





Network Working Group                                          A. Newton
Request for Comments: 3707                                VeriSign, Inc.
Category: Informational                                    February 2004


     Cross Registry Internet Service Protocol (CRISP) Requirements

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Internet registries expose administrative and operational data via
   varying directory services.  This document defines functional
   requirements for the directory services of domain registries and the
   common base requirements for extending the use of these services for
   other types of Internet registries.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.1.  Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.2.  Requirements Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.3.  Requirements Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Internet Registry Communities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       2.1.  Domain Name System Registries  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
             2.1.1.  Domain Registries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
             2.1.2.  Domain Registrars  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       2.2.  Other Registries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
             2.2.1.  Regional Internet Registries . . . . . . . . . .  5
             2.2.2.  Local Internet Registries  . . . . . . . . . . .  5
             2.2.3.  Internet Routing Registries  . . . . . . . . . .  5
             2.2.4.  Incident Coordination Contact Registries . . . .  6
       2.3.  Implementers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       2.4.  End Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
             2.4.1.  Internet Resource Registrants  . . . . . . . . .  6
             2.4.2.  Service Providers and Network Operators  . . . .  6
             2.4.3.  Intellectual Property Holders  . . . . . . . . .  7
             2.4.4.  Law Enforcement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
             2.4.5.  Certificate Authorities  . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
             2.4.6.  DNS Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7



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             2.4.7.  Abusive Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       2.5.  Other Actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   3.  Functional Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.1.  Base Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
             3.1.1.  Mining Prevention  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
             3.1.2.  Minimal Technical Reinvention  . . . . . . . . .  8
             3.1.3.  Standard and Extensible Schemas  . . . . . . . .  9
             3.1.4.  Level of Access  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
             3.1.5.  Client Processing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
             3.1.6.  Entity Referencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
             3.1.7.  Decentralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
             3.1.8.  Query of Access Permission . . . . . . . . . . . 11
             3.1.9.  Authentication Distribution  . . . . . . . . . . 11
             3.1.10. Base Error Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
             3.1.11. Query Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
             3.1.12. Protocol and Schema Versioning . . . . . . . . . 12
             3.1.13. Relay Bag  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
             3.1.14. Privacy Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.2.  Domain Specific Functions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
             3.2.1.  Lookups  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
             3.2.2.  Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
             3.2.3.  Information Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
             3.2.4.  Serialization Support  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
             3.2.5.  Result Set Limits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
             3.2.6.  DNS Delegation Referencing . . . . . . . . . . . 17
             3.2.7.  Distribution for Domain Registry Types . . . . . 18
             3.2.8.  Data Omission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
             3.2.9.  Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   4.  Feature Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       4.1.  Client Authentication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       4.2.  Referrals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       4.3.  Common Referral Mechanism  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       4.4.  Structured Queries and Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       4.5.  Existing Schema Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       4.6.  Defined Schemas  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   5.  Internationalization Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   6.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   A.  Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   B.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       B.1. Forums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       B.2. Working Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       B.3. Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25





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   Intellectual Property Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1. Introduction

1.1.  Background

   The expansion and growth of the Internet has seen the registry
   function of a traditionally centralized and managed Network
   Information Center become the responsibility of various autonomous,
   functionally disparate, and globally distributed Internet registries.
   With the broadening number of Internet registries, the uses of their
   administrative directory services have expanded from the original and
   traditional use of the whois [6] protocol to include the use of whois
   outside the scope of its specification, formal and informal
   definitions of syntax, undocumented security mechanisms, the use of
   other protocols, such as rwhois [5], to fulfill other needs, and
   proposals for the use of other technologies such as LDAP [4] and XML.

1.2.  Requirements Scope

   The scope of the requirements captured in this document relate to the
   directory services of Internet registries and their related
   communities (Section 2.3, Section 2.4, and Section 2.5).  This
   scoping specifically targets the requirements of domain name
   registries (Section 2.1).  The requirements for other registry types
   will be made available in other memos.  The requirements are of both
   the current use of these directory services and the desired
   functionality based on input from relevant forums (Appendix B.1).
   These requirements are not specific to any protocol.  Terms used in
   the definition of requirements in this document may be found in the
   glossary (Appendix A).

   The scope of the requirements in this document are also restricted to
   access of data from Internet registries.  Requirements for
   modification, addition, or provisioning of data in Internet
   registries are out of the scope of this document.

