AusNOG

AusNOG AusNOG is an Australian network operators group serving practitioners in Internet infrastructure, traffic engineering, and network security across Australia and the Pacific. It brings together professionals from organisations such as AARNet, Telstra, Optus, Vocus Communications, and NBN Co to share operational experience, coordinate peering, and advance best practices alongside counterparts from APNIC, RIPE NCC, and ARIN. The community interacts with academic institutions like University of Melbourne, Australian National University, and University of Sydney and with regional bodies including ISOC and IETF to influence standards and deployment.

Overview

AusNOG functions as a peer-led forum similar to JANOG, UKNOF, SANOG, IXIA, and CANARIE communities, focusing on routing, peering, DNS operations, and IPv6 transition. It provides technical briefings, workshops, and mailing lists that feature speakers from Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, Google, Facebook, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Cloudflare, Akamai Technologies, and Fastly. Member organisations include carriers such as Spark New Zealand, Telekom Malaysia affiliates, and research networks like Internet2 and CESNET representatives. AusNOG liaises with neutral IXPs including Equinix, DE-CIX, LINX, and regional IXPs like Sydney Internet Exchange and Melbourne Internet Exchange.

History

AusNOG was established in the early 2000s following regional coordination efforts influenced by events like the 2000 Internet DNS outage and initiatives from APNIC and IETF working groups on IPv6. Early contributors included engineers from Telstra, AARNet, Optus, and academia at Monash University and University of Queensland. Over time AusNOG hosted panels with representatives from ICANN, NUMS, PEERING, and participants from carrier-neutral data centers operated by Equinix and Global Switch. The group expanded during debates surrounding the National Broadband Network rollout and discussions involving regulators such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Activities and Events

AusNOG organises regular meetings, tutorials, and an annual conference that parallels events like the RIPE Meetings and ARIN Public Policy Meetings. Sessions cover routing protocols including BGP developments from vendors like Brocade and Huawei; security topics featuring speakers associated with CERT/CC, US-CERT, CERT Australia; and peering workshops influenced by practices at LINX and AMS-IX. Training modules have been presented by professionals from CISCO Networking Academy, Juniper Networks Certification Program, and university research labs at CSIRO and UniSQ. Collaborative activities include community-run peering forums, hands-on labs modeled after the NANOG tutorials, and joint sessions with IX-F and regional bodies such as PCCW and Telia Carrier.

Governance and Membership

Governance is volunteer-driven with a committee composed of engineers and operations leaders drawn from organisations like Telstra International, AARNet, Vocus, Equinix Australia, Amazon Web Services APAC, and university network teams at University of New South Wales and RMIT University. Membership encompasses network operators, researchers from CSIRO, representatives from cloud providers including Oracle Cloud, and security practitioners from firms like Kaspersky Lab and Trend Micro. AusNOG coordinates with standards and numbering authorities including APNIC, IANA, and regional regulators such as NZRS and industry consortia like ETSI and IEEE for alignment on technical priorities and training accreditation.

Impact and Contributions

AusNOG has contributed to regional resilience through knowledge transfer during incidents like large-scale BGP route leaks and distributed denial-of-service events that affected carriers including Telstra and Optus. Its community-produced guidance has informed operational practices at content networks such as Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify and has been cited in incident post-mortems involving infrastructure providers like Akamai and Cloudflare. The group’s workshops have accelerated IPv6 adoption alongside efforts by APNIC and influenced peering fabric growth at exchanges like Sydney Internet Exchange and Melbourne Internet Exchange. AusNOG also supports diversity in networking by collaborating with educational programs at Australian Computer Society, scholarship initiatives linked to IETF Fellowship Program, and hackathons hosted by universities and organisations such as Code for Australia.

Category:Internet exchange organizations Category:Computer networking in Australia