What is ICANN and what does it do?

Although the Internet was originally designed and implemented as a decentralised network, domain registration was managed by a single entity for a long time - until just before the turn of the millennium by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Subsequently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) took over this responsibility. Its primary tasks initially included domain checking and registration, but quickly expanded to include coordinating new domain extensions and allocating the rights to manage them. Formally, it is a non-profit organisation registered in the USA, which was under the supervision of the US government until 2016. With the expiration of the existing contract, this oversight ended, leading to the privatisation of the root zone.

Contents:
The history and development of ICANN
ICANN and the introduction of new Top Level Domains (nTLD)
ICANN now largely handles administrative tasks

The history and development of ICANN

In its early stages, addressing a computer connected to the Internet was done solely numerically through the unique public IP address of each participant. The IANA is responsible for allocating these addresses, assigning exclusive IP addresses to networks as needed. These addresses come from a specific number range (pool), from which the owner provides individual addresses to their servers and connected clients, such as customers of an Internet provider, either temporarily (temporary IP address) or permanently (static IP address).

As the Internet transitioned from being solely used for scientific and military purposes to a commercial network, the format of Domain.Ending that is used today was introduced. Initially, IANA also handled domain reservations but in 1998, under US President Bill Clinton, these responsibilities were transferred to the newly established ICANN. At its inception, the organisation was led by a board of 19 directors, with nine seats originally intended to be filled through a direct election by the public user base.

Among the most important tasks of ICANN was quickly the expansion of existing domain extensions to include new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD), supplementing the initial abbreviations. There is a distinction between unsponsored domain extensions (uTLD), where ICANN manages domain registration, and sponsored domain extensions (sTLD), overseen by an independent organisation at their own expense.

ICANN's uTLDs include:

• .arpa - Originally for Arpanet, later used for addressing
• .biz - Theoretically reserved for commercial use, practically open to all
• .com - Domain intended for businesses, now freely available
• .info - Established for information providers, but with unrestricted domain registration since its introduction
• .name - Exclusively for natural persons, allocation without restrictions
• .net - Address for network providers, allocation also open
• .org - Non-commercial organisations, freely available since 2003

Among the most well-known early introduced sTLDs are:

• .edu - Educational institutions, predominantly based in the USA
• .mil - Solely used by the US Army
• .gov - Official institutions of government and authorities in the USA
• .int - Multinational companies and corporations
• .mobi - First domain extension for mobile devices
• .xxx - Erotic and explicitly sexual content

ICANN and the introduction of new Top Level Domains (nTLD)

Due to increasing demand and the growing need for domain extensions, ICANN initially decided to introduce national abbreviations (Country Code TLD, ccTLD), consisting of a two-letter country code (except for the UK). These are managed independently of the respective government or institutions appointed by them, such as DENIC for the German .de domain. Their use is not formally tied to the respective country, allowing some attractive abbreviations like .to (Togo) or .tv (Tuvalu) to be commercially marketed. Another step by ICANN was the creation of regional TLDs such as the .eu address introduced in 2002.

After the expansion to include the ccTLD was found to be insufficient, ICANN decided in 2008 to relax the originally very strict regulations for sTLDs. Since then, theoretically, any interested party can propose their own nTLD for introduction. However, to prevent abuse, both the submission of the application and the award of the management rights are subject to stringent conditions, the monitoring of which is also part of ICANN's responsibilities. Introducing an nTLD requires, among other things:

• Payment of a processing fee of 185,000 US dollars for each requested nTLD
• Unique and unmistakable domain extensions
• Evidence of a suitable IT infrastructure for operation
• Long-term financial stability of the responsible organisation
• Only (lowercase) letters allowed
• Minimum of three characters
• No special protection by external rights holders or interests

After a successful application, ICANN grants the management rights for a limited period, during which the applicant takes over the administration of the corresponding nTLD, including domain checking during registration and domain registration. There are no specific conditions attached to these tasks for the allocation of domain extensions, which are solely at the discretion of the operator and may reflect their interests. Therefore, the operator can set conditions as desired, such as a regional focus, affiliation with an industry, specific content, as well as the prices for domain registration and renewal.

ICANN now largely focuses on administrative tasks

At its inception, ICANN was planned as a largely technically oriented organisation, but since at least 2015, the focus has shifted significantly towards the administration of domain extensions. In addition to nTLDs, ccTLDs including the .de domain managed by DENIC, the .eu domain managed by EURid, and sTLDs, ICANN also no longer handles the domain registration of its associated acronyms like the .com domain itself, but has transferred this responsibility to the company Verisign. Important tasks still include providing databases for services such as Whois lookup, which can also be used for domain checking. ICANN has numerous sub-organisations including its predecessor, IANA.

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