1.3.  Requirements Specification

   The requirements captured in this document are for the purpose of
   designing technical specifications.  The words used in this document
   for compliance with RFC 2119 [3] do not reference or specify policy
   and speak only to the capabilities in the derived technology.  For
   instance, this document may say that the protocol "MUST" support
   certain features.  An actual service operator is always free to
   disable it (and then to return an error such as "permission denied".)



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   Requirements in this document specifying the capabilities of the
   protocol required for proper interaction between a client and a
   server will be specified with the "MUST/SHOULD" language of RFC 2119
   [3].  This document also contains language relating to the
   interaction of a client with multiple servers to form a coherent,
   cross-network service.  Such service requirements will not be
   described using RFC 2119 language.

   While individual servers/service operators may not support all
   features that the protocol can support, they must respect the
   semantics of the protocol queries and responses.  For example, a
   server should not return referrals if it does not have referent data.

2. Internet Registry Communities

   The Internet registries are composed of various communities which
   provide scope for the requirements in this document.  These
   communities can be generalized into the following categories:
   registries, registrars, implementers, end-users, and other actors.

2.1.  Domain Name System Registries

2.1.1.  Domain Registries

   Domain registries are responsible for the registration of domains for
   use with DNS [1] and forward lookups (i.e., does not include the
   .ARPA domain).  These registries have typically served two main
   domain functions: as the registry for a gTLD or as a registry for a
   ccTLD.  In some instances, one entity will operate multiple TLD's,
   both of the gTLD and ccTLD type.  A gTLD or ccTLD domain registry
   operator may be a governmental entity, non-governmental,
   non-commercial entity, or a commercial entity.

   Some ccTLD's have second-level domain registrations similar in nature
   to gTLD's or have distinctly separate entities operating second-level
   domain registries similar in nature to gTLD's within the ccTLD.

   Domain registries usually follow one of two models for conducting
   registrations of domains.  The "thick" model is the more traditional
   model.  In a "thick" domain registry, the registry contains both the
   operational data for the domain and the contact data (Appendix A) for
   the domain.  In this model, the registry is typically the interface
   to the domain registrant but may also interface with the domain
   registrant through domain registrars.  The "thin" model domain
   registry contains only operational data for domains.  In the "thin"
   model, contact data for the domain are maintained by a domain
   registrar.




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   Domain registries not described in this section (Section 2.1.1) are
   not the subject of this document and may have requirements that are
   out of scope for this subject matter.

2.1.2.  Domain Registrars

   Domain registrars accept domain registrations from registrants on
   behalf of domain registries, both "thick" and "thin".  In a "thin"
   model registry/registrar system, a domain registrar maintains the
   contact data of a domain while the registry maintains the operational
   data of a domain.  In a "thick" model registry/registrar system, a
   domain registrar passes both the operational data and contact data to
   the registry.  Domain registrars may register a domain on behalf of a
   registrant in more than one domain registry.

2.2.  Other Registries

   This section describes Internet registries other than those listed in
   Section 2.1.  These descriptions are not definitive and this list is
   not absolute.  They are provided in this document for informational
   purposes only.

2.2.1.  Regional Internet Registries

   Regional Internet Registries (RIR's) administer the allocation of IP
   address space and autonomous system numbers.  Each RIR serves a
   specific geographic region, and collectively they service the entire
   Internet.  Each RIR is a membership-based, non-profit organization
   that facilitates and implements global addressing policy based on the
   direction of their regional community.

2.2.2.  Local Internet Registries

   Local Internet Registries (LIR's) and National Internet Registries
   (NIR's) are sub-registries of RIR's and coordinate the same functions
   of the RIR's for smaller, more specific geographic regions, sovereign
   nations, and localities.

2.2.3.  Internet Routing Registries

   Internet Routing Registries are routing policy databases.  Their
   purpose is to provide information helpful in administering Internet
   routers.  Frequently, the syntax and contents are defined by RPSL
   [7].

   IRR's are operated by academic, commercial, governmental, and other
   types of organizations, including several of the RIR's.  The contents
   of the databases vary and reflect the needs of the users directly



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   served (e.g., an ISP may look up route entries, added by their
   customers, to decide whether to accept specific route advertisements
   they receive).

   Unlike RIR and domain registry data, IRR data is often duplicated
   between separate organizations.  The IRR data has the unique
   characteristics of being largely available through other sources
   (i.e., it is advertised by the Internet routing protocols) and most
   often having a common data format, RPSL.

