Application number: 1-937-68428 for Collectivité Territoriale de Corse

Collectivité Territoriale de Corse

22, cours Grandval
Ajaccio cedex Corse 20187
FR

+33495516464

+33495516775

http:⁄⁄www.corse.fr

Mr. Thomas Mackenzie

Consultant

+33674286392

tom.mackenzie1@gmail.com

Hervé Rannou

CEO

+33607743818

herve.rannou@items.fr

Local Government Authority (Collectivité Territoriale)

French constitutional law

Not Available

Christophe Appietto
Ingénieur Territorial
Eric Ferrari
Chef du Service du Developpement Technologique

corsica

Not Available

Background checks were carried out by the technical operator for the .corsica TLD to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for ʺ.corsicaʺ gTLD string.
It was found that since the .corsica gTLD string is an ASCII-only string, it is safe to assume that, just as with existing ASCII-only TLD strings like .com, .net or .de, no operational or rendering problems are to be expected. The name consists entirely of ASCII characters that are already used for existing top-level domains. Moreover, all the characters in the name are used in the leftmost position of existing TLD labels. In order to confirm our assumption that there will be no operational or rendering problems, thorough research was conducted regarding whether such issues have occurred for any existing ASCII-only to- level domains in the past. They have not.
This means that bi-directional issues (like the ones described at http:⁄⁄stupid.domain.name⁄node⁄683) will not occur, also in view of the fact that the .corsica TLD string does not contain digits (whose behaviour in bi-directional contexts can lead to rendering issues).
As the registry supports right-to-left scripts at the second level, the respective IDN tables were carefully crafted according to IDNA2008 standards to ensure that no rendering issues occur left or right of the dot (ʺ.ʺ) character separating the top and second domain name labels (which are the only labels under the registryʹs control).
Moreover, the .corsica gTLD string is comprised of characters from a single alphabet, does not contain digits or hyphens, and it contains characters that are not subject to homograph issues, i.e. there is no potential for confusion with regard to the rendering of other TLD strings.
Finally, a testing environment for the .corsica TLD was set up using the target Registration System, including an EPP SRS, Whois and DNS servers, in order to conduct a series of tests involving typical use cases (like web site operation and e-mail messaging) for a TLD. The tests revealed no operational or rendering issues with any popular software (web browsers, e-mail clients) or operating systems.

The .corsica TLD will be a community-based TLD aimed at the population of Corsica, the Diaspora of Corsicans around the world, and the wider community of individuals and business owners, wherever they may be, who feel an attachment to the island of Corsica, its culture, heritage or language. In total, the global community of individuals and business owners with a direct attachment to and⁄or interest in a Corsican identity is estimated to be close to 1 million.

The purpose of the .corsica TLD can be summarized as follows:

- To give Corsicans a new means of identifying and promoting their activities via the Internet under a top-level domain which has a clear significance to them. 

- To promote the development of email services under the .corsica TLD aimed at anyone who may have an affinity with the island of Corsica.

- To boost the visibility and promotion of this region of the Mediterranean Basin and all that it has to offer in terms of its cultural and economic via the Internet.

- To respond to the public desire to create a repository of Corsica’s immaterial cultural heritage on the Internet.

- To pursue the region of Corsica’s multi-year strategy to centralise Corsica’s presence on the Internet initiated with the acquisition of the cors.fr, corsica.fr and corsica.eu domain names.

The island of Corsica is very much part of France, yet it is a region with a history, linguistic tradition and unique cultural heritage that make it quite unique. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, southeast of mainland France, west of Italy and north of the Italian island of Sardinia, Corsica has an ancient history stretching back to the Mesolithic period, and its cultural heritage is the product of successive periods of colonization over the centuries, by the Greeks, Romans, the Genonese and the Franks.

