Network Working Group                                           S. Woolf
Internet-Draft                                             March 5, 2018
Intended status: Informational
Expires: September 6, 2018


  Some Considerations on the Use of Domain Names Outside of the Global
                       Public Domain Name System
                       draft-stw-whatsinaname-02

Abstract

   From time to time, networking protocols need to be able to name
   things used within the protocol, and resolve the names created or
   referenced.  It's common for protocol designers to attempt to use
   domain names as the starting point for their systems of names, and
   the DNS protocol as the starting point for name resolution.  Such re-
   use of DNS naming and resolution conventions can cause issues if not
   carefully defined and handled, as applications and infrastructure in
   the modern Internet tend to assume that a "domain name" is an
   identifier that follows certain composition and allocation rules and
   is to be resolved by DNS protocol in the global default scope.

   This document acknowledges this class of extensions to the shared
   domain namespace and considers a framework for the properties a
   naming and resolution convention should have in the internet protocol
   environment, including the avoidance of collision with other uses of
   the namespace.  Depending to the answers to the suggested questions,
   the answer may be that domain names will not meet the constraints at
   hand.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 6, 2018.




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Copyright Notice

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  How We Got Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  Basics of Domain Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Implicit Context  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Some Questions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Framework: what are the necessary pieces? . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Some Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.1.  Policy: The IETF and the Public DNS . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.2.  Operations: the Resolution Environment  . . . . . . . . .  12
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   10. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

1.  Introduction

   From time to time, networking protocols need to be able to name
   things used within the protocol, and resolve the names created or
   referenced.  Such identifiers may also need to be persistent in time,
   across administrative and operational realms, or other
   transformations.  Necessary operations tend to include creating,
   modifying, and deleting names, and accessing values and relationships
   that correspond to them.

   It's common for protocol designers in this predicament to attempt to
   use domain names as the starting point for their systems of names,
   and the DNS as the starting point for name resolution.  This is
   completely understandable-- domain names, and DNS resolution, are




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   well-established in both the expectations of network users and
   developers, and well-supported by fielded software.

   However, there are some risks when the protocol designer attempts to
   re-use domain names and DNS, even (or especially) with modifications,
   to support a specific use case or protocol design or deployment
   constraint.  These have been touched upon in several RFCs, and in the
   long history of struggles to keep evolving DNS itself and the use of
   domain names as new needs and constraints appear.  See in particular
   RFC 6055 ("IAB Thoughts on Encodings for Internationalized Domain
   Names"), RFC 6950 ("Architectural Considerations on Application
   Features in the DNS"), and RFC 6943 ("Issues in Identifier Comparison
   for Security Purposes").

   Most recently, some of these questions have become prominent in the
   course of requests for new entries in the special use names registry
   as established by RFC 6761 ("Special Use Domain Names").  The topic
   raises contention in a number of areas, including risks of collision
   between different authorities and different uses of names within the
   abstract domain namespace, which have been considered in the DNSOP WG
   over the last few years and are cataloged in RFC 8244 ("Special-Use
   Domain Names Problem Statement") at greater length than this document
   will do.

   This document deals principally with the questions a protocol
   designer or software developer should ask themselves about what
   behavior they want from the names they use in the context of a new
   protocol or scope for names.  It also provides a basic framework for
   describing desired interactions for a naming and resolution context
   as part of a protocol design.

   This approach is admittedly somewhat "DNS-centric," in that it's
   attempting to address the default assumption that domain names and
   DNS-like semantics are desirable or even necessarily acceptable for
   new naming needs.  Depending to the answers to these questions, the
   designer may find that domain names will not meet the constraints at
   hand.  For a different, and sometimes more comprehensive, view on
   some of the accumulated stresses on the DNS design, see also RFC 8324
   ("DNS Privacy, Authorization, Special Uses, Encoding, Characters,
   Matching, and Root Structure: Time for Another Look?")