2.2.4.  Incident Coordination Contact Registries

   Incident coordination contact registries allow operators of network
   resources such as network infrastructure, network names, or network
   services to register contact information for the purpose of providing
   a means of incident notification.  Using this type of registry, an
   operator of network resources are provided information for contacting
   the operator of another network resource from which an incident may
   be occurring.

2.3.  Implementers

   Implementers of client software are often either affiliated with
   large network operators, registry operators, or commercial entities
   offering value-added services, or are general citizens of the
   Internet.  Much of the client software for use with the directory
   services of Internet registries is either freely available, open
   source, or both, or available as a service.  Implementers of server
   software are often affiliated with operators or commercial entities
   specializing in the out-sourcing of development for Internet
   registries.

2.4.  End Users

   This section describes the many types of end-users.  Individuals and
   organizations may have multiple roles and may concurrently occupy
   many of the categories.

2.4.1.  Internet Resource Registrants

   Entities given authority over an Internet resource via purchase,
   lease, or grant from an Internet registry, either directly or via the
   services of a registrar.

2.4.2.  Service Providers and Network Operators

   Service providers and network operators provide connectivity,
   routing, and naming services to many other entities, some commercial



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   and some non-commercial, both large and small.  Their operational and
   administrative staff often interact with Internet registries on
   behalf of other end-users.  Service providers and network operators
   interact with all of the Internet registry operators outlined in this
   document on a frequent and consistent basis.  For example, network
   operators use the directory services of Internet registries to
   determine contact information for network resources that have
   technical problems.

2.4.3.  Intellectual Property Holders

   A number of parties, such as trademark, service mark and intellectual
   property holders, individuals, governments and other geopolitical
   entities, have some legal rights on certain alphanumeric strings.

   They use the directory services of Internet registries, mostly domain
   registries and registrars, for purposes of maintaining and defending
   claims to domain names consistent with applicable laws and
   regulations.

2.4.4.  Law Enforcement

   Law enforcement agencies use the directory services of Internet
   registries to find information used to carry out the enforcement of
   laws within their jurisdictions.

2.4.5.  Certificate Authorities

   Certificate authorities use the directory services of Internet
   registries as part of their verification process when issuing
   certificates for Internet named hosts.

2.4.6.  DNS Users

   Users of the Internet have client software that resolves domain names
   to IP addresses and IP addresses to domain names.  Often when trouble
   occurs in the resolution process of DNS, these users trouble shoot
   system problems with the aid of information from the directory
   services of Internet registries.

2.4.7.  Abusive Users

   The administrative directory services of Internet registries are
   often the target of practices by abusive users.  Using information
   obtained from Internet registries, abusive users undertake certain
   activities that are counter to the acceptable use of the information
   as intended by a registry, registrar, or registrant.  Many times,
   these practices violate law in the jurisdiction of the user,



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   registry, registrar, or registrant.  One example is the use of
   Internet registry information for the use of sending unsolicited bulk
   or commercial email.

2.5.  Other Actors

   Requirements must also consider the positions and policies of other
   actors on the use of Internet registry directory services.  These
   actors include governments, non-governmental policy-setting bodies,
   and other non-governmental organizations.

3.  Functional Requirements

   Functional requirements describe an overall need or process for which
   the directory service is used by an Internet registry to fulfill its
   obligations to provide access to its respective customers, members,
   or other constituents.  This section describes requirements in the
   manner specified in Section 1.3.

3.1.  Base Functions

   This section describes basic directory service protocol requirements
   for Internet registries.  Additional requirements, specific to domain
   registries, are described in Domain Specific Functions (Section 3.2).

3.1.1.  Mining Prevention

   In order to prevent the inappropriate acquisition of data from an
   Internet registry's directory service, many servers will limit the
   amount of data that may be returned in a fixed time period from a
   server to a client.  This will most likely be especially true for
   anonymous access uses (see Section 3.1.4).

   The limits placed on differing types of data or applied depending
   upon access status will most likely differ from server to server
   based on policy and need.  Support for varying service models in the
   effort to limit data and prevent data mining may or may not have a
   direct impact on the client-to-server protocol.