For modern-day Corsicans, cut off as they are from the mainland France and Europe, the Internet has become a critical means of exchange and trade with the rest of the world. Investments from the Regional Government of Corsica, the French Government and the European Union have served to build up critical Internet infrastructures and ensure that the population of Corsica, which includes remote mountain communities, is almost entirely ADSL connected.

The current application for the .corsica TLD is viewed by the Regional Government of Corsica as the logical continuation of a strategy to harmonize the naming policies of the main public administrations of the island, and offer the people of Corsica a new TLD with which they can clearly identify.

A tool for organising ‘Corsican’ content on the Internet

There is a sizeable volume of information on the Internet containing the words ‘Corsica’ or ‘Corse’. A simple search using Google will typically result in 30 to 40 million pages. It is also clear that interest in the subject of Corsica remains constantly high with an annual pattern of searches peaking during the summer months and the tourist season (source: Google Trends). Finally, there are, according to domain name searching services in excess of 380 000 websites under various TLDs containing the word ‘corse’ or ‘corsica’.

These search trends and volume data speak to the rationale for creating the .corsica TLD. It is expected that the new TLD will serve Corsicans who wish to give greater prominence to the cultural or geographical origin of their Internet sites, and it will provide Internet users with an interest in the region with an additional marker aimed at facilitating Internet navigation.

Corsica’s digital agenda

The regional government of Corsica has been promoting a vigorous digital agenda since the end of the 1990s. Internet access and the promotion of the region and its economic and cultural assets via the Internet has been viewed as essential for the economic development of this relatively small, insular Mediterranean region. It has been given full political support across party lines and it has involved ensuring that the entire population of Corsica is ADSL connected.

In March 2005, the Regional government of Corsica launched the ʺCorsica Hotspotʺ initiative, with a view to ensuring ubiquitous free access to wireless Internet in public places. Today, some 80 Corsica Hotspot are operational throughout the Corsica, including cafes, hotels, marinas, airports, stations, the University of Corsica, Hotels, town halls, cultural centers, theaters, village squares, associations, etc.. As a result of this initiative connectivity across the island has gained is consistency and finesse.

Milestones on road towards the .corsica TLD

February 2005: The Corsican Parliament (Assemblee de Corse) voted, on 25th February 2005, in favour of the adoption of a multi-year strategy regarding the acquisition and use of domain names on the Internet. Since then the Regional Government of Corsica (Collectivité Territoriale de Corse) has overseen the implementation of the different phases of the project including the acquisition of the corsica.fr, corsica.eu and corse.eu domain names. The ultimate phase of this strategy was to obtain the .corsica Top Level Domain (TLD).

March 2011: The Corsican parliament votes in favour of undertaking all the steps necessary to obtain and manage the .corsica TLD. (Déliberation no. 11⁄147 de l’Assemblée de Corse Approuvant la démarche d’obtention et d’exploitation du nom de domaine sur Internet .corsica; séance du 24 juin 2011).

Internet access in France

France is one of the most connected countries in the world with sustained levels of growth. In 2012 more than 40 million people out of a total population of 60 million had access to the Internet, or 6% more than 2011. Internet users are also increasingly frequently connected: almost two thirds of the French population connect to the Internet on a daily basis. The most notable growth areas are:

Booming e-commerce: Buying online is attracting an ever greater number of French shoppers. The frequency of online purchasing has also increased. In 2011, more than half the population of France, all socio-economic categories included and regardless of place of residence, used the internet for purchasing goods or services.”

Booming mobile Internet access: Rapid growth with 19 million mobile users by the end of 2011, i.e. 3.5 million more than a year previously (+23%). Mobile Internet users are increasingly female, younger and more provincial. The spread of smart phones and the diversity of offers operators contribute to the changing profile of mobile internet users.

Growing consumer confidence: Confidence in e-commerce continues to rise: 66.5% of French Internet users have confidence in online shopping, a 7% increase on the previous year. Online shoppers are increasingly female with a 15% increase in the number of women shoppers per year. The populations of regions of France, including Corsica, account for a significant part of the growth in e-shoppers, with a 14% annual growth rate between 2011 and 2012.

