MARINA DEL REY, CA - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has finalized the procedures describing how the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will manage the insertion, administration and removal of internationalized top-level domains (TLDs) in the root zone for the upcoming evaluation.
According to a press release by ICANN, the procedures were posted previously for public comment. That comment, as well as advice from the technical community including the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC), was taken into consideration in editing the final versions.
The two procedures guiding this effort are:
1. IANA Root Zone Procedures for Test International Domain Name (IDN) Deployment
The final procedure was approved by the ICANN Board on June 29, 2007 after some clarifications were provided in response to public comment. These procedures are being implemented by IANA in preparation for the insertion of IDN evaluation TLDs.
2. Root Server Operator Procedures for Emergency Revocation of Evaluation-purpose IDN TLDs
The purpose of this procedure is to provide a method of quickly removing IDN TLDs from the root zone in the very unlikely event that insertion of these evaluation strings negatively impact Domain Name System (DNS) or root server operations.
After consultation with the RSSAC, the procedure has been modified to focus on a communication protocol that root server operators will employ in the identification and mitigation of any problems that might arise for root server operations as a consequence of the proposed testing of IDN strings.
Root server operators will monitor and identify deteriorated service potentially caused by IDNs in the root. If such a result is detected, ICANN will be notified and in turn activate the procedure.
