Each web page has its own name: if you have your own website or blog, you’ll know that you cannot use a website name – otherwise called a domain – that has already been taken. If you enter the name of a certain website into a browser search bar, the name is routed to a server, which trans­lates it into an IP address and brings you to the website. These names and numbers, known as unique iden­ti­fi­ers, are compared with a stand­ard­ised set of internet protocol para­met­ers, and enable com­mu­nic­a­tion between computers. One of the tasks of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is to manage these unique iden­ti­fi­ers.

What is IANA?

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has an important ad­min­is­trat­ive role. It is re­spons­ible for assigning the unique names and numbering systems that are used according to the technical standards of the internet and form the basis for ad­dress­ing websites. Although the internet is not a centrally managed network, some core elements do need to be co­ordin­ated globally. IANA took on this task with the pre­de­cessor of what we now know as the internet.This makes IANA one of the oldest in­sti­tu­tions on the internet.

IANA’s history

IANA's tasks were ori­gin­ally done by a single person: Jon Postel. In 1972, Postel, a student at the Uni­ver­sity of Cali­for­nia at Los Angeles (UCLA), proposed to establish an ad­min­is­tra­tion to manage socket numbers for the newly developed ARPANET. Although ARPANET was com­par­at­ively man­age­able, it was still important that the same socket numbers were not used for different ap­plic­a­tions. Postel himself took over the task and produced a cor­res­pond­ing catalogue.

Fact

A “socket” is the com­bin­a­tion of IP address and port number. It is used to address a specific ap­plic­a­tion on a specific computer. The IP address de­term­ines the network and computer, the port number the re­spect­ive ap­plic­a­tion.

From 1976 onwards, Postel pursued his ap­point­ment as “Czar of Socket Numbers” at the In­form­a­tion Sciences Institute (ISI) at the Uni­ver­sity of Southern Cali­for­nia (USC). Of­fi­cially, however, re­spons­ib­il­ity for the IANA function lay with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the United States De­part­ment of Defense. The federal authority financed the ISI project to support the de­vel­op­ment of ARPANET. The term “IANA” was coined during the trans­ition phase from ARPANET to today's internet, and was first used in 1988.

From 1988 to 1998, IANA was jointly funded by DARPA and ISI. With the pub­lic­a­tion of the National Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions and In­form­a­tion Ad­min­is­tra­tion (NTIA) white paper “Man­age­ment of Internet Names and Addresses” by the US De­part­ment of Commerce, a draft for a new ad­min­is­trat­ive structure was presented. A private and non-profit or­gan­isa­tion was to be set up to take over the IANA function and other ad­min­is­trat­ive tasks. The Internet Cor­por­a­tion for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was founded at the end of 1998.

Fact

Until October 2016, IANA remained under the su­per­vi­sion of the US gov­ern­ment. However, this gov­ern­ment su­per­vi­sion has since been abolished, and ICANN has sole control over the functions of IANA.

IANAs tasks explained

What IANA does is very important for the internet to work smoothly. The tasks can be divided into three main cat­egor­ies:

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IP addresses – number as­sign­ment

IANA co­ordin­ates the global pool of IP numbers and AS numbers (autonom­ous system numbers or just ASN), which are assigned in address blocks to the five regional internet re­gis­tries (RIR). RIRs in turn make smaller address blocks available to the re­spect­ive local internet re­gis­tries (LIR) and the national internet re­gis­tries (NIR), which then pass them on to the internet service providers. The table below shows the regions of each RIR:

RIR Area
AFRINIC Africa
APNIC Asia, Australia, and Oceania
ARIN Canada, USA, and several Caribbean islands
LACNIC Latin America and several Caribbean islands
RIPE NCC Europe, the Middle East, parts of Central Asia

There are currently two types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. The new IPv6 standard allows sig­ni­fic­antly more unique IP addresses to be generated. IPv4 addresses are still used more fre­quently, though.

Domain names

IANA operates and co­ordin­ates the central root zone of the domain name system (DNS), whose levels (top-level domain, second-level domain, and subdomain) make up the complete domain names. In this context, IANA also manages the database with all top-level domains (TLDs), the last part of the complete domain name. It also co­ordin­ates the .int and .arpa TLDs. The TLD “int” is reserved for in­ter­gov­ern­ment­al contract or­gan­isa­tions, while the TLD “arpa” is used only for technical in­fra­struc­ture purposes. In addition, IANA maintains the central col­lec­tion of per­miss­ible in­ter­na­tion­al­ised domain names. IDNs, also col­lo­qui­ally referred to as special character domains, allow umlauts, diacritic char­ac­ters (small char­ac­ters attached to letters that indicate pro­nun­ci­ation or tone), or letters from alphabets other than Latin to be in­teg­rated into the domain name. Ori­gin­ally, this kind of character was not provided for in the DNS. To cope with the growth and the resulting glob­al­isa­tion of the internet, the use of special char­ac­ters was sub­sequently made possible by the internet standard “In­ter­na­tion­al­iz­ing Domain Names in Ap­plic­a­tions” (IDNA).

