The
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (
IANA) is the entity that oversees global
IP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
allocation,
autonomous systemWithin the Internet, an Autonomous System is a collection of connected Internet Protocol routing prefixes under the control of one or more network operators that presents a common, clearly defined routing policy to the Internet....
number allocation,
root zoneA DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS, deployed for the Internet. Ultimate authority over the DNS root zone rests with the US Department of Commerce NTIA...
management in the
Domain Name SystemThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
(DNS),
media typesAn Internet media type, originally called a MIME type after MIME and sometimes a Content-type after the name of a header in several protocols whose value is such a type, is a two-part identifier for file formats on the Internet.The identifiers were originally defined in RFC 2046 for use in email...
, and other
Internet ProtocolThe Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
-related symbols and numbers. IANA is a department operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, also known as ICANN.
Prior to the establishment of ICANN for this purpose, IANA was administered primarily by
Jon PostelJonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
at the
Information Sciences InstituteThe Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
(ISI) of the
University of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
(USC), under a contract USC/ISI had with the
United States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, until ICANN was created to assume the responsibility under a
United States Department of CommerceThe United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
contract.
Responsibilities
IANA is broadly responsible for the allocation of globally unique names and numbers that are used in Internet protocols that are published as
RFCIn computer network engineering, a Request for Comments is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.Through the Internet Society, engineers and...
documents. These documents describe methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. IANA also maintains a close liaison with the
Internet Engineering Task ForceThe Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
(IETF) and RFC Editorial team in fulfilling this function.
In the case of the two major Internet
namespaceIn general, a namespace is a container that provides context for the identifiers it holds, and allows the disambiguation of homonym identifiers residing in different namespaces....
s, namely
IP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
es and domain names, extra administrative policy and delegation to subordinate administrations is required because of the multi-layered distributed use of these resources.
IP addresses
IANA delegates allocations of
IP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
blocks to
Regional Internet RegistriesA regional Internet registry is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a particular region of the world...
(RIRs). Each RIR allocates addresses for a different area of the world. Collectively the RIRs have created the Number Resource Organization formed as a body to represent their collective interests and ensure that policy statements are coordinated globally.
The RIRs divide their allocated
address poolIn the context of the Internet addressing structure, an address pool is a set of Internet Protocol addresses available at any level in the IP address allocation hierarchy. At the top level, the IP address pool is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority...
s into smaller blocks and delegate them in their respective operating regions to Internet service providers and other organizations. Since the introduction of the CIDR system, IANA typically allocates address space in the size of /8 prefix blocks for
IPv4Internet Protocol version 4 is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet Protocol and the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed. Together with IPv6, it is at the core of standards-based internetworking methods of the Internet...
and /12 prefix blocks from the 2000::/3
IPv6Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...
block to requesting regional registries as needed.
Domain names
IANA administers the data in the
root nameserverA root name server is a name server for the Domain Name System's root zone. It directly answers requests for records in the root zone and answers other requests returning a list of the designated authoritative name servers for the appropriate top-level domain...
s, which form the top of the hierarchical DNS tree. This task involves liaising with
top-level domainA top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
operators, the root nameserver operators, and ICANN's policy making apparatus.
ICANN also operates the
.intThe domain name int is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word international, characterizing its use for world-wide purposes....
registry for international treaty organizations, the
.arpaThe domain name arpa is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is used exclusively for technical infrastructure purposes...
zone for Internet infrastructure purposes, including reverse DNS service, and other critical zones such as root-servers.
Protocol parameters
IANA administers many parameters of IETF protocols. Examples include the names of
Uniform Resource IdentifierIn computing, a uniform resource identifier is a string of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network using specific protocols...
(URI) schemes and
character encodingA character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
s recommended for use on the Internet. This task is undertaken under the oversight of the
Internet Architecture BoardThe Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
, and the agreement governing the work is published in RFC 2860.
Timezone database
After the
Astrolabe, Inc. v. Olson et al. lawsuit and the tz database's (or Timezone database, sometimes also referred to as the Olson database after its creator) eventual shutdown, IANA resumed operation of the database on October 16, 2011. The tz database holds the timezone differences and rules for the various regions of the world and allows this information to be mirrored and used by computers and other electronic devices to keep accurate track of timezones through the Internet.
Oversight
IANA is managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under contract to the
United States Department of CommerceThe United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
(DOC). The Department of Commerce also provides an ongoing oversight function, whereby it verifies additions and changes made in the DNS root zone to ensure IANA complies with its policies.
On January 28, 2003 the Department of Commerce, via the Acquisition and Grants Office of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
, issued a notice of intent to grant ICANN the IANA contract for three more years. It invited alternative offerors to submit in writing a detailed response on how they could meet the requirements themselves. Such responses were to be received no later than 10 days following publication of the invitation and the decision on whether to open the "tender" to competition was to remain solely within the discretion of the government.
