[registrars] Edmon Chung - IDN-over-EPP discussions

["Bhavin Turakhia" <bhavin.t@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

During our EPP sessions with the registries Edmon will be spending 5 minutes
going over IDN-over-EPP. Below is a short intro blurb

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As the global DNS applications and Top-Level Domain (TLD) registries begin
to adopt the IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names in Applications) standards
the registration of IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) at shared registry
systems (SRS) becomes an important element of operational functionality for
domain registries.

EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) was developed with the goal of
providing a standardized framework for facilitating transactions between a
registry and a registrar on an SRS.  Based on the IESG IDN Statement,
followed by the ICANN IDN Guidelines, there are certain additional elements
that would require provisioning for IDN registrations.

Even though the EPP standards provide a structured mechanism for registry
specific extensions, because IDN provisioning is likely going to be a common
offering for many domain registries, if each registry implements these IDN
elements with different approaches, the whole premise of the EPP to simplify
and contain customization requirements for registrars transacting with
registries may be largely reduced.  Currently, the industry is already
seeing largely diverging approaches by registries in the introduction of IDN
registrations.

Recently a BOF (Birds Of Feather) session was held at the IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force) meetings in Washington DC.  The session generated
ample interest however the result from the BOF suggested the following:

1. There is no clear demand from the industry (registrars and registries)
for a standardized framework for IDN-over-EPP

2. It is not clear whether the ICANN IDN Guidelines have given enough
direction for a common set additional of elements for IDN provisioning (i.e.
Is there a meaningful set of elements for IDN provisioning worth
standardizing?  Or is each registry going to have to use a different set of
elements due to policy differences?)

In order to move the efforts forward to establish a standard framework for
IDN-over-EPP, it is therefore important to obtain feedback, participation
and support from the registry and registrar community.  Furthermore, a
meaningful set of common additional elements for IDN provisioning needs to
be consolidated into a set of requirements, based on the IESG IDN Statement
and the ICANN IDN Guidelines.

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bhavin