APCCIRN-013

1992.12.12

>Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 22:33:41 -0800

From: postel@isi.edu (Jon Postel)

Message-Id: <199212020633.AA14146@zephyr.isi.edu>

To: ccirn@lbl.gov, iab@isi.edu, iesg@isi.edu, usac@isi.edu, wgc@fnc.gov,

ncc@ripe.net, domains@bitnic.educom.edu

Subject: DRAFT *** IANA POLICY ON TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN DELEGATION *** DRAFT

Cc: iana@isi.edu, ScottW@nic.ddn.mil, k13@nikhef.nl, dfk@ripe.net,

BobM@nic.ddn.mil, rv@deins.informatik.uni-dortmund.de,

Klensin@infoods.mit.edu, Dave.Morton@ecrc.de

Status: OR

Hello:

To those of you that saw and commented on the first draft, thanks. I

hope you find this second draft an improvement. To all, please read

and comment on this second draft.

--jon.

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IANA POLICY ON TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN DELEGATION

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for the

overall coordination and management of the Domain Name System, and

especially the delegation of portions of the name space called

top-level domains. Most of these top-level domains are two-letter

country codes taken from the ISO standard 3166.

A central Internet Registry (IR) has been selected and designated to

handled the bulk of the day-to-day administration of the Domain Name

System. Applications for new top-level domains (for example, country

code domains) are handled by the IR with consultation with the IANA.

The central IR is NIC.DDN.MIL.

This memo describes the policy concerns involved when a new top-level

domain is established usually by delegating its management to a

"designated manager" for the top-level domain.

The major concern in selecting a designated manager for a top-level

domain is that it be able to carry out the necessary responsibilities,

and have the ability to do a equitable, just, honest, and competent job.

1) The key requirement from the IANA's point of view is that for each

top-level domain there be a designated manager for supervising that

domain's name space. In the case of top-level domains that are

country codes this means that there is a manager that supervises the

domain names and operates the domain name system in that country.

The manager must, of course, be on the Internet. There must be

Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity to the nameservers and email

connectivity to the management and staff of the manager.

There must be an administrative contact and a technical contact for

each top-level domain. For top-level domains that are country codes

at least the administrative contact must reside in the country

involved.

2) These designated authorities are trustees for the delegated

domain, and have a duty to serve the community.

The designated manager is the trustee of the top-level domain for

both the nation, in the case of a country code, and the global

Internet community.

Concerns about 'rights' and 'ownership' of top-level domains are

inappropriate. It is appropriate to be concerned about

'responsibilities' and 'service' to the community.

3) The designated manager must be equitable to all groups in the

domain that request domain names.

This means that the same rules are applied to all requests, all

requests are processed in a non-discriminatory fashion, and academic

and commercial (and other) users are treated on an equal basis. No

bias shall be shown regarding requests that may come from customers of

some other business related to the manager -- e.g., no preferential

service for customers of a particular data network provider. There

can be no requirement that a particular mail system (or other

application), protocol, or product be used.

There are no requirement on subdomains of top-level domains beyond the

requirements on top-level domains themselves. That is, the

requirements in this memo are applied recursively. In particular, all

subdomains shall be allowed to operate their own domain name servers,

providing in them whatever information the subdomain manager sees fit

(as long as it is true and correct).

4) That significantly interested parties in the domain agree that

the designated manager is the appropriate party.

The IANA tries to have any contending parties reach agreement among

themselves, and generally takes no action to change things unless all

the contending parties agree; only in cases where the designated

manager has substantially mis-behaved would the IANA step in.

However it is appropriate for interested parties to have some voice in

selecting the designated manager.

There are two case where the IANA and the central IR may establish a

new top-level domain and delegate only a portion of it: (1) there are

contending parties that cannot agree, or (2) the applying party may

not be able to represent or serve the whole country. The later case

sometimes arises when a party outside a courtry is trying to be

helpful in getting networking started in a country -- this is sometimes

called a "proxy" DNS service.

(A proposed rule to settle differences that can not be resolved by the

parties themselves in the case of a country code top-level domain is

to refer the matter to the country authority that participated in

ISO-3166 (usually the State Department or Foreign Office). Please

suggest a better rule!)

5) That the designated manager do a satisfactory job of operating

the DNS service for the domain.

That is, the actual management of the assigning of domain names,

delegating subdomains and operating nameservers must be done with

technical competence. This includes keeping the central IR advised of

the status of the domain, responding to requests in a timely manner,

and operating the database with accuracy, robustness, and resilience.

There must be a primary and a secondary nameserver that have IP

connectivity to the Internet and can be easily checked for operational

status and database accuracy by the IR and the IANA.

6) For any transfer of the designated manager trusteeship from one

organization to another, the IANA needs to receive communications from

both the old organization and the new organization that assure the IANA

that the transfer in mutually agreed, and that the new organization

understands its responsibilities.

It is also very helpful for the IANA to receive communications from

other parties that may be concerned or affected by the transfer.

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