The introduction of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) represents one of the most significant advancements in the history of the internet. A majority of internet users today have a first language other than English and many languages utilise characters not currently available within the DNS. IDNs provide these users with the capability to navigate the internet using their native language scripts.
Adrian Kinderis, CEO of AusRegistry International said, "I'm delighted that the AusRegistry International team have successfully implemented full IDN capability into our existing systems. There is an amazing amount of complexity involved in this project and our team have come up with innovative solutions without sacrificing the excellent performance standards that our systems have achieved over many years."
With dozens of scripts and hundreds of languages in use worldwide, there has been lengthy debate amongst global subject matter experts striving to create standard protocols that cater for this global linguistic diversity. The development and management of an IDN-enabled Domain Registry System therefore poses some of the most complex technical, linguistic and policy-related challenges to Top Level Domain (TLD) Regulators and Registry operators.
AusRegistry International has overcome these challenges and recently became one of the first organisations globally to complete the implementation of an IDN-enabled Registry System, based on the IDNA2008 draft standard. This implementation enables AusRegistry International to provide an industry-leading solution that allows high levels of configurability to address linguistic complexities, while maintaining the existing functionality, ease of management and high system performance standards currently utilised by AusRegistry International and their clients around the world.
Adrian Kinderis also stated that, "we see IDNs as one of the most important additions to the internet in its short history and we are proud to be the global leaders in developing our technologically superior Registry Software for use by non-English speakers around the world. This achievement further enhances AusRegistry International's reputation as a leader within the global Domain Name Registry Services marketplace."
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is implementing a Fast Track process to allow existing country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) managers to create IDN versions of their ccTLD, using local language scripts. ICANN is also expected to begin approving new IDN-based generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) in 2010. With full IDN capability now available in its Domain Name Registry System, AusRegistry International is now well-positioned to service both emerging market segments.
Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Registry Services, Multilinguism, Top-Level Domains
Comments
What folks are not realizing is that IPv6 is already here. Even if the ISPs don't deploy it, transition mechanism already do IPv6 end-to-end. Is only a matter of time for the ISPs to realize that they better start offering transition services (such as 6to4 and Teredo relays) from their own networks, instead of having their users using external relays, which means extra upstream bandwidth, and longer delays.
See my latest slides at the RIPE meeting plenary.
Do the math. Aggregation is not the biggest concern. IPv4 has 2^32 addresses, about 3 billion of which are usable for (unicast) Internet. A worst-case v4 global routing table will have a few million entries at most. Which is just a single order of magnitude more than we have today. Large carriers already have 3 times more routes inside their own network than the global Internet currently has.
Getting more addresses when we've run out is by far the biggest issue. Turning people away just because there's nothing more to be had is far worse than the threat of 'cores melting down'. In order to get the next billion people online we'll need to be able to assign them a number first.
First get the blocks of space you can route, then worry about how complex that might become - however complicated that may turn out to be. An adequate worldwide migration to v6 is about 5 years away if I'm very optimistic, 10 years being more likely. So aside from migrating to v6 we also need to worry about how we keep v4 running.