Internationalized Domain Name (idn)

Last Modified: 2008-02-07

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/idn

Chair(s):

  • James Seng <jseng@pobox.org.sg>

  • Marc Blanchet <Marc.Blanchet@viagenie.ca>

    Applications Area Director(s):

  • Chris Newman <chris.newman@sun.com>
  • Lisa Dusseault <lisa@osafoundation.org>

    Applications Area Advisor:

  • Lisa Dusseault <lisa@osafoundation.org>

    Technical Advisor(s):

  • Harald Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no>

    Mailing Lists:

    General Discussion: idn@ops.ietf.org
    To Subscribe: idn-request@ops.ietf.org
    Archive: ftp://ops.ietf.org/pub/lists/idn*

    Description of Working Group:

    The goal of the group is to specify the requirements for
    internationalized access to domain names and to specify a standards
    track protocol based on the requirements.

    The scope of the group is to investigate the possible means of doing
    this  and what methods are feasible given the technical impact they
    will
    have on  the use of such names by humans as well as application
    programs, as well as the impact on  other users and administrators of
    the domain name system.

    A fundamental requirement in this work is to not disturb the current
    use
    and operation of the domain name system, and for the DNS to continue to
    allow any system anywhere to resolve any domain name.

    The group will not address the question of what, if any, body should
    administer or control usage of names that use this functionality.

    The group must identify consequences to the current deployed DNS
    infrastructure, the protocols and the applications as well as
    transition
    scenarios, where applicable.

    The WG will actively ensure good communication with interested groups
    who are studying the problem of internationalized access to domain
    names.


    The Action Item(s) for the Working Group are

    1. An Informational RFC specifying the requirements for providing
      Internationalized access to domain names. The document should
      provide guidance for development solutions to this problem, taking
      localized (e.g. writing order) and related operational issues into
      consideration.

    2. An Informational RFC or RFC's documenting the various proposals and
      Implementations of Internationalization (i18n) of Domain Names. The
      document(s) should also provide a technical evaluation of the
      proposals by the Working Group.

    3. A standards track specification on access to internationalized
    domain
      names including specifying any transition issues.

    Goals and Milestones:

    Done  First draft of the requirements document
    Done  Presentation and discussion at IETF-Adelaide
    Done  Second version of the requirement document
    Done  Final discussion on the requirement document
    Aug 2000  Req document wg last call
    Sep 2000  First draft of comparaison document
    Dec 2000  Final discussion of comparaison document
    Dec 2000  Protocol RFC first draft
    Jan 2001  Comparaison document wg last call
    Mar 2001  Protocol RFC second draft
    Mar 2001  Transition RFC first draft
    Jun 2001  Protocol RFC wg last call
    Jun 2001  Transition RFC second draft
    Sep 2001  Transition RFC wg last call

    No Current Internet-Drafts

    Request For Comments:

    Internationalizing Domain Names In Applications (IDNA) (RFC 3490) (0 bytes)
    Nameprep: A Stringprep Profile for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) (RFC 3491) (0 bytes)
    Punycode:A Bootstring encoding of Unicode for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) (RFC 3492) (0 bytes)
    IETF Secretariat - Please send questions, comments, and/or suggestions to ietf-web@ietf.org.

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