The Future of the Internet : The Future of the Internet Paul Twomey President and CEO
24 August 2007 Workshop on the Internet and Issues Impacting Policy in the Converging Environment Delhi, India
What I want to share with you today : What I want to share with you today Personal view of future of the Internet
Future issues for the DNS
IPv4–IPv6 transition
Internationalized Domain Names
New Generic Top Level Domains
Overview of Internet governance and the multi-stakeholder model
ICANN’s place within the Internet : 3 ICANN’s place within the Internet Telecommunications infrastructure – Physical network made up of underwater cables, telephone lines, fiber optics, satellites, microwaves, wi-fi, and so on – facilitates transfer of electronic data over the Internet Internet protocols and standards (TCP/IP, DNS, SSL) – TCP/IP, controls traffic flow by dividing email and web data into packages before they are transmitted on the Internet Content and applications standards (HTML, XML, Java) – Promotes creativity and innovation in applications leading to email, World Wide Web, ebanking, wiki, Skype, and much more ICANN’S Responsibility Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
What do we stand for? : What do we stand for? Single interoperable Internet
All can express in their own language and identity but…
All can communicate with all others
Creativity and innovation is encouraged for the benefit of consumers
Security of the network is maintained to ensure confidence in the model
Stability of the experience for application development and consumer experience
Growth is encouraged
Resources are deployed efficiently in support of a global network
All relevant stakeholders have a voice and role ICANN Model Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance
Difficult to define what the Internet will look like in ten years, but… : Difficult to define what the Internet will look like in ten years, but… Usage limited by access to electricity – 3 billion
Many, perhaps most, will access by mobile devices
Significant increase in broadband access (over 100 mb/sec)
Machine-to-machine Internet will overtake person-to-person Internet
Billions of Internet-enabled appliances at home, work, in the car, in the pocket
Internet used by third parties to monitor all sorts of activities and utilities – washing machines to cars to electricity meters
Geo-location and geo-indexed systems much more common and emergency services will be more precisely dispatched Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Difficult to define what the Internet will look like in ten years, but… : Significant improvement in spoken interaction with Internet-based systems
Wide range of delivery methods for intellectual property (movies, sound tracks, books, etc.). VoIP will be prevalent and SIP may be the principal protocol means by which calls are set up. Voice communication will be essentially free except perhaps for calls that terminate on traditional PSTN devices, including mobiles
Almost no industry will be offline – most will rely on the Net for customer interaction, customer discovery, sales, service, advertising, etc.
Group interaction, collaborative support tools (including distributed games) will be very common.
Internationalized Domain Names and much more multilingual Internet content Difficult to define what the Internet will look like in ten years, but… Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
What will the technical underpinnings of the Internet look like by then? : What will the technical underpinnings of the Internet look like by then? Terabit-per-second local networking will be available – backbones and local nets
Domain name system will operate in multiple language scripts
IPv6 will be widely deployed
Better confidentiality and authenticity will be provided through the use of public key crypto – more authentication of the network
Much more interdevice interaction will be common, incorporating position location, sensor networks, and local radio communication
Spam and various forms of denial-of-service attacks will continue a “cold war” arms race with defences and better authentication techniques
Operating systems will continue to be troublesome sources of vulnerability Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
What is IPv6 and why is it needed? : What is IPv6 and why is it needed? Explosive expansion of the Internet is being driven by –
Deployment of internationalized domain names
New gTLDs and ccTLDs expected in the near term
Greater multilingual access, content and business services on the Internet
Greater number of devices linking to the Internet – mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and even appliances (refrigerators, televisions, windscreen wipers)
Each device must have a unique numerical (IP) address
IPv6 (128 bits) technology solution extends the current IPv4 (32 bits) protocol, enabling future expansion Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
What are the advantages of IPv6? : What are the advantages of IPv6? Aside from allowing continued Internet expansion –
Allows every machine/device to have its own IP address, simplifying network design and facilitating remote configuration
Allows for very high bandwidth networks by making use of larger data packets, a benefit to academic, educational and scientific institutions
Opens door to next-generation devices
Enables better connectivity worldwide, allowing remote operation of home and office appliances and devices
Increases possibility of real-time data retrieval and transmission across the Internet
A potential commercial advantage: gaining understanding of new technology sooner rather than later Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Is the move to IPv6 inevitable? : Is the move to IPv6 inevitable? Short answer – Yes
But, IPv4 will not disappear any time soon, even with increasing urgency to adopt IPv6
IPv4 will continue, especially in developing countries which have yet to introduce IPv4 infrastructure
No cutoff date for IPv4 address block allocations
Both systems will run in parallel for the foreseeable future
Possible reintroduction of unused IP addresses into the system under discussion
