Skip to main content

ICANN68 Look Back

Missed the meeting or want to catch up on sessions you didn’t get to attend? Go to the ICANN68 meeting site to browse the schedule, view transcripts, watch video recordings, listen to audio recordings, and more.

Visit the ICANN68 Meeting

Quicklinks

Blog Posts

Using All the Tools in the Toolbox for Meaningful Engagement

Status of ICANN org’s Human Rights Impact Assessment Recommendations Implementation

Domain Name System Security Facilitation Initiative Technical Study Group Begins Its Work

BROWSE ALL BLOG POSTS

News and Announcements

Using All the Tools in the Toolbox for Meaningful Engagement

Thumb computer screen publication calendar and video icon sm 01 icannorg 492x279

Sally Costerton, Sr. Advisor to the President & SVP, Global Stakeholder Engagement outlines some of the improvements ICANN has made with tools and resources to continue to effectively engage and support the ICANN community in the work that needs to be done. Click on the title above for more information.

ICANN68 GAC Communiqué Now Available

Thumb gac communique 01 icannorg 492x279

The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued its GAC Communiqué – ICANN68 Virtual Policy Forum. Click on the title above to read more.

First ICANN Managed Root Server Instance Installed in Palau

Thumb server

The installation of the first Palau instance is a joint effort between ICANN and the Palau National Communications Corporation (PNCC), further enhancing the Internet experience for Palau Internet users. Click the title above to read more.

ICANN Announces NextGen@ICANN69 Participants

Thumb icann69

ICANN has announced the individuals selected to participate in the NextGen@ICANN program for ICANN69 from 17-22 October 2020. All NextGen@ICANN program activities for ICANN69 will be held virtually. Click the title above to read more.

View all

A note about our terms of service:

We have updated our electronic terms of service to provide greater transparency and align with laws applicable to us. Learn more.

This site uses cookies to deliver an efficient user experience and to help us see how the site is used. Learn more.OK

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."