Protocol para­met­ers

In co­oper­a­tion with the Internet En­gin­eer­ing Task Force (IETF) – an or­gan­isa­tion dealing with the technical de­vel­op­ment of the internet – IANA manages the numbers and des­ig­na­tions for internet protocols. The network protocols and their para­met­ers define a common language through which computers and other devices can com­mu­nic­ate with each other. Common para­met­ers include:

  • Port numbers: The use of ports makes it possible to assign data packages on the internet to an ap­pro­pri­ate ap­plic­a­tion. It is used for all data exchange via the user datagram protocol (UDP) or the trans­mis­sion control protocol (TCP). Each computer has 65,536 ports. The ports assigned by IANA are numbered 0 to 65535 and can be divided into different cat­egor­ies, with the first ports (0 to 1023) reserved for certain services and purposes. For example, if you receive a mail, it will always be forwarded via port 25 reserved for mails. Port 80 is always used for surfing the internet.

    IANA also manages the re­gistered ports (1024 to 49151), which can be used freely by programs and ap­plic­a­tions without needing special rights. For example, a company can obtain a port for a specific service to ensure that the sent data packets arrive safely.

    The remaining ports (49152 to 65535) are dynamic. They are not set to a fixed ap­plic­a­tion. Like all ports over 1023, they pose a potential security risk because malware can also use them to gain access to your computer.

  • HTTP status codes: These are sent from a server to every client request. With the three-digit status code, the server informs the client whether the request has been processed suc­cess­fully, an error has occurred, or au­then­tic­a­tion is required. For example, the HTTP status code 404 (Not Found) means that the requested web page data was not found on the server. Code 403 (Forbidden) indicates that the requested data is access-protected.

  • Language at­trib­utes: The language ab­bre­vi­ations mark content according to the language in which it is output. For example, the language attribute “cy” stands for Welsh, the attribute “en” for English.

  • Private en­ter­prise numbers (PEN): Private companies can be iden­ti­fied in network systems via the PEN. They will be compiled in a public register, which also lists an as­so­ci­ated contact name and an e-mail address. Any company is eligible for a free PEN from IANA.

  • Media types: These are used to identify the format of data sent over the internet. The attribute “video/h264” is used for video streaming, for example.

IANA also maintains the time zone database (tz), which contains in­form­a­tion on the world's time zones. The database is primarily intended for use in ap­plic­a­tion programs and operating systems. It is peri­od­ic­ally updated to take changes such as summer and winter time into account.

Image: IANA’s responsibilities
IANA's three main tasks defined

What roles does ICANN take on?

Since 1998, IANA has been a division of ICANN. ICANN is made up of different groups rep­res­ent­ing different databases, and making sure that the com­mu­nic­a­tion between these databases is smooth and efficient. They are divided into sup­port­ing or­gan­isa­tions and advisory com­mit­tees.

Sup­port­ing or­gan­isa­tions

  • Or­gan­isa­tions that work with IP addresses
  • Or­gan­isa­tions that work with domain names
  • Manager of country-specific top-level domains

In addition, the Technical Liaison Group works with the various or­gan­isa­tions re­spons­ible for drawing up the basic internet protocols.

Advisory com­mit­tees

  • Gov­ern­ments and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions
  • Root server operators
  • Or­gan­isa­tions concerned with internet security
  • Tra­di­tion­al internet users (ICANN-at-large mem­ber­ship)

The final decisions are made by the board of directors con­sist­ing of 21 internet experts, which is appointed by several bodies. The articles of as­so­ci­ation provide for the greatest possible geo­graph­ic­al and cultural diversity in the selection of members.

In addition to the IANA functions, ICANN also co­ordin­ates the operation of the so-called root servers. There are 13 of these servers worldwide. The central server is called “Root Server A,” the twelve other servers serve as a backup. The IP addresses for all TLDs are stored on each root server and are essential for the function of the internet. ICANN itself operates one of the root servers.

How to get involved yourself

ICANN is a grass­roots or­gan­isa­tion, and offers op­por­tun­it­ies for all internet users to become involved:

  • Three times a year, ICANN holds public meetings, which are open to all in­ter­ested parties free of charge and held at different locations. At meetings, ICANN stake­hold­ers determine what tasks will need to be completed in the future and who will take re­spons­ib­il­ity for them. Criticism and sug­ges­tions can be made during ICANN meetings.

  • Al­tern­at­ively, you can comment on ICANN's proposals and con­trib­ute your own ideas online at any time via the public comments.

  • ICANN-at-large mem­ber­ship also offers the op­por­tun­ity to become more involved. The members are organised in local sub-groups and work in different working groups on different topics.
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