Allocation and transition policies have been drawn up Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Where we are now : 11 Where we are now Pool of unallocated IPv4 addresses is projected to be fully distributed in mere years
Perception as merely a technical issue – and disagreement within the technical community – have contributed to lack of movement to IPv6
Now, many organizations and governments are stressing its importance publicly
ICANN is developing a communications strategy to raise awareness and achieve stakeholder agreement, covering
Why they should move, and financial benefits
What happens if they don’t move
The cost of moving and not moving to IPv6
How to transition to IPv6 Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Ipv6 is the technology of today; IPv4 is the technology of yesterday : Ipv6 is the technology of today; IPv4 is the technology of yesterday Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
ICANN’s policy development role : 13 ICANN’s policy development role Safeguard an open, fair and equitable policy development process
Be receptive to all stakeholders, public and private
Be responsive to stakeholders who provide input and communicate next steps
Communicate timely and useful information about the issue and the policy process Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Internationalized domain names : Internationalized domain names One of the most challenging issues to security, stability and growth of the Internet
Recognizes that –
ASCII characters now used exclude entire communities
People familiar with other languages and other scripts will never become familiar with Latinate alphabet
Need for growth in multilingual Internet access (local script domains)
Need for growth in multilingual Internet content
Will cause an explosion in registered domain names – far beyond today’s 128+ million domains
Encompasses –
Other alphabets (Cyrillic)
Right-to-left based scripts (Arabic)
Non-alphabet scripts (Mandarin Chinese) Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
IDN development principles : IDN development principles Global uniqueness and interoperability of the domain name system
Unique and unambiguous domain names with same functionality regardless of geographic placement of access
Promote “future-proof” solutions
Define characters that are allowed and an ability to add new ones
Not all characters used in the worlds’ languages will be available for use in domain names
Reduce user confusion as much as possible via technical development and implementation requirements, registry policies and user education
IDNA protocol standard in implementation
Promote multi-stakeholder involvement
Role of ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Where we are now : 16 Where we are now IETF is finalizing the IDN protocol for defining characters that can be used to register domain names
Right now only 37 characters can be used in domain names
When IDNs are in place tens of thousands of characters will be available
ICANN Board has approved a request for insertion of 11 IDN TLDs into the root zone
example.test will be inserted in 11 languages to evaluate the impact of IDNs
Users will be able to establish their own temporary pages from example.test with their name in their language
Goal is IDN deployment in 2008 Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
New generic top-level domains : New generic top-level domains Introducing new gTLDs has been part of ICANN’s work since 1999
2000 – .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, .museum
2004 – .jobs, .mobi, .cat, .travel, .asia
Deployment has attracted much attention –
TLD space is small with many perceived business advantages
Sponsored TLDs increasing in their appeal to cultural communities, organisations and industry sectors
Conduct of process by ICANN and its community Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
New gTLD policy development process : New gTLD policy development process Generic Names Supporting Organization County Code Names Supporting Organization gTLD Registries and Registrars
Intellectual property
ISPs
Businesses
Universities
Consumers ccTLD registries
.us, .uk, .au, .it, .be, .nl, and so on Address Supporting Organization Regional Internet Registries
ARIN
RIPE NCC
LACNIC
APNIC
AfriNIC ASO GNSO CCNSO Reviews and develops recommendations on Internet Protocol (IP) address policy Develops and recommends substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains Develops and recommends global policies relating to country-code top-level domains Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Where we are now : 19 Where we are now New gTLDs are about choice
ICANN is developing a new application and approval policy that aims at streamlining gTLD applications and launching
Although there will be an application round, the new system is intended to be standard for future applications and approvals
New gTLDs could work in tandem with progress on IDNs for the introduction of new TLDs in new character sets
Next round of new gTLDs expected in early 2008 Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues Internet Governance ICANN Model
Stability of current Internet governance model : Stability of current Internet governance model ICANN’s role as consensus-builder of policies and protocols
ICANN endorses WGIG definition of Internet governance –
Internet governance is the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues ICANN Model Internet Governance
Critical Internet resources : Critical Internet resources Broader than merely ICANN’s area of responsibility
Peering and interconnection
Telecommunications infrastructure
Innovation and convergent technologies
IGF’s goal is to ensure access to the information society for all Future of the Internet Future DNS Issues ICANN Model Internet Governance
Conclusions and observations : Conclusions and observations The Internet is the most powerful and pervasive technology for empowering individuals
It is part of the glue which ensures a rapid unleashing of humanity’s knowledge and possibilities for all persons no matter what age, sex, creed, class, ethnicity or – at least to some degree – wealth
It is radically reducing transaction costs and barriers to markets across a globalized economy
Thank You www.icann.org : Thank You www.icann.org