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gTLD RDAP Profile

The ICANN organization worked with a discussion group of generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries and registrars to create a gTLD RDAP profile. The profile, which follows the requirements of the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data, aims to provide technical instructions to gTLD registries and registrars on how to implement an RDAP service in a consistent way.

The February-2019 version of the gTLD-RDAP profile (the current version) consists of two documents:

  1. RDAP Technical Implementation Guide that aims to provide technical instructions to gTLD registries and registrars on how to implement the RDAP service; and
  2. RDAP Response Profile that intends to map current policy requirements to the RDAP implementation with flexibility to incorporate future policy changes with minimal reengineering.

ICANN org recommends gTLD registries and registrars to implement this February-2019 version of the gTLD RDAP profile in their RDAP service.

Previous Work

Previously, in July 2016, ICANN org had published a gTLD RDAP profile that included service level and reporting requirements. Subsequently, the gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group requested that ICANN org not to use that profile and instead work together on a modified plan to implement RDAP, which resulted, among other things, in the February-2019 version. The July-2016 version is obsolete.

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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."