We wish good luck to those of you who are now working on adjusting operations and offerings accordingly. NBN Co have also published further pricing information including its roadmap to 2026, to assist RSPs. The documents are available on the NBN Co website.
A reminder that changes to the unfair contract terms regime kicks in from 9 November 2023, widening the scope of those who would be covered by the legislation as well as massively increasing the penalties. Make sure that your standard form contracts don’t contain unfair provisions, or you could be hit hard with penalties!
As the year comes to a close, we have lots of consultations going on. Of note, the government is proposing a registration scheme for carriage service providers. While members so far have expressed mixed thoughts on the CSP Register, one thing that has been clear is that any new framework will have to be dedicated to making registration an easy, efficient and effective system and not onerously burdensome so as to stifle the growth of smaller entities, or stop new entrants into the market.
ACMA is also consulting on the creation of a new Financial Hardship Standard, to replace the equivalent industry code. This is part of the contentious movement towards direct regulation we’ve been seeing of late.
As always, please get in touch to share any thoughts on any of the open and/or previous submissions; we appreciate your feedback.
Completed Submissions:
Alternative Commonwealth Capabilities for Crisis Response | Department of Home Affairs
The Department of Home Affairs conducted a consultation on the role that the Commonwealth Government should play during times of national and/or natural crises.
In our response, we recommended that the Commonwealth Government should play a greater role in coordination between State and Territories, work to harmonise inconsistent laws where possible, and/or contribute to greater information sharing to assist industry and communities to navigate different frameworks and systems across States and Territories during times of crisis.
Upcoming Submissions:
Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 | Australian Retail Credit Association | 16 Nov 2023
Proposed Telecommunications Financial Hardship Industry Standard | ACMA | 24 Nov 2023
Integrated Public Number Database Code | Communications Alliance | 24 November 2023
Unfair Trading Practices – Consultation Regulation Impact Statement | Treasury | 29 Nov 2023
Carriage Service Provider Register | DITRDCA | 30 Nov 2023
One big focus of this year’s NetThing and APrIGF joint conference was ‘the future of Internet governance’. As new trendy technologies such as AI arise, the global Internet community faces the problem of if Internet governance should include such issues, or whether our focus on other digital technologies means we are moving too far away from discussing matters actually about the Internet; the lack of IPv4 addresses may seem a lot less sexy than generative AI, but the slow move to IPv6, and its Internet impact is still an issue that’s worth discussing!
Another point of concern is the movement away from the multi-stakeholder model on a global scale. Since its inception, the IGF operates as an open, collective and inclusive system to discuss issues about the Internet. However, in recent times, we have seen Internet governance at a global level moving towards a state-led approach, reducing the role and contributions of the Internet technical community in Internet governance processes. In the lead-up to these IGFs, IAA has also been involved in working with a group of Internet governance stakeholders in Australia (including auDA, APNIC, Internet Australia and others) to discuss these issues.
It is clear Internet governance is an area that we’ll have to keep an eye on. IAA supports an open Internet, and we are concerned that these trends could further increase the risk of fragmenting the Internet, and that Internet governance processes are taken from the Internet community.
We are extremely pleased and excited to announce Chris Enger to the IAA Public Policy Advisory Panel. Chris is the Operations Manager at Leaptel and brings over 5 years’ telco experience, particularly working as part of an RSP. He has already provided us with great insight to help inform a number of submissions, including a review of the TIO and the superfast broadband network, providing us with an RSP perspective on these matters.
The Panel is an advisory body of IAA Members that help inform our public policy and advocacy work. Since forming in early 2022, we have met quarterly to discuss live and upcoming telco policy matters.
We had our final meeting for 2023 in mid-October where we discussed a number of pressing issues, including the proposed registration scheme for Carriage Service Providers, which will no doubt affect many of you.
If you are interested in the work of the Panel, please visit our website. If you would like to join the Panel, please reach out at policy@internet.asn.au.
As always, our Tech Team have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure your Member experience is the best it can be. In recent months they have been making improvements to the IAA Member Portal and cleaning up the IX, with new 400Gbps switches being installed into the NSW-IX, a rack migration in VIC-IX, and by completing the route server hardware refresh right across all our IXes.
IAA engineers have undertaken a refresh of the server hardware supporting the route servers on each IX. The specifications of the new hardware are:
- Dell EMC PowerEdge R350
- Intel(R) Xeon(R) E-2334 CPU @ 3.40GHz
- 16GB RAM
- 2x 480GB SSDs in RAID-1
- 2x 10Gbps NICs to IX
In addition to new hardware and our usual high standard of monitoring, our engineers have also taken additional measures to harden the route servers against potential attacks targeting the IX.
Using the network namespace functionality of the Linux kernel, the BIRD daemon is separated into its own network namespace with dedicated access to the IX interface in the virtual machine. No other processes on the virtual machine have visibility of, or access to, the IX interface. This approach vastly reduces the attack surface facing the IX and ensures the best possible security for the route servers.
As part of our ethos of going where our Members want us, the Team have been working on introducing some more POPs with sights set on Next DC’s P2 in Perth towards the end of 2023 and A1 in Adelaide when it opens next year.
You can pre-order your 10G, 40G and 100G ports for P2 via the IAA Member Portal now.
From time to time we also need to close some POPs, as with Vocus DC 132 Franklin on SA-IX and Vocus Doody St, NSW-IX, which will both be closing down in the near future. We hope that this does not unduly inconvenience you.