3.1.2.  Minimal Technical Reinvention

   The protocol MUST NOT employ unique technology solutions for all
   aspects and layers above the network and transport layers.  The
   protocol SHOULD make use of existing technology standards where
   applicable.  The protocol MUST employ the use of network and
   transport layer standards as defined by the Internet Engineering Task
   Force.  The protocol MUST define one or more congestion-aware
   transport mechanisms for mandatory implementation.



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3.1.3.  Standard and Extensible Schemas

3.1.3.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST contain standard schemas for the exchange of data
   needed to implement the functionality in this document.  In addition,
   there MUST be a means to allow the use of schemas not defined by the
   needs of this document.  Both types of schemas MUST use the same
   schema language.  The schemas MUST be able to express data elements
   with identifying tags for the purpose of localization of the meaning
   of the identifying tags.

3.1.3.2.  Service Description

   The client-to-server protocol must define a standard set of data
   structures or schemas to be used when exchanging information.  It
   must also poses the ability to allow for the use of newer data
   structures that are currently not foreseen by this specification.  In
   both cases, the description and specification of both types of data
   structures or schemas must be done in the same way (i.e., the same
   schema language).

   The schemas must also be capable of "tagging" data with a unique
   identifier.  This identifier can then be used to localize the name of
   that type of data.  For instance, a piece of data may have the value
   "Bob" and its type identified with the number "5.1".  Client software
   could use this to display "Name: Bob" in an English locale or
   "Nombre: Bob" in a Spanish locale.

3.1.4.  Level of Access

3.1.4.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST NOT prohibit an operator from granularly assigning
   multiple types of access to data according to the policies of the
   operator.  The protocol MUST provide an authentication mechanism and
   MUST NOT prohibit an operator from granting types of access based on
   authentication.

   The protocol MUST provide an anonymous access mechanism that may be
   turned on or off based on the policy of an operator.










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3.1.4.2.  Service Description

   Server operators will offer varying degrees of access depending on
   policy and need.  The following are some examples:

   o  users will be allowed access only to data for which they have a
      relationship

   o  unauthenticated or anonymous access status may not yield any
      contact information

   o  full access may be granted to a special group of authenticated
      users

   The types of access allowed by a server will most likely vary from
   one operator to the next.

3.1.5.  Client Processing

   The protocol MUST be capable of allowing machine parsable requests
   and responses.

3.1.6.  Entity Referencing

   There MUST be a mechanism for an entity contained within a server to
   be referenced uniquely by an entry in another server.

3.1.7.  Decentralization

3.1.7.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST NOT require the aggregation of data to a central
   repository, server, or entity.  The protocol MUST NOT require
   aggregation of data indexes or hints to a central repository, server,
   or entity.

3.1.7.2.  Service Description

   Some server operators may have a need to coordinate service in a mesh
   or some other framework with other server operators.  However, the
   ability to operate a CRISP compliant server must not require this.










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3.1.8.  Query of Access Permission

3.1.8.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST provide a mechanism allowing a client to determine
   if a query will be denied before the query is submitted according to
   the appropriate policies of the operator.

3.1.8.2.  Service Description

   Because usage scenarios will differ depending on both policy and type
   of service, some server operators may want to provide the ability for
   a client to predetermine its ability to retrieve data from a query.
   However, some operators will not allow this for security reasons,
   policy restrictions, or other matters.

3.1.9.  Authentication Distribution

3.1.9.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST NOT require any Internet registry to participate in
   any authentication system.  The protocol MUST NOT prohibit the
   participation by an Internet registry in federated, distributed
   authentication systems.

3.1.9.2.  Service Description

   Some server operators may have a need to delegate authentication to
   another party or participate in a system where authentication
   information is distributed.  However, the ability to operate a CRISP
   compliant server must not require this.

3.1.10.  Base Error Responses

   The protocol MUST be capable of returning the following types of
   non-result or error responses to all lookups and searches:

   o  permission denied - a response indicating that the search or
      lookup has failed due to insufficient authorization.

   o  not found - the desired results do not exist.

   o  insufficient resources - the search or lookup requires resources
      that cannot be allocated.







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3.1.11.  Query Distribution

3.1.11.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST NOT prohibit a server from participating in a query
   distribution system.

3.1.11.2.  Service Description

   For lookups and searches requiring distribution of queries, the
   client must be allowed to distribute these queries among the
   participants in an established mesh of server operators.  It is not a
   requirement that the protocol enable the discovery of servers, but
   cooperating servers should be able to intelligently handle
   distribution with its established mesh.  Individual server operators
   will respond to all queries received according to their policies for
   authentication, privacy, and performance.

