Introduction to
"Class" namespaces

A paradigm shift in governance
opening new opportunities to confront the world economic crisis

General introduction to class namespaces

A class is a parameter that defines a network in which one may install namespace. Classes are defined by the RFC 5395. The everyday Internet is using the class "IN" whose namespace is managed by ICANN. At the moment, for all practical purposes, the field class only takes the value "IN", but there are up to 65,000 classes available and unused.

The "Net4D (http://net4d.org ) (ie Network for Development) proposal by Francis Muguet, relies on the opportunity being offered by this large number of unused classes . An outline was presented for the first time (Net4D New classes to bind people and machines) at the Internet Governance Forum in Rio in 2007. The proposal was presented with more details (Towards an open governance of the DNS system ) (Towards an open governance of the DNS system) at the Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad in 2008.

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The network software of an internet user includes a DNS client software, also called "resolver" that is pointing to a DNS server that shall answer with an IP address to a request about a domain name. DNS clients appear in many applications (browser, ftp, email client, etc. ..). When a user accesses to the network, in most cases, the DNS server is determined by default by the ISP,. The DNS server, also by default, answers within the class "IN".

It is important to underline that the DNS system was designed from the outset as a naming tool available for networks other than the Internet, specifically the Chaosnet (class CH) and Hesiod (HS class) networks. These networks, now only of historical interest, were never under the governance of the IETF or ICANN. These facts are constituting very significant legal precedents. Each class is a autonomous namespace with its own DNS root servers and its own governance.

Starting from the years 1995, implementation of a number of alternative DNS roots fragmented and perturbed the IN class managed by ICANN. Therefore in 2001, ICANN itself recommended to make use of unused classes, especially one of the 256 classes for a "private use" for the purpose of an experimentation. Alternative DNS roots have been commercial and technical failures.

The RFCs (Request For Comments) are published by the Internet Engineering TaskForce (IETF) that “develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and leaders are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors; for instance, the current chairperson is funded by VeriSign and the U.S. government's National Security Agency.” ( from Wikipedia)

It is the RFC 5395 ( superseding RFC 2929 ) that takes care of the question of classes. In addition to CH and HS classes and 256 classes that anyone can freely use them for "private use", the other 65,000 classes are not yet assigned classes, and may be assigned by what was formally called an "IETF consensus", but now is called an “IETF review", term which is defined in RFC5226 as :

”IETF Review” (Formerly called "IETF Consensus") New values are assigned only through RFCs that have been shepherded through the IESG( Internet Engineering Steering Group ) as AD-Sponsored or IETF WG Documents [RFC3932] [RFC3978]. The intention is that the document and proposed assignment will be reviewed by the IESG and appropriate IETF WGs (or experts, if suitable working groups no longer exist) to ensure that the proposed assignment will not negatively impact interoperability or otherwise extend IETF protocols in an inappropriate or damaging manner. To ensure adequate community review, such documents are shepherded through the IESG as AD-sponsored (or WG) documents with an IETF Last Call.

If IETF were to decide to block classes assignments to stifle competition, one could legitimately ask why the IETF , whose governance sphere is limited to the Internet, is entitled to assign a class to a network other than his own ie: the Internet. Under international public law, governance and arbitrage between networks should be the responsibility of an international organization such as the International Telecommunication Union, a situation that has been acknowledged by ICANN in its article 4 of incorporation: ICANN “shall operate […] its activities in conformity with relevant principles of international law and applicable international conventions and local law” and “shall corporate as appropriate with relevant international organizations.” -

It is proposed to create other IP based networks, and thus using the same technical pipes as the Internet, but legally distinct precisely because they are using distinct namespace classes.

For a class to be usable in practice, it is required that the DNS client or "resolver" is able to receive from the DNS server the IP address corresponding to a domain name in this class. The BIND¹ software is the best known among DNS server software but there are a few others² .Most DNS clients and servers do not implement completely the RFCs, including RFC 5395. The field class is often considered as a fixed value with IN. Therefore, these software clients and servers shall have to be updated and that the class field must correspond to a real variable. This does not offer any particular technical difficulty.

There is no namespace fragmentation. The parallel use of several classes, is possible: users may use, at the same time, concurrent systems because they can be supported by the same DNS servers. It is transparent to the user, as shall be the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, which occurs at a different level. There is no conceptual problem.

In practice

Users are going to indicate the class with an extra field in front of the domain name. The syntax might be class% placed in front of the domain name. For example for class 4d (corresponding to the network Net4D) and CT class (corresponding to the Cyrillic network Сеть meanig network in Russian) could have the following URLs:

http://4d%fr.wikipedia.open
http://ст%Москва.ро 

In current browsers, there is no need to type http:// and therefore typing

ст%Москва.ро woukd suffice. For a person writing only Cyrillic, one may envision that she/he set in her/his browser the class CT as the class by default so that the person would have only to type Москва.ро , without the need of any ASCII letters.

Potential Uses of Classes

Implementation of classes should facilitate the emergence of new ways to a different use of the Web. More oriented towards new developments, this new network fabric shall be more dynamic, shall provide a new frontier to innovations, and shall be open to civil society and to linguistic diversity, developments, as well as meeting the expectations of innovative industries and emerging countries

Use of new classes can be the vehicle for a different approach of the Web in emerging countries, with costs that are directly determined by the governing body of the class, and therefore potentially much lower.