   This discussion also owes a great deal to the RFCs already mentioned,
   especially RFC 6950, which "provides guidance to application
   designers and application protocol designers looking to use the DNS
   to support features in their applications."  The consideration there
   of how to structure domain names and associated data is invaluable.
   This document takes a step in a different direction, however, in
   attempting to separate domain names from DNS protocol in the analysis



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   of new protocol needs.  RFC 6950 primarily assumes that the
   namespace, the database of instantiated names, and the protocol for
   lookup and retrieval are all of a piece, while it's become the case
   recently that people are attempting to separate the namespace from
   specific resolution protocol or even a specific instance of a
   database of names (namely, the global public Internet DNS), with
   varying degrees of drama and varying degrees of success.

   Recommended reading includes draft-lewis-domain-names.txt, [RFC1034],
   [RFC2826], [RFC2860], [RFC6950], [RFC6055], [RFC6943], [RFC6761],
   [RFC8244] and [RFC8324]

2.  How We Got Here

   The Domain Name System is a critical part of the global internet
   infrastructure.  From the protocol standards perspective, it's
   comprised of a number of standards-track documents and BCPs, but
   roughly speaking, it includes a description of naming syntax and
   semantics, some operational rules for constructing a globally shared
   database of such names, and a specification of a wire protocol for
   maintaining, querying, and generating responses from that database.
   It has always been the case that all three need to be maintained in a
   coordinated fashion for the DNS to function properly and the DNS
   database to remain useful.

   In an even larger sense, however, domain names and the DNS protocol
   provide one answer to some fundamental questions for any computer
   system: naming and the manipulation of names are fundamental topics
   in computer science.  Thus, DNS names and the DNS protocol exist as a
   common and highly useful solution to the basic need for naming
   "stuff" in certain applications and activities on the internet.  We
   do occasionally have to notice, however, that they're not the final
   and complete solutions-- they have weaknesses-- even as they've
   proven so useful they tend to be re-used where possible.

2.1.  Basics of Domain Names

   Domain names considerably predate the Domain Name System.  The set of
   domain names is, however, a superset of the DNS namespace, and the
   characteristics of the DNS namespace are inherited from it.  In
   particular, part of the abstraction that describes domain names is a
   tree with an identified root and identified semantics for labeling
   nodes.

   The basic structure of the domain namespace is a tree, with a domain
   name as a list of nodes in the tree.  Such a tree must have a single
   root in order to maintain the uniqueness of each node.  In 2002, the
   IAB wrote [RFC2826] to clarify that the existence of this root is



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   inherent in the design of the DNS and requires coordination of
   changes to the root of the global namespace.  This remains true as
   far as the mathematics goes, but is not as simple as it sounds.  This
   abstract root domain isn't limited to names instantiated in the DNS
   namespace, accessible via the DNS protocol, but of both mathematical
   and operational necessity, includes them.

   For application and protocol designers, then, domain names come with
   desirable properties such as relatively straightforward structure and
   widespread conventions for interpretation (such as IDNA to
   internationalize a name in cases where human-friendliness is
   important).

   This apparent ease of use has been increased in recent years by the
   publication of RFC 6761, which specifies a registry of domain names
   for special uses.  In a case where a protocol uses domain names and a
   DNS-like protocol such as mDNS (see [RFC6762]), the registry marks a
   portion of the abstract domain name space as associated with that
   use.  This allows a protocol- or application-specific node or subtree
   to be associated with a location in the global domain namespace,
   offering a degee of assurance that such names are globally unique--
   also often a valuable property.

   However, there are also risks in this approach.  For all the useful
   properties that come with domain names, they can be tricky to use,
   and interoperation can be subtle.  There's no historically accepted
   definition of "domain name," and in some cases people use more
   restricted subsets of domain names such as host names with
   idiosyncratic limitations of their own.  There are security and
   interoperability risks in comparison of such identifiers (see RFC
   6943).  They allow people to think of domain name labels as "words"
   and other natural language analogs, but don't behave as people expect
   in such contexts.

   The situation is complicated by the fact that many applications have
   their own resolution engines, and parse any input that looks like a
   sequence of ASCII-string labels separated by dots as a "domain name,"
   with resolution to be requested of DNS by default.

