IANA Contact goes to ICANN again
ICANN just has been awarded the IANA contract again. The United States Department of Commerce has executed a new contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to continue to perform the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) function.
The IANA function includes Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, as well as root server system management functions.
“In executing this contract the Department of Commerce has confirmed that ICANN is uniquely positioned to perform this function,” said Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.
The new contract for the IANA function is a five-year agreement, consisting of a series of one-year options. ICANN has held the contracts for this function since 1998.
“It means that ICANN remains the organisation responsible for a range of functions that are vital to the daily operation of the Domain Name System (DNS) and hence the Internet,” Dr. Twomey said.
The DNS helps users find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address called its “IP address” (Internet Protocol address). Because IP addresses (which are strings of numbers) are hard to remember, the DNS allows a familiar string of letters (the “domain name”) to be used instead. So rather than typing “192.0.34.163,” users can type www.icann.org.
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