Skip to main content
Resources

ICANN Newsletter | Week ending 24 August 2012

News from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Announcements This Week

SSAC Report on Dotless Domains

24 August 2012 | This purpose of this public comment period is to bring to your attention of the SSAC's report on dotless domain [PDF, 183 KB] and to solicit your input on ICANN's implementation of the recommendations in this report.

IDN Variant TLD Program Update

23 August 2012 | The IDN Variant TLD Program has the following two updates: (I) Volunteer Team formed to assist the development of the Label Generation Ruleset Process for the Domain Name System (DNS) Root Zone, (II) Updated IDN Variant TLD Program posted.

New gTLD Update for Applicants

20 August 2012 | This week we have updates on several aspects of the new gTLD program that you should be aware of, and here they are: Metering/Batching Comments, Clarification Questions Pilot, Application Withdrawals, New gTLD Milestone Timeline, and Next Applicant Webinar.

Call for Expressions of Interest for 2012-2013 NomCom Chair

20 August 2012 | ICANN is immediately seeking expressions of interest for the 2012-2013 Nominating Committee (NomCom) Chair.

Update to DNS Risk Management Framework Consultant RFP – Responses to Questions Received

20 August 2012 | ICANN is providing the questions received and responses in this update so all parties interested in responding to the call for proposals may have the same information.

Upcoming Events

14 - 19 October 2012: 45th International Public ICANN Meeting - Toronto

About ICANN

ICANN Bylaws

Our bylaws are very important to us. They capture our mission of security, stability and accessibility, and compel the organization to be open and transparent. Learn more at www.ICANN.org.

Strategic Plan, 2012 - 2015

Adopted FY13 Operating Plan and Budget

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."