As e-commerce grows in importance in years to come and as rapid and assured brand recognition becomes increasingly important, the new .corsica TLD is expected to play a critical role in promoting Corsican goods and services. Over time, the adoption and strict implementation of the .corsica TLD Users Charter will ensure that the ‘Corsica’ brand is associated with quality of content as well as quality of service. It is expected to play a significant role in boosting consumer trust and choice.

The Regional Government of Corsica is committed to ensuring that the initial investments required to set up and run the TLD are paid off in terms increased e-commerce returns on investment for the region. 

i. Goal of of the .corsica TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation

The .corsica TLD will be a new way of asserting Corsica’s identity and presence on the Internet. It is expected to contribute to the image of Corsica as a culturally and economically vibrant region of Europe. Based on the research carried out in preparation for this application we anticipate that it will be widely embraced by the people and business owners of Corsica, as well as the community of Corsicans worldwide who share a strong sense of attachment to the region and its culture.

There are two rationales for the creation of a new .corsica TLD: economic and cultural.

- In economic terms, the .corsica TLD is expected to act as a catalyst for the production of new content and the development of new online services, with positive direct and indirect economic benefits in terms of increased revenues and job creation.

- Culturally, the new TLD will become a new Internet signifier, a new means of organising, archiving and searching for content on the region of Corsica and its people. As such, it is viewed by the Regional Government as a vital means of building up the immaterial cultural heritage of the region.

Areas of speciality

Initially, the .corsica TLD will be deployed as a new community-based gTLD without specific areas of speciality. However, in the course of its implementation independent needs-assessment studies will be conducted regarding the creation of second-level domains such hotel.corsica, wine.corsica, association.corsica etc. The modalities for the management of these ‘speciality’ sub domains will be defined at a later date.

- University of Corsica: creation of .univ or .universite sub-domain

The University of Corsica with a student population of around 4000 will be a major vector for the promotion of the .corsica TLD. A premier research centre for the study of renewable energies, oceanography, firefighting studies, natural resource management, sustainable development and regional-level government studies, cultural studies, and information and communication technologies, the University will be among the first major employers of the region to deploy the new TLD. The university is expected to give up the current www.univ-corse.fr naming structure in favour of www.univ.corsica format.

- Tourism industry: creation of .hotel sub-domain

The numerous actors of Corsica’s important tourism sector are expected to seize the opportunity of the .corsica TLD with the possible creation of subdomains such as .hotel.corsica, wine.corsica or aoc.corsica.

Service levels

The aim of the .corsica TLD is to offer guarantees in terms of service, security and technical assistance in standing with a world-class gTLD. At the technical level this will be ensured by AFNIC, one of the world’s foremost ccTLDs in terms of domain name registrations, its record on the issue of DNS security, IPv6 deployment etc. and its reputation for technical excellence.

AFNIC will ensure the provision of all critical services required for the function of the .corsica TLD in compliance with ICANN-specified norms. These are:

- DNS resolution in compliance with the obligations listed in Specification 6 section 1.1 of the Registry contract.
- The deployment of DNSSEC in compliance with the obligation listed in Specification 6 section 1.3 of the Registry contract.
- SRS ⁄ EPP domain name registering service (DNS delegation chain and management of registrars as specified in section 4.3 of the CCTP) in conformity with the obligations listed in Specification 6 section 1.2 of the Registry contract.
- Provision of Whois service, Zone File Access and Bulk Registration Data Access to ICANN in conformity with the obligations listed in Specification 4 of the Registry contract.
- Provision of Registry Data Escrow service in conformity with the obligations listed in Specification 3 part A of the Registry contract.

At the main ‘point-of-contact’ level in Ajaccio, this will be ensured by a fully trained and qualified staff. Local staff will be trained in the use of software developed by AFNIC for the purposes of invoicing registrars, the management of domain name portfolios, supervision of critical services of the Registry, and the statistical monitoring of the .corsica TLD.

