Internet DRAFT - draft-mao-cdnc-idn
draft-mao-cdnc-idn
Internet draft IDN September 2005
Internet Draft Howard Li, Editor
draft-mao-cdnc-idn-00.txt Yang Yu, Editor
September 9, 2005 CNNIC
Expires: March 9,2006 Erin Chen, Editor
Jeff Yeh, Editor
TWNIC
The Proposal for Internationalizing ccTLD Names
< draft-mao-cdnc-idn-00.txt >
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Abstract
There are great demands on using someone's native language to surf
the Internet around the world. Internationalized domain name system
has been introduced to meet the demand. However, due to many
technical and policy issues, IDN may provide malicious rogues the
opportunities to mislead users to unintended third party website,
thus cause security issues and threat the stabilization of the
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Internet. CDNC recognize the complexity of the issue and make advises
to avoid the threat. To simplify the issue, CDNC suggest
internationalize the ccTLD before any moves on gTLD. Also, the
approval on internationalize a ccTLD should based on the readiness of
the respective registry and the support from the respective
government. The following document fully demonstrated the principles
and procedure to internationalize ccTLD that recommended by CDNC.
Document Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
1. Introduction
The Internet from its birth was in English. In its early years in the
United States of America, it has produced tremendous social and
economical wealth. Not for long before it had grown into other
countries of the globe, and people speaking languages other than
English had also enjoyed some wealth the new technology had brought.
However, the language barrier has gradually shown its limitation on
the further expansion of the Internet usage in non-English speaking
countries.
There are multiple approaches to solve the problem, fully
internationalize the domain name system is one of the most critical
element for domain name is the key element in locating the resource
on the Internet. Internet users have longed for a domain name system
in their native language and expect one day they can fully overcome
the problem they are now facing.
Chinese Domain Name Consortium (CDNC) has seen the needs and has
explored means to fulfill the need. After careful consideration, CDNC
determined that Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) is the solution
and there is adequate technical resource to achieve it. CDNC also
consider it is the right time to start internationalizing the Country
Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) names. In this paper, CDNC has
presented its principles and suggestions on internationalizing the
domain names systems.
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2. Necessity of IDN
>From its research, CDNC has summarized prerequisites, advantages and
necessities in implementing fully internationalized domain name
system. The prerequisites are:
2.1 Prerequisites
2.1.1 Market Needs
As the statistics shows, as of September 2004, over 64.8% of the
global Internet users are not English speakers, and their countries
and regions build up over 66% of the world economy
(http://glreach.com/globstats/). Take China for example, its Internet
user population has grown up to more than 104 million by the end of
June, 2005 (CNNIC Statistical Survey Report, published in July 2005).
Statistics also shows that about 90% of the Internet users prefer to
access the content in their native languages. Language barrier has
become a major drawback on Internet popularization in non-English
speaking countries, and its impact is more significant in countries
which language is non-alphabetical, such as China, Japan, and Korea.
Domain name is the single most important way to locate resources on
the Internet. To date, there are over 240 country specified Top Level
Domains in the world, represents over 240 countries and regions. Most
of these ccTLD users are non-English speakers. Although these
countries and regions had accelerated their development in ccTLDs,
their users are longed for surfing Internet fully using their native
language. Thus, internationalizing the domain name system is in
urgent need, the IDN is in high market demand. And with the rapid
growth of Internet users in countries like China, Japan and Korea,
the IDN market grows tremendously and becomes enormous.
2.1.2 Adequate Technology Resources
Engineers in these countries recognized the importance of IDN and
allocated their effort to develop technical solutions to meet the
need. CDNC is the frontier in this field, and achieved many
breakthroughs in the research. From 2003 to 2004, IETF published a
series of RFCs, namely RFC3490, RFC3491, RFC3492, RFC3454 and RFC3743.
They all perfectly proved that implementing IDN is stable and
feasible. Especially, RFC3743 addressed the potential risk of
phishing in IDNs, and set up the standard to resolve the problem.
When registries follow the respective guideline, it will dramatically
reduce the number of similar-looking IDNs, which will in turn reduce
the possibility of phishing?use of IDNs.
Nowadays, the technology is mature and stable, and there are abundant
technical forces to ensure its workability and stability, all of
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these have ensured that there is no negative impact on the current
domain name system.
2.1.3 Governmental Support
Governments in these countries and regions are fully aware of the
importance of IDN and are very supportive in the research and
deployment. With sufficient negotiation with local governments, most
ccTLD registries may obtain official supports when submit their
proposals to ICANN.
2.2 Advantages of IDN
There are four major advantages in implementing IDN:
IDN makes the Internet friendly to non-English speakers;
More achievement in applications of Email, FTP, and etc;
It is the most effective way to popularize the use of the Internet in
non-English speaking communities;
There is a need for respecting and guaranteeing the culture
diverseness and special interests of people in different regions.
2.3 What if we do not strike while the iron is hot?
If we do not take chance to push forward the project now, potential
IDN users with exigent needs may choose other uncertain solutions,
and they may threaten the consolidation of the Internet standards and
the operational stability of the Internet.