You may also have heard that plans are afoot to start up the the TAS-IX early next year.
Special thanks to Field Solutions Group Australia, who helped facilitate our move into DC3 and 7HOB. DC3 is TasmaNet’s data centre in Cranbourne, Hobart. 7HOB is also based in Hobart and is one of the nbn network’s Points of Interconnect (POIs).
To get you started on this new exchange, we’ll be offering members FREE 10G ports for the first 12 months at DC3 and 7HOB. We’ll be taking pre-orders mid-December, so look out for further notice.
In other news, we are finally taking steps to terminate the Bur.st service. As you are aware, hosting has moved on and is far easier these days, and consequently, the Bur.st platform has become obsolete.
We have recently contacted those Members who may be affected by this and are providing plenty of notice, along with a free email forwarding service for accounts associated with a Bur.st domain.
If you are affected and didn’t receive the notice, or have questions, please email support@internet.asn.au.
QV1 is our longest operating site and will always hold an important place in our history. However, as operating standards and customer expectations have evolved, our Board has concluded that QV1 runs the risk of falling short of the high standards of delivery that IAA must maintain. The constraints of this legacy site mean that we will not be able to make the improvements that may be required going forward. Consequently, the difficult decision to cease operations at this site has been made.
Our CEO, Narelle Clark said, “IAA has a responsibility to maintain a high standard of service. This is what our Members have come to expect and deserve. QV1 will always have a special place in our history, but it is fast approaching the end of its utility. For us to offer the exemplar of Australia’s peering network, we must move with the times.”
IAA acknowledges that this may cause some disruption for some of our Members and we wish to support those affected as much as possible. As part of this, and in order to give Members sufficient time to make alternative arrangements, we have committed to maintaining the site to the same high standard until 31 March 2025. Following this date, it is our intention to decommission the site.
We have reached out to those Members affected by this decommissioning to outline the next steps. Any queries can be directed to peering@internet.asn.au.
In case you missed it, the IAA Team has been working hard to bring network automation to Members so you can set up and change services on the IX Australia network directly from your IAA Member Portal account. This suite of new features enables you to make changes to your services more quickly and efficiently.
Our aim is to empower Members to manage the migration of services between ports, without having to wait for our engineers to action requests. It’s all about faster, reliable service provisioning!
Automated changes that Members can request via the Portal include:
Ports
• New port services
• Conversion of port services to LACP bundles
• Adding ports to port services that are LACP bundles
• Cancelling port services
Peering
• New peering services
• Changing VLAN ID of peering services
• Changing MAC address of peering services
• Migrating peering services between ports (same IX)
• Cancelling peering services
Extended Reach Peering (ERP)
• New ERP services
• Changing VLAN ID of ERP services
• Changing MAC address of ERP services
• Migrating ERP services between ports (same IX)
• Changing speed of ERP services
• Cancelling ERP services
VLLs
• New VLL services
• Changing VLAN ID of VLL services
• Changing MAC address of VLL services (where MAC addresses are required)
• Changing speed of VLL services
• Migrating VLL services between ports
• Cancelling VLL services
To see what’s available and how easy it is to use, head over to the IAA Member Portal Dashboard and look for the new options in the action menu on the service detail pages. Of course, we’ve also provided handy support documentation which you’ll find via the User Guide link under ‘Support’ in the Portal’s main navigation panel.
It’s important to note that in the initial stages, though it may appear as though your requests are automated, our engineers will be shadowing your every request to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Change requests that require network configuration to be deployed will be approved and provisioned manually during the initial launch phase. This will mean that orders will only be processed during business hours. Once engineers are satisfied that the automatically generated network configurations are consistent, the protocols will be adjusted to push configuration changes to fully automated.
We are proud to bring you these innovations for the convenience of Members. We look forward to delivering more improvements soon.
As we focus on bringing IAA Members an even more streamlined user experience, we’re delighted to welcome our newest addition to the Tech Team. Cameron Steel takes on a new role as one of the IAA Developers. He is working on rebuilding and improving the functionality of the IAA Member Portal.
Previously, Cameron has worked in IT Support and as an Audio Visual Technician in the events industry.
He is already making a positive difference to IAA Members’ user experience.
Welcome Cameron!
Corporate Members:
Disney Streaming Technology LLC
The Mouse is in the house! IAA is delighted to welcome Disney to the NSW-IX. IAA Members can now enjoy better reachability to Disney for their users and lower transit bills, as more traffic shifts to peering. Disney joined our peering network on the 5 October, bringing an uptick in traffic.
Capti Networks PTY LTD
A warm welcome to Capti, who joined the IX ‘to reduce IP transit traffic’. Capti is a leading provider of high-speed fibre-optic internet services, dedicated to transforming the way people experience connectivity. They’re delivering cutting-edge, reliable, and lightning-fast connectivity solutions to residential and commercial buildings
BBIX AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
It is with pleasure that we also welcome BBIX. Since its establishment in 2003 as a true carrier-free IX provider, BBIX has provided an Internet traffic exchange service with their “No Peering, No Internet” motto in mind.
Professional Members:
Andrew Radke
John Haney
Karl Kloppenborg
Kevin Baum
Mark Prior
Matthew Zahra
Medel Remirez
Parvani Pendse
Paul Turnbull
Peter Carstairs
Rex Tan
Vicente Arias
