Network Working Group J. Levine
Internet-Draft Taughannock Networks
Intended status: Informational P. Hoffman
Expires: April 02, 2013 VPN Consortium
October 2012
Variant Names in Top Level Domains
draft-levine-tld-variant-00
Abstract
IDNA [RFC5890] provides a method to map a subset of names written in
Unicode into the DNS. Some languages allow a particular name to be
written in multiple ways that are represented differently in IDNA,
known as "variants". We survey the approaches that ICANN-managed top
level domains have taken to the registration and provisioning of
variant names.
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Table of Contents
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1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Base documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Domain practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.1. AERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. ASIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.3. BIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.4. CAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.5. COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.6. COOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.7. INFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.8. JOBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.9. MOBI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.10. MUSEUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.11. NAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.12. NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.13. ORG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.14. POST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.15. PRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.16. TEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.17. TRAVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.18. XXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Note about the references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. Introduction
IDNA [RFC5890] provides a method to map a subset of names written in
Unicode into the DNS [RFC1035]. Some languages allow a particular
name to be written in multiple ways that are represented differently
in IDNA, known as "variants". In some cases, the variants are
multiple equally valid ways of writing the same thing, such as
traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Some languages
written in Latin characters with accents and diacritical marks allow
the marks to be omitted in some situations, such as French which
often omits accents on capital letters. Due to the difficulty of
representing accented characters in ASCII systems, many users have
informally used unaccented characters in DNS names, even when they
are not linguistically equivalent to the accented versions.
The proper handing of variant names has been a topic of extensive
debate and research, with little consensus reached on how to handle
them, or even what characters are variants of each other. Many
people would like variant names to behave "the same", for a diverse
range of meanings of "same." In some cases it is a textual
similarity, such as variants having corresponding DNS records, in
some it is functional similarity, such as variant names resolving to
the same web server, or the same page in a web server, while in
others it is user experience similarity, such as names resolving to
web pages which while not identical are perceived by human users as
equivalent.
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This document provides a snapshot of variant handling in the top
level domains managed by ICANN, so called gTLDs (generic TLDs) and
sTLDs (sponsored TLDs), as of late 2012. We chose those domains
because ICANN requires each TLD to describe its IDN and variant
practices, and the TLD zone files are available for inspection, to
verify what actually goes into the zones.
2. Terminology
We use some terminology that has become fairly well agreed when
discussing variant names.
Bundle: A set of names that are considered equivalent. The rules for
what constitutes a bundle vary among languages, and for the same
language can vary among TLDs.
Preferred variant: In a bundle, one variant is identified as
preferred. Typically it is the variant that best matches the way
that words are written in natural language. Preferred variants
are both language and country specific. For example, in some
Chinese-speaking countries, the preferred variant is simplified
characters, while in others it is traditional characters.
Blocking: When one name (or sometimes several names) in a bundle are
registered in a TLD, the rest of the names in the bundle are often
blocked, meaning that nobody can register them, or sometimes that
nobody other than the same registrant can register them.
Parallel NS: Multiple names in a bundle are provisioned in the TLD
with identical NS records, so they all are handled by the same
name servers.
DNAME: The DNAME [RFC6672] DNS record creates a shadow tree of DNS
records, roughly as though there were a CNAME in the shadow tree
pointing to each name in the target tree. DNAMEs have been used
both as second-level names, to provide resolution for several
names in a bundle, and as first-level names, to provide resolution
for every name under a TLD.
3. Base documents
ICANN has published a variety of documents on variant management.
The most important are the "Guidelines for the Implementation of
Internationalized Domain Names" issued in Version 1.0 [G1] and
Version 3.0 [G3].
TLDs are supposed to register an IDN practices document with IANA for
each language in which the TLD accepts IDN registrations, to be
entered in an IANA registry [IANAIDN]. The practices document lists
the Unicode characters allowed in names in the language, which
characters are considered equivalent, and which of an equivalent
group is preferred. Some TLDs have been more diligent than others at
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keeping the registry up to date.
Some of the ICANN agreements with each TLD [ICANNAGREE] describe the
TLD's IDN practices, but most don't.