In August 2006, the U.S. Department of Commerce extended its IANA contract with ICANN by an additional five years, subject to annual renewals.
Since ICANN is managing a worldwide resource, but being controlled by U.S. interests, a number of proposals have been brought forward to decouple the IANA function from ICANN. However, some believe that it would be impractical to change the current control structure without risking fracturing the Internet.
History
IANA was established informally as a reference to various technical functions for the
ARPANETThe Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
, that
Jon PostelJonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
and
Joyce K. ReynoldsJoyce K. Reynolds is a computer scientist.Reynolds holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California, United States. She has been active in the development of the protocols underlying the Internet...
performed at UCLA and at the
University of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's
Information Sciences InstituteThe Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
.
On March 26, 1972,
Vint CerfVinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
and
Jon PostelJonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
at UCLA called for establishing a socket number catalog in
RFC 322. Network administrators were asked to submit a note or place a phone call, "
describing the function and socket numbers of network service programs at each HOST". This catalog was subsequently published as
RFC 433 in December 1972. In it Postel first proposed a registry of assignments of port numbers to network services, calling himself the
czar of socket numbers.
The first reference to the name "IANA" in the RFC series is in
RFC 1060, published in 1990 by Postel and Reynolds at USC-ISI, but the function, and the term, was well established long before that;
RFC 1174 says that "Throughout its entire history, the Internet system has employed a central Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)...", and RFC 1060 lists a long series of earlier editions of itself, starting with RFC 349.
In 1995, the
National Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
authorized
Network SolutionsNetwork Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
to assess domain name registrants a $50 fee per year for the first two years, 30 percent of which was to be deposited in the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund (IIF), a fund to be used for the preservation and enhancement of the intellectual infrastructure of the Internet. There was widespread dissatisfaction with this concentration of power (and money) in one company, and people looked to IANA for a solution. Postel wrote up a draft on IANA and the creation of new top level domains. He was trying to institutionalize IANA. In retrospect, this would have been valuable, since he unexpectedly died about two years later.
In January 1998, Postel was threatened by US Presidential science advisor
Ira MagazinerIra Magaziner was born in New York City, New York, USA. After being a student activist and business consultant, Magaziner became the senior advisor for policy development for President Clinton, especially as chief healthcare policy advisor. He now serves as chairman of the William J...
with the statement "You'll never work on the Internet again" after Postel collaborated with root server operators to reduce Network Solutions' influence, which had undermined IANA's authority over the root zone. Regaining control of the root from Network Solutions would have clarified his authority to create new top-level domains as a step to resolving the DNS Wars, but he ended his effort after Magaziner's threat, and died not long after.
Jon PostelJonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
managed the IANA function from its inception on the
ARPANETThe Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
until his death in October 1998. By his almost 30 years of "selfless service", Postel created his de facto authority to manage key parts of the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
infrastructure. After his death,
Joyce K. ReynoldsJoyce K. Reynolds is a computer scientist.Reynolds holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California, United States. She has been active in the development of the protocols underlying the Internet...
, who had worked with him for many years, managed the transition of the IANA function to ICANN.
Starting in 1988, IANA was funded by the U.S. government under a contract between the
Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military...
and the
Information Sciences InstituteThe Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
. This contract expired in April 1997, but was extended to preserve IANA.
- On December 24, 1998, USC entered into a transition agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
, transferring the IANA function to ICANN, effective January 1, 1999, thus making IANA an operating unit of ICANNThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
.
- On February 8, 2000, the Department of Commerce entered into an agreement with ICANN to perform the IANA functions.
- In June 1999, at its Oslo meeting, IETF signed an agreement with ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
concerning the tasks that IANA would perform for the IETF; this is published as RFC 2860.
- In November 2003, Doug Barton was appointed IANA manager.
- In 2005, David Conrad was appointed as IANA manager.
- in 2010, Elise Gerich was appointed as IANA manager.
See also
- American Registry for Internet Numbers
The American Registry for Internet Numbers is the Regional Internet Registry for Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 address space and AS numbers. ARIN opened its doors for...
- Domain Name System
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
- Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
- Country code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
- Generic top-level domain
A generic top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet....
- Enterprise numbers
Private Enterprise Numbers are created and maintained by the Internet Assigned Number Authority in a public registry, including a publicly revealed email address and "contact name'. Any private enterprise may request, at no cost, a Private Enterprise Number to be assigned...
- Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
- List of information technology acronyms
- National Internet registry
A National Internet Registry is an organization under the umbrella of a Regional Internet Registry with the task of coordinating IP address allocations and other Internet resource management functions at a national level within a country or economic unit.NIRs operate primarily in the Asia Pacific...
- Registration authority
A registration authority or maintenance agency is a body given the responsibility of maintaining lists of codes under international standards and issuing new codes to those wishing to register them...
External links