Document expiration date: 13 May 2001                       L. Yeoh



          Top Level DNS Name for addressing by physical context
                     <draft-yeoh-tldhere-01.txt>



INTERNET-DRAFT

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Status of this Memo

     Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

     Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This document proposes the reservation of a special use TLD to allow a
more convenient addressing of devices by general physical location or
context.

. Introduction

As wireless networking and devices become more common there may be a need
for a convenient way to address hosts by physical location or context,
especially when the users themselves are using mobile or wearable devices.

A step towards this could be by reserving a special public use TLD (.here in
the examples ). Then this TLD can be independently hosted at various
locations, so that each resulting .here domain falls under the context of
that particular location. For a similar concept see RFC1918 [RFC1918].

. Example usage of .here TLD

As an example a user could obtain a list of registered devices in each
particular room or building by visiting https://all.here/ or perhaps just
https://here/. Other forms could include https://who.here/ and
https://what.here/

Say if the user wishes to control an air conditioner in a room, the user
could visit https://airconditioner.here/ for the control page. The user
could also "bookmark" popular settings such as
https://airconditioner.here/settemp?celsius=25 and use it from room to room
(assuming the air conditioners accept the same parameters).

Users of wearable devices could also address and access each other in a
similar manner after registering with the location - e.g.
https://lyeoh.here/sendobjectform or https://somebody.here/getobject?id=12345

Registration with an area could be done with DHCP [RFC2131] and dynamic DNS.

. Various Considerations

Users could get the wrong address depending on how the default domain
search is implemented - e.g. xxxx.here first, then xxxx.mydomain.com or
vice versa. Also, it should be assumed that parties controlling the
physical location can attempt to spoof or subvert communications.

Specifying .here. does not guarantee locality. Users may inadvertently or
intentionally access devices at a different physical location.

Third parties could reserve a similar TLD (e.g. .her.) in order to catch
typographical errors or unsuspecting users. As .her. and .he. may well
become future TLDs, perhaps a less vulnerable name than .here should be
used instead. A less elegant alternative is to also reserve the typos, but
the Gere's (e.g. Richard) of the world may protest.

The .here TLD has already been reserved by a member of the ORSC
(www.open-rsc.org). So to avoid conflict another TLD may have to be chosen,
giving due consideration to the various alternative root zones.
It seems that .local or .loc could be used but at risk of confusion with
 .localhost [RFC2606].

. References

 [RFC2606] D. Eastlake and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS Names",
RFC2606, June 1999.

 [RFC2131] R. Droms, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", March 1997.

 [RFC1918] Y. Rekhter, B. Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. J. de Groot,
 E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private Internets", February 1996.

. Author's Address

 Lincoln Yeoh
 20, Jalan 225
 46100 Petaling Jaya
 Malaysia

 Phone: +60 3 7874 3422
 EMail: lyeoh@pop.jaring.my


Document expiration date: 13 May 2001