4. Domain practices
The .AERO TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
The .ASIA domain accepts registrations in many Asian languages. They
have IANA tables for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. The IANA tables
refer to their CJK IDN policies [ASIACJK], which say that applied-for
and preferred IDN variants are "active and included in the zone." No
IDN publication mechanism is described in the documentation, but from
inspection of the zonefile, it is clear that the zone is using
parallel NS for variants.
ICANN gave the registry (Neustar) non-specific permission to register
in a letter in 2004 [TWOMEY04A]. The IDN rules were apparently
discussed with ICANN, but not defined; see Appendix 9 of the registry
agreement [ICANNBIZ9].
They have about a dozen IANA tables. No IDN publication mechanism is
described, but from inspection it appears that variants are blocked.
The IDN rules are described in Appendix S Part VII.2 [ICANNCATS] of
the ICANN agreement. "Registry will take a very cautious approach in
its IDN offerings. IDNs will be bundled with the equivalent ASCII
domains." The only language is Catalan. No IDN publication
mechanism is described.
Bundles consist of names with accented and unaccented vowels, and
"ll" and the Catalan letter written as two L's with a dot in between.
When a registrant registers an IDN, the registry also includes the
ASCII version. From inspection of the zonefile, the ASCII version is
provisioned with NS, and the IDN is a DNAME pointing to the ASCII
version.
ICANN and Verisign have extensive correspondence about IDNs and
variants, at including letters from Ben Turner [TURNER03] and Ed
Lewis [LEWIS03].
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The IANA registry has tables for several dozen languages, including
archaic languages such as hieroglyphics and Aramaic. Verisign
publishes documents describing Scripts and Languages [VRSNLANG],
Character Variants [VRSNCHAR], Registration Rules [VRSNRULES], and
additional registration logic [VRSNADDL].
In Chinese, variants are blocked (see [VRSNADDL].) In other languages
there appears to be no bundling or blocking.
The .COOP TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
The IANA registry has tables for Danish, Hungarian, Lithuanian,
Latvian, and Swedish from 2005. The domain also has names in Greek,
Russian, Arabic, and other languages but no IANA tables.
The registry agreement Appendix 9 [ICANNINFO9] refers to a 2003
letter from Paul Twomey [TWOMEY03] that refers to blocking variants.
The .JOBS TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
The zone file has about 22,000 IDNs. The domain has no tables at
IANA. The registry agreement Appendix S [ICANNMOBIS] says that IDNs
are provisioned according to [G1].
The zone file has many of IDNs, spot checks find that many lame or
dead. A 2004 letter from Paul Twomey [TWOMEY04] refers to [G1].
The registry has a detailed policy page [MUSEUMIDN]. IDNs are
accepted in Latin and Hebrew scripts, with plans for Arabic, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, and Greek. They do no bundling or
blocking, but names that may be confusable due to visual similarity
are not allowed, apparently determined by manual inspection, which is
practical due to the very small size of the domain.
The .NAME domain is now owned by Verisign, and has same long list of
scripts as .COM and .NET. http://www.icann.org/correspondence/
twomey-to-rasmussen-15aug04.pdf refers to Appendix K of the
agreement, but appendices are numbered. Appendix 11 [ICANNNAME11] is
about restrictions on names, but says nothing about IDNs. The Letter
above refers to [G1].
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The domain is managed the same as .COM.
A 2003 letter from Paul Twomey [TWOMEY03A] refers to [G1]. The
registry has a list of IDN languages [PIRIDN], all written in Latin
script. The practices for some but not all are registered with IANA,
Since none of the languages do bundling, there is presumably no
blocking.
The .POST TLD appears to have no registrations at all yet.
The .PRO TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
The zone has many IDNs. It is probably operating according to a 2004
letter from Paul Twomey [TWOMEY04A] which didn not mention specific
TLDs. Its policy page [TELPOLICY] has links to IDN practices for 17
languages, all but one of which are registered with IANA. None of
the Latin scripts do bundling or blocking. The Japanese practices
say that variants are blocked. The Chinese table says:
Therefore, in addition to the blocking mechanism, bundling is also
implemented for the Chinese language IDNs. When registering a
Chinese language IDN (primary domain name) up to two additional
variant domain names will be automatically registered. The first
variant will consist entirely of simplified Chinese characters
that correspond to those comprising the primary domain name. The
second variant will consist exclusively of traditional Chinese
characters that correspond to those comprising the primary domain
name.
