Jan, 2008 : ICANN Board Approves Historic F-Root Agreement

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporationfor Assigned Names and Numbers has formally approved the Mutual ResponsibilitiesAgreement with the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), the operators of F-Root.

"The security and stability of the domain name system are at the heartof ICANN's core mission, and the formal approval of this agreement is a keycomponent in meeting that mission," said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's Presidentand CEO. "One of ICANN's responsibilities under the Joint Project Agreementwith the U.S. Government is to work to formalize relationships with root serveroperators, so this is a real milestone."

"I'm pleased that ISC could take thisfirst step with ICANN to formalize mutual expectations," said Paul Vixie,ISC's President. "By memorializing and publishing the details of our long-standingcommitment to ensure that the F-root nameserver is available 24x7 to theentire Internet community, we hope for a wider understanding of the key operationaland stability issues of most concern to the root operator community and theInternet community as a whole."

ICANN and ISC announced they had reached thisagreement at the start of January 2008. That announcement is available here[http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-04jan08.htm]and a copy of the MRA is available here: http://icann.org/froot/ICANN-ISC-MRA-26dec07.pdf [PDF,21K].

Effective root server operations are an essential component in providinga stable and secure, globally interoperable Internet. ISC is one of 12 globalroot server operators that provide a key element of the underlying domainname system infrastructure of the Internet. Essentially, root servers providean authoritative directory ensuring Internet services that are accessed withnames, for example the URL www.icann.org or email to info@isc.org, are translatedfrom human readable names into network addresses that a computer can find.The root server system overall answers well over 100,000 queries per second,providing the first step in determining the requested network address.

About ISC:

Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3), public benefitcorporation with a long history of developing and maintaining the productionquality BIND and DHCP Open Source software. ISC has increased its focus toinclude enhancing the stability of the global DNS directly through reliableF-root name server operations and ongoing operation of a DNS crisis coordinationcenter, ISCs OARC for DNS. ISC is also engaged in further protocol developmentefforts, particularly in the areas of DNS evolution and facilitating the transitionto IPv6. ISC is supported by the donations of generous sponsors, program membershipfees and specific fees for services. For program or donation information, pleasevisit our website at http://www.isc.org.

Media Contact: Laura Hendriksen, 650-423-1309, laura_hendriksen@isc.org

Technical Contact : Joao Damas, joao_damas@isc.org

 About ICANN:

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's systemof unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codeslike .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that helpcomputers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resourcesis vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularlyto develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability.ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. Formore information please visit: www.icann.org .

Media Contacts:

Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org

International: Andrew Robertson
Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588770
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com