1. Sarmad Hussain Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) Programs Director
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Before joining ICANN, Hussain was a professor of Computer Science. His research is focused on developing computing solutions for Pakistani languages, including research in linguistics, localization, language computing standards, speech processing and computational linguistics. He has led the PAN Localization program from , which saw the development of local language computing capacity across developing Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Hussain’s involvement with IDNs commenced in 2006 and has been actively involved in IDN country code top-level domain (ccTLD) work for Pakistan. He has been an active member of the ICANN community since 2008 and was a member of ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) before joining ICANN as staff. Hussain obtained his doctoral degree in Speech Science from Northwestern University, USA in 1997, an M.Phil. In Computer Speech and Language Processing from Cambridge University, UK, in 1993, and a BS in Electrical Engineering (with specialization in Computer Engineering with honors) from University of Texas, Austin, USA, in 1992.

2. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Program at ICANN
Sarmad Hussain
Director, IDN Programs
pkSIG, Karachi
5 September 2018

3. Objectives of the IDN Program at ICANN
Enable deployment of domain names
in the local languages and scripts used by the communities globally
in a secure and stable manner

4. Community Outreach and Involvement
Overview
IDNs at Top Level
IDN TLD Program
Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR)
LGR Toolset
IDN Variant TLD Implementation
IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process
IDNs at Second Level
IDN Implementation Guidelines
Reference Second Level LGRs
Community Outreach and Involvement

5. IDN TLD Program
Root Zone Label Generation Rules

6. ASCII and Internationalized Domain Names
ምሳሌ.ኢትዮጵያ
IDN Second
Level
Domain
IDN Top Level
Domain (TLD)
Second Level
Domain
Top Level
Domain (TLD)
Forming ASCII Labels
Use only Letters
Letters [a-z]
Label length = 63
Syntax of IDN TLD
U-Label, constrained by the “letter” principle
What is a “letter” in a script?
Are all “letters” unique in a script?

7. Process for Developing Root Zone Label Generation Rules
Normally one Generation Panel per writing system (script)
Generation
Panel 1
RZ- LGR
Etcetera
Script 1
Script 2
Integration
Panel
Generation
Panel 2
Generation
Panel 3
Needs more work
Etcetera

8. Status of Community Based Panels for RZ-LGR

9. IDN TLD Program
IDN Variant TLD Implementation

10. Understanding IDN Variant TLDs – “Same” Labels
.epic
Security
Usability
.еріс
.澳门
6FB3 95E8
.澳門
6FB3 9580
السعودية.
السعودیۃ.
F 064A 0629
F 06CC 06C3

11. Status of IDN Variant TLDs
Variant labels are hard - interpretation of “same” unclear
On 25 September 2010, the ICANN Board resolved:
“No variants of gTLDs will be delegated through the New gTLD Program until appropriate variant management solutions are developed.”
Undertook studies on Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, and Latin scripts in 2011 to understand the phenomenon
Issues collated in the Integrated Issues Report, IIR (2012) - identified following gaps:
No definition of IDN variant TLDs
No IDN variant TLD management mechanism

12. Defining IDN Variant TLDs
Gap 1: No definition of IDN variant TLDs
Solution: Define variant labels using Root Zone Language Generation Rules (RZ-LGR)
Next steps: RZ-LGR-Study Group initiated to review technical implementation
INVALID TLD LABEL
Existing TLD: t1
VALID TLD LABEL
ALL VARIANTS:
t1v1
t1v2
t1v3
t1v4
BLOCKED
ALLOCATABLE
العربیة
Arabic
ไทย
Thai
Applied-for TLD: t1
ግዕዝ
Ethiopic
…28
scripts
RZ-LGR
SECURE AND STABLE RESULTS: {
LGR Tool

13. Managing IDN Variant TLDs
Gap 2: No IDN variant TLD management mechanism
Solution: ICANN org has developed a set of recommendations – recently released for public comment
Next steps: Proposed solution to be finalized in consultation with the community and then presented to the ICANN Board

14. IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process

15. IDN Country Code Top-Level Domains

16. Thank You
For information on IDN Program projects, please visit:
For queries regarding the IDN Program, please