The primary domain name together with the requested variants
constitutes a bundle on which all operations are atomic. For
example, if the registrant adds a name server to the primary
domain name, all names in the bundle will be associated with that
new name server.
The zone has no DNAME records, so the second paragraph strongly
suggests parallel NS.
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The .TEL TLD, intended as an online directory, does not allow
registrants to enter arbitrary RR's in the zone. Nearly all names
have NS records pointing to Telnic's own name servers. The A records
all point to Telnic's own web server that shows directory
information, A NAPTR record provides the telephone number for
registrants for whom they have one. Users can only directly
provision MX records. Except that there are 16 domains, none IDNs,
that point to random other name servers and mostly appear to be
parked.
The .TRAVEL TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
The .XXX TLD has no IDNs, and no rules or practices for them.
5. Note about the references
Many of the references may appear to be incomplete. This is due to
bugs in the current version of XML2RFC. Consult the XML for full
names and URLs.
6. References
[ASIACJK] ".ASIA CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) IDN Policies", May
2011.
[G1] "Guidelines for the Implementation of Internationalized
Domain Names, Version 1.0", June 2003.
[G3] "Guidelines for the Implementation of Internationalized
Domain Names, Version 3.0", Sept 2011.
[IANAIDN] "Repository of IDN Practices", .
[ICANNAGREE]
"ICANN Registry agreements", .
[ICANNBIZ9]
"Appendix 9 of ICANN .BIZ Registry agreement", Dec 2006.
[ICANNCATS]
"Appendix S of ICANN .CAT Registry agreement", Mar 2006.
[ICANNINFO9]
"Appendix 9 of ICANN .INFO Registry agreement", Dec 2006.
[ICANNMOBIS]
"Appendix S of ICANN .MOBI Registry agreement", Nov 2005.
[ICANNNAME11]
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"Appendix 11 of ICANN .NAME Registry agreement", Mar 2011.
[LEWIS03] Lewis, E., "Letter from Ed Lewis to Paul Twomey", Oct
2003.
[MUSEUMIDN]
"Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in .museum -
Policies and terms of use", Jan 2009.
[PIRIDN] "Expanding Multi-Lingual Options in Domain Name
Versatility", Jan 2009.
[RFC1034] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and facilities",
STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.
[RFC1035] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.
[RFC5890] Klensin, J., "Internationalized Domain Names for
Applications (IDNA): Definitions and Document Framework",
RFC 5890, August 2010.
[RFC6672] Rose, S. and W. Wijngaards, "DNAME Redirection in the
DNS", RFC 6672, June 2012.
[TELPOLICY]
".TEL Policies", Jan 2009.
[TURNER03]
Turner, B., "Letter from Ben Turner to Paul Twomey", Nov
2003.
[TWOMEY03A]
Twomey, P., "Letter from Paul Twomey to Edward Viltz", Oct
2003.
[TWOMEY03]
Twomey, P., "Letter from Paul Twomey to Ram Mohan", Aug
2003.
[TWOMEY04A]
Twomey, P., "Letter from Paul Twomey to Richard Tindal",
July 2004.
[TWOMEY04B]
Twomey, P., "Letter from Paul Twomey to Geir Rasmussen",
Aug 2004.
[TWOMEY04]
Twomey, P., "Letter from Paul Twomey to Cary Karp", Jan
2004.
[VRSNADDL]
"Additional Logic", .
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[VRSNCHAR]
"Character Variants", .
[VRSNLANG]
"Scripts and Languages", .
[VRSNRULES]
"Registration Rules", .
Authors' Addresses
John Levine
Taughannock Networks
PO Box 727
Trumansburg, NY 14886
Phone: +1 831 480 2300
Email: standards@taugh.com
URI: http://jl.ly
Paul Hoffman
VPN Consortium
Email: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org>
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