   However, the ability to operate a CRISP compliant server must not
   require the participation in any query distribution system.

3.1.12.  Protocol and Schema Versioning

3.1.12.1.  Protocol Requirements

   The protocol MUST provide a means by which the end-systems can either
   identify or negotiate over the protocol version to be used for any
   query or set of queries.

   All resource-specific schema MUST provide a version identifier
   attribute which uniquely and unambiguously identifies the version of
   the schema being returned in the answer set to a query.

3.1.12.2.  Service Description

   The service should allow end-systems using different protocol
   versions to fallback to a mutually supported protocol version.  If
   this is not possible, the service must provide a meaningful error
   which indicates that this is the specific case.

   The service must suggest negotiation and/or recovery mechanisms for
   clients to use when an unknown schema version is received.









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3.1.13.  Relay Bag

   The term "bag" in this section describes a flexible container which
   may contain unspecified data.

3.1.13.1.  Protocol Requirement

   When issuing a referral, the protocol MUST be capable of supplying a
   relay bag from the server to the client, and the protocol MUST be
   capable of allowing the client to submit this relay bag with a query
   to the referred server.  The use of the relay bag MUST be OPTIONAL.
   The protocol MUST NOT make any assumptions regarding the contents of
   the relay bag, but the relay bag MUST be described using the schema
   language of the protocol.

   The protocol MUST provide different error messages to indicate
   whether the bag is of unrecognized format (permanent failure), if it
   contains unacceptable data (permanent failure), or if it contains
   data that means processing is refused at this time (transient
   failure).

   There MUST be no more than one bag per referral.  The protocol MUST
   NOT make an association or linkage between successive bags in a
   referral chain.

   The client MUST pass the bag as part of any query made to a referrant
   server as a result of a referral.

3.1.13.2.  Service Description

   In some models where service coordination among participating server
   operators is utilized, there might be needs to allow a referring
   server to pass operator-to-operator coordination data along with the
   referral to the referent server.  Such needs might be auditing or
   tracking.  This feature requirement allows a server to pass to the
   client a flexible container of unspecified data ("bag") that the
   client should pass to the referent server.  The bag has no meaning to
   the client.













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3.1.14.  Privacy Labels

3.1.14.1.  Protocol Requirement

   When a value in an answer to a query is given, the protocol MUST be
   capable of tagging the value with the following labels:

   1. do not redistribute

   2. special access granted

   The protocol MAY define other values for this purpose, but MUST
   define values defined above at a minimum.  The protocol MUST be
   capable of attaching these labels concurrently.

3.1.14.2.  Service Description

   Internet registries will have varying policies regarding the access
   to their data.  Some registries may grant certain classes of users
   with access to data that would not normally be given to most users.
   In these cases, registries may want to tag the values in these
   entries with labels specifying the responsibilities accompanying
   these special user rights.

3.2.  Domain Specific Functions

   These functions describe requirements specifically needed by domain
   registries (Section 2.1.1) and domain registrars (Section 2.1.2).
   Requirements specific to other registries (Section 2.2) MUST be
   specified separately.  No compliant server operator is required to
   support the functions required by every registry type.

3.2.1.  Lookups

3.2.1.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST contain the following lookup functions:

   1. Contact lookup given a unique reference to a contact of a
      resource.

   2. Nameserver lookup given a fully-qualified host name or IP address
      of a nameserver.

   3. Domain lookup given a fully-qualified domain name.

   See Section 3.2.3 for the requirements regarding the expected return
   values.



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3.2.1.2.  Service Description

   These lookups are all single index queries and should produce zero or
   only one entity.

   Depending on the policy and need of an Internet registry, a server
   operator may not allow all or any of these lookups to return part or
   all of the information.  See Section 3.2.3.

3.2.2.  Searches

3.2.2.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST contain the following search functions:

   1. Domain name search given an exact match or reasonable subset of a
      name.  This search SHOULD allow for parameters and qualifiers
      designed to allow better matching of internationalized domain
      names and SHOULD allow for both exact and partial matching within
      the limits of internationalized domain names.  This search SHOULD
      NOT require special transformations of internationalized domain
      names to accommodate this search.  This search MUST provide a
      means to narrow the search by names delegated under a particular
      TLD.

