IANA Transition Slipping; Technical Communities Ask For Phases

Preparations for transitioning the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) – with core elements of the global internet – out of United States oversight do not appear to on track for the 30 September deadline. As a result, cautious pressure is mounting from the internet protocol numbers administration and protocol standardisation bodies to consider at least a “phased implementation” of the transition.

On the eve of the 53rd meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Buenos Aires, the IANA stewardship coordination group (ICG) tried to readjust the timeline for the reform of IANA function oversight.

The pace of the transitioning has been slowed down mainly by ongoing discussions about how to structure the accountability of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the private self-governance body for domain names. ICANN is the current IANA operator under contract with the US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

NTIA in March 2014 announced it was prepared to hand over IANA oversight to community oversight instead of renewing its IANA contract with ICANN which runs until September 30. The timelines of one of two working groups preparing ICANN’s proposal now extend well into October, due also to public comment periods.

Even for the ICG itself, ICG Chair Alissa Cooper said it is “not clear that we could get the proposal to NTIA before September 30, let alone that they could approve it before September 30.”

Paul Wilson, director general at APNIC, the regional IP address registry for the Asia/Pacific, came up with a tentative proposal to consider having the necessary renewal of the current IANA contract between ICANN and the NTIA limited to the names function.

“It could be renewed in a way that only continued to apply to the remaining set of IANA functions, names,” he said. Instead of giving up on the deadline, “by implementing two out of three, we are able to achieve something for the community, something that demonstrates progress.”

Yet there is an agreement in the group so far to send only one proposal to NTIA, which also has called for such a single proposal.

During the ICANN week, the ICG will meet with the members of the two working groups who prepare the domain name community proposal for ICANN and make an attempt to iron out inconsistencies between proposals so far.

A concern for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), according to IETF Chair Jari Arkko, is a proposal to hand over the rights to the IANA trademark to the still-to-be set up “Post-Transition IANA” (PTI). The claim for PTI challenges the earlier proposal agreed by the protocol and naming communities to have the IANA trademark and domain name administered by the IETF Trust.

The reason the IETF had a problem with the exclusive right for the PTI mentioned in the names transition proposal is that the term IANA was included in several thousand Requests for Comments – the IETF standard documents – going back as far as the year 1990.

The ICG during the ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires expects to prepare another update to its timeline and a send a status report to the NTIA which has asked to be informed about progress and time the group expects it will need to finalise the transition proposal.

Additional topics in Buenos Aires besides the IANA transition include updates on the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs, like .com). This includes intensive discussions by governments over safeguard measures for individual TLD applications as well as a slot to discuss potential adjustments of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for disputes involving international organisations.

Also various security aspects are receiving growing attention, and the Governmental Advisory Group (GAC)’s newly established Public Safety Working Group will meet in Buenos Aires for the first time. The ICANN Board also has to prepare for another CEO search, as ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé has announced he will not extend his contract beyond March 2016.