2.2.  Implicit Context

   Both the usefulness and the limitations of domain names are tied to
   the characteristics that are consistent and well-known about them,
   but also to the characteristics that are not well-defined or explicit
   and may not be consistent.  The underlying complication is simply
   this: domain names are themselves identifiers, but they have no
   explicit scope or context.  Because of the way the modern Internet
   has evolved and the role of the DNS, the assumed context of a domain



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   name is the global DNS; if such a name occurs in most applications or
   inputs in the Internet, the default assumption is that it should be
   resolved in the default context of the DNS, which is usually global
   in scope and bootstraps the namespace, per the DNS protocol, by
   configuration of the default available DNS resolver with a public set
   of "root servers".

   Having a default resolution context-- a namespace rooted at a public,
   widely available set of servers, which can be discovered or
   configured as part of the DNS protocol-- is very convenient in the
   case that the intention is to use that public namespace according to
   the rules of the DNS protocol.  And indeed the public DNS is
   enormously useful in many, many ways.

   However, domain names are so useful that people also try to use them
   in other contexts as well:

      Local or non-public contexts, for which the resolution protocol is
      supposed to be DNS but the names are only intended to be
      resolvable within a specific set of users, systems, services, or
      network elements.

      Resolution protocol that is not DNS, in which the component labels
      may be intended to function as elements that are meaningful only
      to that protocol.  This includes attempts to use the domain name,
      or a label included in the domain name, as a protocol switch
      indicating the name is supposed to be used by applications that
      may also use domain name resolution in the DNS, but is not
      intended to be resolved by the DNS.

   Thus any choice to re-use DNS namespace, even without the DNS
   protocol for resolving names, requires some decisions to be made
   about namespace management and potential collisions or overlaps
   between DNS namespace and others.

3.  Terminology

   (Note: very much under construction; should be consistent with the
   cited RFCs to the degree possible.)

   The primary references for this section will be RFC 7719, RFC 8244,
   draft-lewis-domain-names, and RFC 1034; the primary elements probably
   include:

      domain name (and domain namespace)

      DNS name (and DNS namespace)




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      DNS global, distributed database as instantiation of DNS namespace

      root zone

      probably others....

4.  Some Questions

   This section will offer some questions that should be considered in
   analysis of a candidate naming scheme for a new or revised protocol.

   For the protocol designer who thinks they want to use domain names,
   RFC 6761 lists a set of questions to be answered for a special use
   name, discussing how users, DNS name registries, and DNS operators
   should treat such a namein order to maintain compatibility with the
   public DNS.  However, those questions largely leave undefined how to
   tell if a special use domain name is really what's required, or how
   to choose an appropriate string if it is, and don't touch at all on
   the underlying fundamentals of choosing a naming scheme in the first
   place.

   In general, it's important to discuss separately:

      * What behavior the protocol designer wants to occur around use of
      the name

      * What name format and composition rules the designer wants to use

   Some questions follow, not yet in any particular order, about how the
   protocol will use names; they start with the assumption that domain
   names may be suitable, but may lead to the conclusion that domain
   names won't solve the problem at hand:

   1.  Do you expect to use a non-DNS resolution protocol?  What is it?

   2.  Are all domain names legal for the protocol?  If not, how are
       they limited?

   3.  Do you expect to have a limited or qualified (non-global) scope?
       How are you specifying?

   4.  Do your names need to resolvable in the global public DNS?  Do
       they need to *not* be resolvable in the global public DNS?  Do
       you care about collisions with the global public DNS?  (It's
       quite generally the case that domain names that aren't intended
       to be resolved in the global public DNS nonetheless result in DNS
       queries, since the default context for a domain name in many,




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       many applications and generic resolution engines is in fact the
       global DNS.)

   5.  What happens to your application/protocol if names are ambiguous
       or resolvable with multiple protocols/scopes?  Do you assume a
       precedence or ordering of possible resolution methods?  Do you
       signal it explicitly?

   6.  How will names be created, allocated, de-allocated, and
       destroyed?  How long are they likely to persist?  What
       authorization are these activities likely to require?

   7.  Do names need to be authenticable? by what mechanism?

   8.  What are the security and privacy implications of name disclosure
       to those on the intended resolution or routing paths, or leakage
       to those outside?