This could be achieved through the semantic web, using markups and tags of content according metadata and logic languages schemes (ontologies), allowing for far more relevant access to data than in full text. It is therefore proposed to implement classes, called semantic classes , where the legal and technological innovation lies in the fact that owners of domain names are contractually obliged to follow a specific ontology, or to lose their domain names. It would be therefore possible to create namespaces as zones where metadata may be trusted.

As an important consequence, this would redefine the search engines' market, which is currently almost a monopoly, to allow the emergence for new search engines.

Last but not least, classes could use UTF8 encoding, allowing a natural, simpler and more efficient implementation of multilingualism, instead of the current system, whose progress is very slow, which is based on ASCII and transcription UTF8 - ASCII.

Applications to explore: :

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• Class namespaces would offer alternatives to new ICANN extensions (new gTLDs) that would be technologically and economically attractive and would allow creation of a space of trust.

• Implementation of the Internet of Things, with the creation of M2M software, using semantic tags recognition and automated processes operation;

• Creating cityTLD or regionTLDs in multilingual semantic classes, without the financial and technical constraints imposed by ICANN, in order to empower communities to implement societal strategies.

• Implementation of multilingualism based on both UTF8 and metadata resulting into much more efficient³ automatic translations.

• and the possibility of using UTF8⁴ encoded emails. Classes may be the avenue toward for a real “Babel Web”.

• Using a trusted semantic web in order to cross-reference information enabling the creation of databases, e-market places and thus empowering far more efficient price comparators. Use of price comparison combined with e-market places would allow automatic or assisted e-transactions;

• Content marking would also enable construction of trade-related specific thesauri (aeronautics, health, logistics, etc.).

• Creating DNS classes, under the governance of WIPO in direct relationship with 45 classes of trademarks of the International Classification under the Nice agreement, enabling a trusted namespace for brands, either alone or in combination with other DNS classes ensuring legal and commercial security, vehicle for economic growth.

• Creating a DNS class, under the governance of the United Nations or ITU, its specialized Telecom agency, concerning the namespace of entities under international public law.

• Creating DNS classes related to Education, Culture and Science under the governance of UNESCO.

From a technical standpoint, the existence of new classes is a kind of revolution in the governance of namespaces of IP-based networks. It is a constructive revolution however, because related governances may co-exist technically.

The famous Kaminsky's flaw has raised awareness over the crucial importance of DNS security. A centralized security system could be replaced by distinct decentralized security systems related to each class, offering a commercial and political independence for all stakeholders. In the DNSSEC system, the root signing authority may be distinct according to each class. Other security systems such as DNS curves may be considered.

Concerning economics, classes are opening the namespace market to competition between potentially 65,000 players and would end the monopoly of the first historic operator.

At the scientific and technological level, classes are going to allow for more innovation (eg semantic web, Multilingualism, M2M; ...) to flourish.

Implementation of Classes

Experiments

If the the general deployment of classes cannot be considered immediately - except in areas under centralized governance – one should consider experimental periods in various areas having an interest in the project, either for political or economical reasons or for local reasons (language, cultural diversity,etc.)..

Experiments may be performed at the level of a country, a region, a city, using one of the 256 classes scheduled for private use.

In the experimental area, implementation of classes shall be ensured in :

1) all DNS servers of all major ISPs operating in the area ;

2) servers and DNS clients, servers and other web applications, at, local or remotely located companies, operating in the area;

3) servers and DNS clients, servers and other web applications, at local (or even national) authorities, associations as well as individuals operating in the area :

4) DNS clients and browsers of users participating in the experiment .

The participation of major ISPs in the area should a contractual requirement in order to start an experiment, the participation of other players will be implemented be on a voluntary basis, while a website would feature a dynamic list of current participants.

Consequences in terms of governance.

Concerning Information Networks, the consequences of an effective opening of the namespace services to competition are quite fundamental.

Opening the competition is a constructive and alternative way out of an old-fashioned power struggle over a critical resource, that constitutes the ICANN “quasi-monopoly” ( term used by EU Commissioner Reding in her 4 May 2009 video address ). Within this perspective, ICANN would appear simply as the historic namespace operator, under the parentage of the country that started the Internet. Other namespace operators should and could appear with the parentage of other stakeholders, including International Organizations, international regions, cultural communities, Countries, national regions, Cities, Businesses and last but not least Civil Society, bringing its concern for long-term societal values, over short-term financial interests.

It is expected that some classes might be envisioned as focused towards specific cultures and languages, as embodiments of cultural and linguistic diversity.

An announcement supporting possible future implementation of an effective competition would alleviate most of the international political tensions that is going to arise from the very likely renewal of the Joint Project Agreement next September.

Introduction of an effective competition should move intergovernmental oversight, such as ITU, to a higher level. The role of international organization and governments should be to insure that the competition is fair, transparent, honest, as well as equitable for developing countries.

Concerning classes governance, it is suggested, in a very exploratory fashion, to consider transparent, inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnerships, including intergovernmental and governmental organizations, technical operators, businesses, academia, civil society, fully recognized within an international public law context, according to the UNMSP proposal.

Conclusions

Namespace classes may provide an effective way to open competition namespace services over IP based information networks, which in turn completely revolutionizes, in a constructive way, the governance of namespace services.

Namespace classes are certainly a key strategic element to consider in order to confront the global economic crisis.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks, in chronological order, Chantal Lebrument for her interview, which was the starting point of this note, and Michel Tchonang (CAPDA) for his comments and contributions.