3. The Principles
CDNC strongly recommend the following five principles to ICANN when
deploying IDN:
1) Give the priority to internationalizing ccTLDs. To ensure the
system stability, it is recommended to internationalize ccTLD before
internationalize gTLD.
2) For convenience purpose, only one form of language character
variant of internationalized ccTLD is accepted. Considering that some
countries or regions may have character variants, only one form of
character sets shall be chosen for IDN use by each sponsored registry.
3) Supported by their own governments, ccTLD registries or authorized
agencies make their own choice of which IDN character sets for their
ccTLDs.
4) Clearly state the necessity, pros and cons for implementing
internationalized ccTLDs in each proposal that submitted to ICANN.
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5) Register and operate the Internationalized ccTLDs in the root DNS
server in the form of IDNA Punycode.
4. Suggestions
CDNC suggest ICANN to form an evaluation committee on
internationalizing ccTLDs. The committee shall compose of
representatives from gNSO and ccNSO, experienced DNS engineers, if
possible, even directors of ICANN board. The whole process shall be
transparent and open for public inputs.
The main tasks of the committee should be:
4.1 Control the Sponsor's Qualification
The proposal shall be submitted by corresponding ccTLD registry or
government accredited institution/agency which meets the following
criteria:
The country/region it serves has certain market needs;
Possessing abundant technical force in staff, equipment and operation;
Having broad support from the local government and Internet community;
Possessing adequate financial resources.
4.2 Ask for Government's Approval
The IDN ccTLD proposal shall be fully supported by the corresponding
government;
The committee shall request the sponsor to provide the approval
documentaries issued by the government before its approval.
4.3 Draft the Test Bed Evaluation Report
The committee is recommended to set certain Benchmarks and conduct a
full scale evaluation on the proposed internationalized ccTLD during
its initial operation, and then submit the evaluation report to ICANN
board for its final approval. The sponsored registry shall officially
launch the registration service only after obtaining the approval of
ICANN. If the report shows that the performance is not eligible, the
evaluation committee shall reject the application and ask the
sponsored registry to make improvement and resubmit the proposal
afterwards.
For the procedure displayed in graphic CDNC recommends, please see
the appendix A.
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5. Conclusion
In conclusion, CDNC consider with all the market needs, governmental
supports, and the adequate technology resources, it is the right time
to internationalize ccTLDs. IDN makes the Internet more accessible;
it enables more achievement in applications of Email, FTP, and etc;
it helps Internet usage popularize further into every corner of the
globe, especially in the non-English speaking communities; It helps
to preserve culture diverseness and protect special interests of
people in different regions.
6. Security Considerations
IDN homograph attacks allow an attacker/phisher to spoof the
domain/URLs of businesses. RFC3743 addressed the potential risk of
"phishing" in IDNs, and set up the standard to resolve the problem.
When registries follow the respective guideline, it will dramatically
reduce the number of similar-looking IDNs, which will in turn reduce
the possibility of phishing-use of IDNs. It's proved that
implementing IDN is stable and feasible, and has no negative impact
on the current DN system.
7. References
[RFC3454]Hoffman, P., Blanchet, M., "Preparation of Internationalized
Strings ("stringprep")", RFC3454,December 2002.
[RFC3490]Faltstrom, P., Hoffman, P., Costello, A.,
"Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)", RFC3490,
March 2003.
[RFC3491]Hoffman, P., Blanchet, M., "Nameprep: A Stringprep Profile
for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) ", RFC3491, March 2003.
[RFC3492]Costello, A., "Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode
for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)", RFC3492,
March 2003.
[RFC3743]Konishi, K., Huang, K., Qian, H., Ko, Y., "Joint Engineering
Team (JET) Guidelines for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)
Registration and Administration for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean",
RFC3743, April 2004.
8. Authors's addresses
Wei Mao (mao@cnnic.cn)
China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)
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Ai-Chin Lu (aclu@twnic.net.tw)
Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC)
Jonathan Shea (jonathan.shea@hkirc.hk)
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC)
Wai Io Ho (jasonho@umac.mo)
Macao Internet Network Information Center (MONIC)
9. Editors
Howard Li (liguanghao@cnnic.cn)
China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)
Yang Yu (leo@cnnic.cn)
China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)
Erin Chen (erin@twnic.net.tw)
Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC)
Jeff Yeh (jeff@twnic.net.tw)
Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC)
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Appendix A.
--------------- ----------------- ------------
|Trail Operation| |Adjust, Re-submit| | Officially |
|submit | |-|the propoal | |Launch |<-|
| (launching | | |(launching |<-| |(launching | |
| Registry) | | |Registry) | | | Registry) | |
|---------------| | |-----------------| | |------------| |
| | | |
| | | /\
| | | / \
| | | / \
| | | / \
| | |-------------/Judge by\<-|
| | \ ICANN / |
| | \board / |
| | \ / |
| | \ / |
| | \/ |
| | ---------------- ----------------- |
| |--->|Full Scale | | | |
| |Evaluation | |Evaluation report| |
|--------->|by Evaluation |-->|by Evaluation |----|
|Committee | | Committee |
|----------------| |-----------------|
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