   There are also some questions that arise, once a protocol has taken
   shape, in making a choice of what names are suitable.  If the choice
   is domain names, some analysis still needs to be done.  Of the
   extremely large set of possible domain names, the list of acceptable
   ones may be quite long, or quite short, depending on the constraints
   imposed by the protocol and the preferences of the protocol
   designers.

   Such questions include:

   1.  Will these names be human-visible?  What humans will see them?
       In normal operations, or only in geeky places like URLs or error
       messages?

   2.  If human-visible, do they need to be mnemonic or otherwise
       meaningful?

   3.  If names are to be human-visible, is internationalization a
       concern?  It's easy to pick a domain name string that seems to
       represent a "word" in a particular language, or an acronym or
       expression that's meaningful to the designers.  However,
       translation or otherwise extending the meaning of the string
       beyond that initial human context is usually far more challenging
       than it first appears.

   4.  Does the intended use require a single label domain name? ("a
       TLD")?  Why?  Since there is administrative overhead associated
       with the reservation of a single label in the domain namespace
       that may not apply elsewhere in the tree, it's useful to know




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       whether the protocol requires that the domain it uses be based at
       the root.

5.  Framework: what are the necessary pieces?

   Consideration of how to use names within a protocol leads quickly to
   a set of interrelated structures that have to be defined

   Again people tend to use DNS as a starting point, even though DNS as
   a protocol has not always been rigorously specified.  This has in
   many ways been an advantage, as it's allowed for the DNS to be
   extended in useful ways without being too restricted by structure.
   However, this also causes confusion when considering naming in a new
   protocol or environment: designers and developers who are used to
   working with DNS as implemented in the Internet may think of the
   system as a "blob," but it's probably useful to be able to separate:

      name construction rules and structure of namespace; for DNS, this
      includes character restrictions for a subset of domain names,
      hierarchical traversal of a tree as the mechanics of resolution

      server behavior, such as the different roles in name resolution of
      resolvers and authoritative servers

      wire protocol, including the specific interactions of query and
      response, any confidentiality or validation requirements, and any
      caching or required state maintenance

      name resolution context, which can be complex to manage because it
      largely lives outside of the protocol; a DNS server doesn't know
      whether its scope is global or local, because the effective scope
      of a DNS name is basically "who can query for it"

   Any or all of these attributes can be incompatible with the DNS
   protocol, if the designer is attempting to modify it in part (mDNS
   and .local names) or simply to re-use strings that look like domain
   names in an entirely different way (Tor and .onion names).  But doing
   this carelessly can result in ambiguity of resolution, leakage of
   names between resolution contexts, and other forms of pathlogical
   behavior.

6.  Some Guidelines

   Decades of experience with naming in computer programming and network
   protocols, and with the DNS and domain names in the internet, suggest
   a few observations that may be relevant for those looking for a
   suitable naming system and name resolution protocol for network
   applications and protocols.



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   As a starting point, most of them pertain to the challenges of using
   domain names and DNS conventions in internet protocols.

6.1.  Policy: The IETF and the Public DNS

   It seems to be increasingly common for protocol designers to denote a
   specific name resolution context for a domain in the domain namespace
   by using a special string, intended to be interpreted as a domain
   name and then used as a switch into another name resolution context.
   This is usually done by designating a string to be used as a "special
   use name" in the rightmost label in a domain name (presentation
   format) or the node closest to the root in a canonical FQDN.  This
   solution may or may not involve a delegation for the name in the
   global DNS, or an expectation that the string will not be delegated.
   (See questions above regarding the assumptions made in a new protocol
   about potential collision between domain names in its context and
   domain names in the public DNS or elsewhere.)

   As described above, this practice has some benefits.  It allows the
   protocol to take advantage of a number of existing features of the
   internet environment, including widespread availability of libraries
   for parsing domain names and a reasonable degree of comfort that
   names in a subtree of the domain namespace are globally unique.