   2. Domain registrant search by either exact name or partial name
      match with the ability to narrow the search to registrants of a
      particular TLD.

   3. Domains hosted by a nameserver given the fully-qualified host name
      or IP address of a nameserver.

   See Section 3.2.3 for the requirements regarding the expected return
   values.

3.2.2.2.  Service Description

   Depending on the policy and need of an Internet registry, a server
   operator may not allow all or any of these searches to return part or
   all of the information.  See Section 3.1.4.  Access to information
   resulting from these searches may also be limited, depending on
   policy, by quantity.  Section 3.2.5 describes these types of
   restrictions.

   Some Internet registries may also be participating in a query
   distribution system.  See Section 3.1.11.





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3.2.3.  Information Sets

3.2.3.1.  Protocol Requirements

   The data sets for contacts, nameservers, and domains MUST be able to
   express and represent the attributes and allowable values of
   registration requests in domain registration and provisioning
   protocols.

   The schema MUST be capable of expressing the following information
   for domains:

   o  activation status

   o  registrant

   o  nameservers

   o  technical, billing or other contacts

   o  registry delegating the domain

   o  registrar for the domain

   The data set for domains MUST be able to express arbitrary textual
   information for extensions on an individual operator basis.  Examples
   of such information are license agreements, authorized use policies,
   extended status notifications, marketing/for sale notices, and URI
   references to other sources.

3.2.3.2.  Service Description

   It is not expected that every Internet registry supply all of the
   information spelled out above, however the schemas employed by the
   protocol must be capable of expressing this information should a
   registry need to provide it.

   The following sections describe requirements relative to the use of
   schemas with respect to individual registry need and policy:

   o  Section 3.2.8

   o  Section 3.2.5

   o  Section 3.1.4

   o  Section 3.1.1




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3.2.4.  Serialization Support

   The schemas used by the protocol SHOULD be capable of off-line
   serialization

   Off-line serialization allows for implementation independent
   operations such as backup and recovery, load-balancing, etc.  This
   MAY also make possible, in whole or in part, data escrow capabilities
   and other usages, however such usages are out of the scope of this
   document.

3.2.5.  Result Set Limits

3.2.5.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST contain a feature, used at the discretion of a
   server operator, to allow a server to express to a client a limit on
   the number of results from searches and lookups.  When returning
   result sets, the protocol MUST be able to make the following
   distinctions:

   1. an empty result set.

   2. a result set truncated for the purpose of improving performance
      bottlenecks.

   3. a result set truncated to comply with Section 3.1.1

3.2.5.2.  Service Description

   Client software will operate more usefully if it can understand
   reasons for the truncation of result sets.  Of course, some Internet
   registries may not be able to expose their policies for the limiting
   of result sets, but, when it is possible, clients will have a better
   operational view.  This may eliminate re-queries and other repeated
   actions that are not desirable.

3.2.6.  DNS Delegation Referencing

3.2.6.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST use the delegation authority model available in DNS
   [1] as the primary means for determining the authoritative source for
   information regarding domains or any other objects when applicable.







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3.2.6.2.  Service Description

   The intent of this requirement is to have clients use the DNS
   delegation model to find servers authoritative for resources instead
   of using a master or central server containing pointer information.
   In other words, when a resource is naturally mapped by DNS, the
   desired behavior is to consult the DNS to find an authoritative
   server containing information about that resource.  Using
   'example.com', the authoritative server for information about
   example.com according to the registrant of that domain may be found
   by querying the DNS zone for example.com.  To find the registry
   information for example.com, the DNS zone for .com should be queried.

   There are cases where resources will not naturally map into the DNS
   delegation hierarchy.  This requirement is not meant to force such a
   mapping.

3.2.7.  Distribution for Domain Registry Types

3.2.7.1.  Protocol Requirement

   The protocol MUST NOT prohibit the distribution of data to exclude
   any of the registry/registrar models stated in Section 2.1.1.  The
   protocol MUST be capable of expressing referrals and entity
   references between the various models described in Section 2.1.1.

3.2.7.2.  Service Description

   Depending on the domain registry/registrar model in use, technical
   data for a domain may only reside in one server while contact data
   for the same domain may only reside in a server operated by a
   separate entity.  However, in many uses, this is not the situation.
   Therefore, the service must accommodate for the various registration
   distribution models of domain registry types described in Section
   2.1.1 while complying with Section 3.1.7.

