[council] IDN Laboratory Testing Progress

[GNSO.SECRETARIAT@GNSO.ICANN.ORG]

[To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org
[To: liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org; council[at]gnso.icann.org]

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-19oct06.htm
IDN Laboratory Testing Progress

19 October 2006

ICANN continues to make progress toward laboratory testing for strings 
corresponding to internationalized top level labels (IDNs). The purpose 
of the laboratory tests were described during the ICANN meeting in 
Morocco held earlier this year ICANN and they are being designed and 
conducted under the guidance of the ICANN Presidents Advisory Committee 
for IDNs.

ICANN is very pleased to be able to announce the engagement of 
Autonomica AB to develop, conduct and report the results of the 
laboratory test. The test will include insertion of a Punycode string 
into the "root" as replicated in a laboratory environment. The purpose 
of these tests is to clarify and document any issues that may arise, if 
any, when inserting puny-code strings representing top level domains 
into the root zone.

Among ICANN's core values is the technical security and stability of the 
DNS. Therefore, laboratory technical tests of the viability of 
internationalized top level levels and the effect they may have on the 
DNS is being done before insertion of such labels in the root servers. 
After the performance of the laboratory test and after appropriate 
consultation with interested entities, a live root test will be 
initiated. The live root test process and making participation publicly 
available is being discussed by the President's Advisory Committee for 
IDNs. The committee will publish a recommendation in this regard as soon 
as it is finalized. It is important to note that participation in these 
tests are not mandatory nor will participation create a favouable 
position when IDN TLDs are designated.

As soon as the test design and framework has been developed by 
Autonomica, it will be made available online at 
http://www.icann.org/topics/idn/. ICANN welcomes replications of the 
test and will post any results online for public review and for 
comparison opportunities.

The agreement between ICANN and Autonomica plans to complete the 
laboratory test and report the results by the ICANN meeting in Sao 
Paolo. After that reporting a determination will be made in a 
collaborative manner as to whether it is considered technically 
appropriate to initiate a test of punycode string directly in the root zone.

The criteria and list of the strings that will be used for the testing 
purposes is being worked on by a sub-group of the Presidents Advisory 
Committee for IDNs and the paper describing this initiative will be 
published shortly.

For more IDN relevant information and announcements please see 
http://www.icann.org/topics/idn.

About Autonomica AB: Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Autonomica provides 
technical support in the fields of the Domain Name System, Electronic 
Mail, and Internet Exchange Point Technologies. The firm's staff often 
provide advice to and works with the Internet Engineering Task Force and 
the Internet Architecture Board.


-- 
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org