   Potential users of reserved names tend to assume they need a human-
   readable, single-label domain name as the root of their namespace,
   and the process of designating such a reserved name is commonly
   referred to as obtaining or reserving "a TLD".  This assumption
   carries overhead, however, and this apparently simple solution hides
   some risks.  Problems with this approach include:

   1.  The IETF cannot allocate "a TLD"-- a single-label DNS name to be
       added to the root zone of the global public DNS.  That authority
       was delegated to ICANN in RFC 2860.  The IETF has no role in
       ICANN's decisions about what to put into the global public DNS
       root outside of the IETF's authority over the DNS protocol
       standard.  If the IETF were to ask for such an allocation, the
       mechanism would most likely be for the IAB to convey the request
       on behalf of the IETF, through its liaison to the ICANN Board of
       Directors for discussion of an appropriate process.  Because no
       such process exists, there is no way of knowing what it would
       require or how long it would take.  In recent years ICANN has
       dramatically expanded the number of names actually delegated in
       the root zone of the DNS namespace, with more expansion likely in
       the next few years, and since the rules for doing so are
       determined in a widely consultative public process, there are no
       guarantees about how the root zone might change in the future.




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   2.  The IETF also cannot reserve a root-level domain name for use
       with another protocol and offer assurance it will not be
       delegated in the DNS root zone by ICANN.  RFC 6761 specifies that
       reservation of a special use name is to be considered part of the
       DNS protocol, and IETF standards appear to have great weight in
       ICANN's policy deliberations, but an RFC is not the sole guidance
       ICANN must follow.  A request for such a commitment would be very
       much like a request for a root zone delegation to the IETF, as
       described above.

   However, if the "human-readable, single label" constraints are
   slightly relaxed, the situation becomes a bit more tractable.

   The policy problems associated with a single-label or root-level
   domain name are largely avoidable if a name elsewhere in the domain
   name hierarchy can be used instead.  In particular, for a domain name
   reserved in an IETF standard, the IETF can direct IANA to reserve it
   under the .arpa TLD; the approval of the IAB is required as the
   administrator of record for .arpa under RFC 3172.  This course of
   action is probably the simplest for a special use name that isn't
   required to be a TLD.  If the name needs to be delegated in the DNS
   (as in the case of home.arpa, which is to be delegated so clients can
   rely on certain behavior with locally-administered DNSSEC) the IAB
   can direct IANA accordingly.  The IAB can also commit that a domain
   name intended for resolution outside of the DNS under .arpa will not
   collide with a DNS name there.

   It's also been proposed that a special use name be set aside
   specifically as the root domain label for "domain names not to be
   used in the DNS" so that protocol designers and implementers can be
   reasonably sure that names used in that domain will not collide with
   names in the global DNS namespace.  However, this works only for
   names that are not required to be single labels.  (Reference alt-tld
   draft.)

   Another possible way to support ad hoc use of domain names while
   limiting the risk of name collision, in the DNS name space or the
   larger domain name space, would be to allow programmatic formation of
   random strings, such as the uses standardized for leading underscores
   or the prefix "xn--" for certain names in the DNS and other IETF
   protocols.  This might be poorly suited to situations where humans
   were expected to see and assign meaning to the names, but might
   simplify the use of domain names in a machine-to-machine protocol.








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6.2.  Operations: the Resolution Environment

   An IETF standard cannot force a name to be resolved in a given
   context, or not.  That authority belongs to the operators of name
   resolvers, for the DNS protocol and otherwise.  In the case of DNS,
   DNS operators determine what names can and can't be resolved with the
   DNS protocol by users sending queries to their resolvers.  In other
   words, having the IETF document in an RFC that a particular name is
   to be used for a particular purpose or protocol does not prevent
   network operators from using the same string as a name for other
   purposes or in other protocols.  An RFC is accepted as guidance by
   many DNS operators and implementers, however.

   RFC 6761 establishes a registry of names that the IETF has designated
   as "special use domain names."  An entry in this registry does not
   prevent local operators from configuring their environments as they
   see fit, including allowing such names to leak into the global DNS
   even if they're not supposed to (often considered a privacy risk).
   An entry in this registry discourages others from attempting to re-
   use the same domain names for other purposes or protocols,
   particularly within the set of IETF protocols.