3.2.8.  Data Omission

3.2.8.1.  Protocol Requirement

   When a value in an answer to a query cannot be given due to policy
   constraints, the protocol MUST be capable of expressing the value in
   one of three ways:

   1. complete omission of the value without explanation

   2. an indication that the value cannot be given due to insufficient
      authorization



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   3. an indication that the value cannot be given due to privacy
      constraints regardless of authorization status

   The protocol MAY define other values for this purpose, but MUST
   define values defined above at a minimum.

3.2.8.2.  Service Description

   Internet registries will have varying constraints regarding their
   ability to expose certain types of data, usually social information.
   Server operators must have the ability to accommodate this need while
   client software will be more useful when provided with proper
   explanations.  Therefore, depending on policy, a server operator has
   a choice between not returning the data at all, signaling a
   permission error, or indicating a privacy constraint.

3.2.9.  Internationalization

   The schema defining domain related resources MUST conform to RFC 2277
   [2] regarding textual data.  In particular, the schema MUST be able
   to indicate the charset and language in use with unstructured textual
   data.

   The protocol MUST be able to support multiple representations of
   contact data, with these representations complying with the
   requirements in Section 3.2.3.  The protocol MUST be able to provide
   contact data in UTF-8 and SHOULD be able to provide contact data in
   US-ASCII, other character sets, and capable of specifying the
   language of the data.

4. Feature Requirements

   Feature requirements describe the perceived need derived from the
   functional requirements for specific technical criteria of the
   directory service.  This section describes requirements in the manner
   specified in Section 1.3.

4.1.  Client Authentication

   Entities accessing the service (users) MUST be provided a mechanism
   for passing credentials to a server for the purpose of
   authentication.  The protocol MUST provide a mechanism capable of
   employing many authentication types and capable of extension for
   future authentication types.







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4.2.  Referrals

   To distribute queries for search continuations and to issue entity
   references, the protocol MUST provide a referral mechanism.

4.3.  Common Referral Mechanism

   To distribute queries for search continuations and to issue entity
   references, the protocol MUST define a common referral scheme and
   syntax.

4.4.  Structured Queries and Responses

   To provide for machine consumption as well as human consumption, the
   protocol MUST employ structured queries and responses.

4.5.  Existing Schema Language

   To provide structured queries and responses and allow for minimal
   technological reinvention, the protocol MUST employ a pre-existing
   schema language.

4.6.  Defined Schemas

   To provide for machine consumption as well as human consumption, the
   protocol MUST define schemas for use by the structured queries and
   responses.

5.  Internationalization Considerations

   Requirements defined in this document MUST consider the best
   practices spelled out in [2].

6.  IANA Considerations

   IANA consideration for any service meeting these requirements will
   depend upon the technologies chosen and MUST be specified by any
   document describing such a service.

7. Security Considerations

   This document contains requirements for the validation of
   authenticated entities and the access of authenticated entities
   compared with the access of non-authenticated entities.  This
   document does not define the mechanism for validation of
   authenticated entities.  Requirements defined in this document MUST
   allow for the implementation of this mechanism according best common
   practices.



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   The requirement in Section 3.1.4 must be weighed against other
   requirements specifying search or lookup capabilities.

   This document contains requirements for referrals and entity
   references.  Client implementations based on these requirements
   SHOULD take proper care in the safe-guarding of credential
   information when resolving referrals or entity references according
   to best common practices.

   This document contains requirements for the distribution of queries
   among a mesh of participating service providers.  Protocols proposed
   to meet these requirements must be able to protect against the use of
   that distribution system as a vector of distributed denial of service
   attacks or unauthorized data mining.

Normative References

   [1]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
        specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.

   [2]  Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages",
        BCP 18, RFC 2277, January 1998.

   [3]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
        Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

Informative References

   [4]  Wahl, M., Howes, T. and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access
        Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.

   [5]  Williamson, S., Kosters, M., Blacka, D., Singh, J. and K.
        Zeilstra, "Referral Whois (RWhois) Protocol V1.5", RFC 2167,
        June 1997.

   [6]  Harrenstien, K., Stahl, M. and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS", RFC
        954, October 1985.

