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This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (February 2008) |
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management for the Domain Name System (DNS) , media types, and other Internet protocol assignments. It is operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN.
Prior to the establishment of ICANN for this purpose, IANA was administered primarily by Jon Postel at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, under a contract USC/ISI had with the United States Department of Defense, until ICANN was made to assume the responsibility under a United States Department of Commerce contract.
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IANA's responsibilities
IANA is broadly responsible for the allocation of globally-unique names and numbers that are used in Internet protocols that are published as RFC 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 Force (IETF) and RFC Editorial team in fulfilling this function.
In the case of relatively high-profile subsets of protocol numbers – namely IP addresses and domain names – extra policy and handling is required and the allocation process is handled with more specific methods. This is to cope with the multi-layered administration of these resourcescitation needed.
IP addresses
IANA delegates local registrations of IP addresses to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Each RIR allocates addresses for a different area of the world. Collectively the RIRs form part of the Number Resource Organization formed as a body to represent their collective interests and ensure that policy statements are coordinated globally.
IANA delegates the allocation of IP addresses to RIRs in large blocks. The RIRs sub-allocate smaller blocks in their regions to Internet service providers and other organizations. Currently (as of 2008), IANA typically allocates address space in the size of '/8' prefix blocks (cf. CIDR) for IPv4 and from the 2000::/16 block for IPv6.
Domain names
IANA administers the data in the root nameservers, which form the top of the hierarchical DNS tree. This task involves liaising with top-level domain operators, the root nameserver operators, and ICANN's policy making apparatus.
ICANN also operates the .int registry for international treaty organizations, the .arpa zone for Internet infrastructure purposes, including reverse DNS service, and other critical zones such as root-servers.net.
Protocol parameters
IANA administers many parameters of IETF protocols. Examples include the names of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes and character encodings recommended for use on the Internet. This task is undertaken under the oversight of the Internet Architecture Board, and the agreement governing the work is published in RFC 2860.
Oversight
IANA is managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under contract to the United States Department of Commerce (DOC). The Department of Commerce also provides an ongoing oversight function, whereby it verifies additions and changes made in the root to ensure IANA complies with its policies.
On January 28, 2003 the DOC, via the Acquisition and Grants Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 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 DOC extended its IANA contract with ICANN for a further five years, subject to annual renewals.1
The relationship between ICANN, the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and the RIRs can best be described as highly politicalcitation needed, and there have been a number of proposals to decouple the IANA function from ICANN completely. However, it is widely believedwho? that it would be impractical to change the current control structure without risking fracturing the Internet.
History of IANA
IANA was established informally as a reference to various technical functions the Information Sciences Institute performed for the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency on the ARPANET.
The earliest reference to a registry function is probably RFC 322, published on March 26, 1972, which had Vint Cerf and Jon Postel establishing a "socket registry" - this registry was published in the RFC series as RFC 433 in December 1972.
The first reference to the name "IANA" in the RFC series is in RFC 1060, published in 1990, 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.
Jon Postel managed the IANA function from its inception until his death in October 1998. After his death, Joyce Reynolds, who had worked with him on IANA for many years, managed the transition of the IANA function to ICANN. Postel was given defacto authority to perform the IANA function, as he had always done it in his position at the Information Sciences Institute, under its DoD contract.
Starting in 1988, IANA was funded by the U.S. government under a contract between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Information Sciences Institute (ISI). This contract expired in April 1997, but was extended to preserve IANA's function.
- On December 24, 1998, USC entered into a transition agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN, transferring the IANA function to ICANN, effective January 1, 1999, thus making IANA an operating unit of ICANN.
- On February 8, 2000, the DoC entered into an agreement with ICANN to perform the IANA functions.
- In June 1999, at its Oslo meeting, IETF signed an agreement with ICANN on 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.