   Concerns are frequently expressed that spurious queries into the DNS
   are to be avoided in order to avoid leakage of potentially sensitive
   information into the global internet, challenges in debugging
   provided by giving up control of where such queries go, and extra
   load on the DNS root name servers.  The first two concerns are well
   within the scope of operational concern.  However, root name servers
   are configured for abnormal environmental conditions, not normal
   loads, and are probably not a big concern here.  It's been the case
   for decades that most of the load on the root name servers is already
   spurious, in much the same way that load on email services is a
   concern only after one has considered that the vast bulk of email is
   spam.

   Human-readable names may pose problems that random strings do not,
   such as internationalization and intellectual property concerns.
   "Human readable" is not a constraint to be added casually to the
   choice of domain names for a protocol or application.

   Global uniqueness is also a constraint that comes at a higher price
   than may be obvious.  The contents of the DNS root zone are evolving
   on a relatively short time scale, and the number of protocols and
   applications that assume their choices of strings will meet with
   universal respect from potentially colliding other uses seemsto be
   growing.





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7.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no action for IANA.  It might, in fact, help make
   some possible future IANA actions unnecessary.

8.  Security Considerations

   This document poses no specific security considerations.  However, a
   poorly specified naming scheme at the base of a protocol poses
   significant security risks and should be avoided.

9.  Acknowledgements

   This draft is the outcome of many conversations over many months,
   including discussions in the DNSOP WG, the IAB, and the ICANN SSAC.
   Particular thanks to Ed Lewis, Wendy Seltzer, Ralph Droms, Lyman
   Chapin, Dave Thaler, Brian Trammell, Ted Lemon, David Conrad, Andrew
   Sullivan, Ted Hardie, John Klensin, and everyone who's expressed
   exasperation to the author with respect to the issues discussed here.

10.  Informative References

   [RFC1034]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and facilities",
              STD 13, RFC 1034, DOI 10.17487/RFC1034, November 1987,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1034>.

   [RFC1035]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
              specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, DOI 10.17487/RFC1035,
              November 1987, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1035>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC2826]  Internet Architecture Board, "IAB Technical Comment on the
              Unique DNS Root", RFC 2826, DOI 10.17487/RFC2826, May
              2000, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2826>.

   [RFC2860]  Carpenter, B., Baker, F., and M. Roberts, "Memorandum of
              Understanding Concerning the Technical Work of the
              Internet Assigned Numbers Authority", RFC 2860,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2860, June 2000,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2860>.







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Internet-Draft            Names Considerations                March 2018


   [RFC2870]  Bush, R., Karrenberg, D., Kosters, M., and R. Plzak, "Root
              Name Server Operational Requirements", RFC 2870,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2870, June 2000,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2870>.

   [RFC6055]  Thaler, D., Klensin, J., and S. Cheshire, "IAB Thoughts on
              Encodings for Internationalized Domain Names", RFC 6055,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6055, February 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6055>.

   [RFC6761]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "Special-Use Domain Names",
              RFC 6761, DOI 10.17487/RFC6761, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6761>.

   [RFC6762]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "Multicast DNS", RFC 6762,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6762, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6762>.

   [RFC6943]  Thaler, D., Ed., "Issues in Identifier Comparison for
              Security Purposes", RFC 6943, DOI 10.17487/RFC6943, May
              2013, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6943>.

   [RFC6950]  Peterson, J., Kolkman, O., Tschofenig, H., and B. Aboba,
              "Architectural Considerations on Application Features in
              the DNS", RFC 6950, DOI 10.17487/RFC6950, October 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6950>.

   [RFC7719]  Hoffman, P., Sullivan, A., and K. Fujiwara, "DNS
              Terminology", RFC 7719, DOI 10.17487/RFC7719, December
              2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7719>.

   [RFC8244]  Lemon, T., Droms, R., and W. Kumari, "Special-Use Domain
              Names Problem Statement", RFC 8244, DOI 10.17487/RFC8244,
              October 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8244>.

   [RFC8324]  Klensin, J., "DNS Privacy, Authorization, Special Uses,
              Encoding, Characters, Matching, and Root Structure: Time
              for Another Look?", RFC 8324, DOI 10.17487/RFC8324,
              February 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8324>.

Author's Address

   Suzanne Woolf
   39 Dodge St. #317
   Beverly, MA  01915
   USA

   Email: suzworldwide@gmail.com



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