   [7]  Alaettinoglu, C., Villamizar, C., Gerich, E., Kessens, D.,
        Meyer, D., Bates, T., Karrenberg, D. and M. Terpstra, "Routing
        Policy Specification Language (RPSL)", RFC 2622, June 1999.

URIs

   [8]  <http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/00dec/00dec-41.htm>

   [9]  <http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/01aug/51-40.htm>




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   [10] <http://www.uwho.verisignlabs.com/
        Final-WhoIsPanel-Aug15-Resume.pdf>

   [11] <http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-40/minutes/
        min_database.html>

   [12] <http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0110/lookup.html>












































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Appendix A. Glossary

   o  TLD: Initials for "top level domain." Referes to domains in DNS
      [1] that are hierarchically at the level just beneath the root.

   o  ccTLD: Initials for "country code top level domain."  TLD's which
      use one of the two character country codes defined by ISO.

   o  gTLD: Initials for "generic top level domain."  TLD's that do not
      use one of the two character country codes defined by ISO.

   o  contact data: Data containing names and contact information (i.e.,
      postal addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses) of humans or
      legal entities.

   o  operational data: Data necessary to the operation of networks and
      network related services and items.

   o  RIR: Initials for "regional Internet registry."

   o  IRR: Initials for "Internet routing registry."

   o  forward lookup: a DNS lookup where a domain name is resolved to an
      IP address.

   o  reverse lookup: a DNS lookup where an IP address is resolved to a
      domain name.

   o  mining: In the context of this document, this term is specific to
      data mining.  This is a methodical process to obtain the contents
      of directory service, usually as much as possible, not relevant to
      any immediate need.  Data mining is often not a practice welcomed
      by registry operators.


















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Appendix B. Acknowledgements

B.1.  Forums

   The proceedings of the following public forums were used as input to
   the scope and requirements for this document:

   o  whois BOF of the 49th IETF [8]; December 10-15, 2000; San Diego,
      CA, USA

   o  whoisfix BOF of the 51st IETF [9]; August 5-10, 2001; London,
      England

   o  First UWho Consultation [10]; August 15, 2001; Washington, DC, USA

   o  Second UWho Consultation; November 15, 2001; Marina del Rey, CA,
      USA

   o  Third UWho Consultation; November 19, 2001; Washington, DC, USA

   o  DNR WG of RIPE 40, October 1-5, 2001; Praque, Czech Republic

   o  Database WG of RIPE 40 [11]; October 1-5, 2001; Praque, Czech
      Republic

   o  General Session of NANOG 23 [12]; October 21-23; Oakland, CA, USA

   o  DNR WG of RIPE 41, January 14-18, 2002; Amsterdam, The Netherlands

   o  Database WG of RIPE 41, January 14-18, 2002; Amsterdam, The
      Netherlands

   o  NANOG 24 Universal Whois BOF, February 10-12, 2002; Miami, Florida

   o  CENTR General Assembly, February 21-22, 2002; Rambouillet, France

   o  CRISP BOF of the 53rd IETF, March 17-22, 2002, Minneapolis,
      Minnesota, USA

B.2.  Working Group

   This document is a work item of the Cross-Registry Internet Service
   Protocol (CRISP) Working Group in the Applications Area of the IETF.
   Discussions for this working group are held on the email list ietf-
   not43@lists.verisignlabs.com.  To subscribe to this email list, send
   email to ietf-not43-request@lists.verisignlabs.com with a subject
   line of "subscribe".  Archives of this list may be found out
   http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/.



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B.3.  Contributions

   Comments, suggestions, and feedback of significant substance have
   been provided by Leslie Daigle, Mark Kosters, Ted Hardie, Shane Kerr,
   Cathy Murphy, Stephane Bortzmeyer, Rick Wesson, Jaap Akkerhuis, Eric
   Hall, Patrick Mevzek, Marcos Sanz, Vittorio Bertola, George
   Michaelson, and Tim Christensen.

Intellectual Property Statement

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
   has made any effort to identify any such rights.  Information on the
   IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
   standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11.  Copies of
   claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
   licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
   obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
   proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
   be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF Executive
   Director.

Author's Address

   Andrew L. Newton
   VeriSign, Inc.
   21355 Ridgetop Circle
   Sterling, VA  20166
   USA

   Phone: +1 703 948 3382
   EMail: anewton@verisignlabs.com; anewton@ecotroph.net











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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
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   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
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   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
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   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
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   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
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   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



















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