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IANA Transition

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Background

On 14 March 2014, the United States government announced its intention to transition its role and responsibilities with regards to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The IANA functions have historically included:

  • The coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters;
  • The administration of certain responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management;
  • The allocation of Internet numbering resources;
  • Other services related to the management of .ARPA and .INT top-level domains.

To learn more about the IANA functions and the transition process, we suggest you start with:

UPDATES:

March 2016 - The NTIA receives the combined IANA Stewardship Transition package from ICANN.

July 2015 - With the work of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) to draft a proposal drawing to a close in July 2015, we published this document:

September 2015 - As part of the public comment period on the ICG proposal, we submitted these comments:

October 2015 - With ICANN 54 underway in Dublin, our President and CEO Kathy Brown wrote about the current status of discussions.

HISTORY

Since 1999 the IANA functions have been contracted to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) by the US National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA). The NTIA has retained an oversight component with regard to the management of the Internet's DNS root zone and is now seeking to transition that responsibility to the global multistakeholder community. 

NTIA's announcement on 14 March 2014 outlines the conditions under which a transfer can occur and called upon ICANN to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal for this transition.  NTIA asked ICANN work collaboratively with the directly affected parties, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), top level domain name operators, VeriSign, and other interested global stakeholders.

Given that the NTIA Statement identified the Internet Society as one of the parties that were expected to contribute to the process, ISOC has elected:

  • Internet Society Board of Trustees member Narelle Clark; and
  • Internet Hall of Fame inductee Demi Getscko

as its representatives to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).

More information about the current activities and transition status can be found at:

 

VIEW OUR WEBINAR

In early 2015, the Internet Society hosted a webinar on the progress of the IANA transition. 

You can listen to it here:

 You can watch it here: