IANA Transition

The IANA stewardship transition completed on 30 September 2016 fulfilled a vision of multistakeholder governance set forth nearly 20 years ago. The work undertaken by the global Internet community to develop a robust, consensus proposal for the IANA stewardship transition demonstrated the legitimacy of the collaborative approach to governing critical Internet resources. By allowing its contract with ICANN regarding IANA oversight to expire, the U.S. government demonstrated its continued support for the multistakeholder model. The IANA transition is a powerful illustration of the multistakeholder model and an affirmation of the principle that the best approach to address challenges is through bottom-up, transparent, and consensus-driven processes. To fulfill our shared vision of a global Internet of opportunity, the multistakeholder community must apply the same level of commitment to connecting the unconnected and strengthening global trust in the Internet. The Internet Society is fully committed to playing its part to ensure the Internet grows as a platform for innovation and collaboration.

Read about all the supporters who said #yestoIANA.

Background on IANA

The IANA functions have historically included:

  • The coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters;
  • The administration of certain responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management;
  • The allocation of Internet numbering resources;
  • Other services related to the management of .ARPA and .INT top-level domains.

To learn more about the IANA functions, please see:

Statements by the Internet Society

History

Since 1999 the IANA functions have been contracted to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) by the US National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA). The NTIA has retained an oversight component with regard to the management of the Internet’s DNS root zone and is now seeking to transition that responsibility to the global multistakeholder community.

NTIA’s announcement on 14 March 2014 outlines the conditions under which a transfer can occur and called upon ICANN to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal for this transition.  NTIA asked ICANN work collaboratively with the directly affected parties, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), top level domain name operators, VeriSign, and other interested global stakeholders.

Given that the NTIA Statement identified the Internet Society as one of the parties that were expected to contribute to the process, ISOC has elected:

  • Internet Society Board of Trustees member Narelle Clark; and
  • Internet Hall of Fame inductee Demi Getscko

as its representatives to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).

More information about the current activities and transition status can be found at:

View our webinar

In early 2015, the Internet Society hosted a webinar on the progress of the IANA transition.

You can listen to it here:

 You can watch it here:

Related links

  • https://www.iana.org
  • https://www.ianacg.org
  • https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/ianaplan/charter/
  • https://www.nro.net/nro-and-internet-governance/iana-oversight/consolidated-rir-iana-stewardship-proposal-team-crisp-team
  • https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocwgdtstwrdshp/CWG+to+Develop+an+IANA+Stewardship+Transition+Proposal+on+Naming+Related+Functions
  • https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/perspectives-iana-stewardship-transition-principles
  • https://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-applauds-community-developed-plan-transition-oversight-key-internet-resources