The registry will have a comprehensive website with features such as a FAQ, downloadable documents including the .corsica TLD Users Charter, policy documents regarding TLD issues, lists of icann accredited registrars, technical documents, contact details etc.

The Regional Government of Corsica plans to encourage the development of local registrars. Various business models are envisaged from the simple resale of domain names bought from the .corsica registry to bundled offers including the purchase of the domain names, hosting facilities, email and technical services, assistance etc.

Reputation

The strong reputation of the .corsica TLD will be critical to its adoption, growth prospects and sustainable implementation in the medium to long-term. Over time the reputation of the .corsica TLD will be maintained and reinforced thanks to its Users’ Charter including clear procedures in case of abusive behaviour (phishing, pharming etc.), enforceable rules to protect trademarks, and measures to protect the privacy of domain name owners in line with international best practices. 

ii. What the .corsica TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation

Competition

In terms of competitiveness the .corsica TLD will allow Corsicans to promote their goods and services via the Internet using an extension with which they identify more readily than the more generic .fr or .com, .org extensions that are currently available. The .corsica TLD will be presented to the Corsican people as an alternative means of communicating via the Internet and raising the international profile of the region as a whole. 

Key to the success of the .corsica TLD will be the way in which it gives registrants a competitive edge over other content and⁄or service providers thanks to the extra ‘visibility’ and searchability which the name provides. Following the delegation of several hundred new gTLDs in 2013, it is understood that the main search engines will be updated in a way that gives greater priority to TLDs, i.e. www.ajaccio-judo-club.corsica is likely to get a higher ranking in search results than www.ajaccio-judo-club.com.

Differentiation

Achieving greater differentiation for Corsican products and services online is one of the primary objectives of the .corsica TLD. This new TLD will allow domain name holders to rationalise their naming strategies (no longer needing to include the word ‘corsica’ lower down the domain name hierarchy), and communicate more effectively with potential contacts or customers with an interest in Corsica. Currently the French word ‘corse’ is, in many instances, used at the second level, however, the creation of a .corsica TLD will serve to simplify and increase the impact of Corsican domain names. To take the example of the ADEC (Regional Development Agency) the name will complete its evolution from www.corse-adec.org to www.adec.corse.fr to www.adec.corsica.

- Main economic sectors affected by .corsica TLD:

Tourism sector: For actors in all sectors of the economy, but especially in the increasingly competitive tourism sector, the .corsica TLD is intended to ensure that operators have all the means at their disposal to maintain their competitive edge.

The management of the .corsica TLD will be fully integrated into the Regional Government of Corsica’s strategic planning regarding the economic development of the region. Hence, as mentioned in our response to question 18b-A, a number of second-level domain names may be delegated, following appropriate feasibility studies and subject to the approval of the Corsican Assembly. These include the extensions ‘vin’ or ‘wine’, ‘aoc’,‘hotel’ or ‘artisan’ so as to be able to create domain names such as:

- name1.fromage.aoc.corsica
- corse-coteaux.wine.corsica
- myhotel.hotels.corsica
- name.artisan.corsica

Innovation

The .corsica TLD will create a new space for innovation and serve as a catalyst for the diversification of online products and services. To this end a communications campaign will be run to encourage the widespread adoption of the new TLD. As mentioned in subsequent sections, this communications campaign will be targeted at specific economic sectors and groups such as the students of the university of Corsica.

The communications campaign will also aim to promote the establishment of local registrars. It is expected that the proximity of these new registrars with the people of Corsica, and the competition between them, will be beneficial in terms of offering services that are tailored to the needs and means of the population.

iii. Goals of the .corsica TLD in terms of user experience

The main goal of the .corsica TLD is to provide Corsicans, with the option of a new community-based TLD that better reflects their cultural identity than, say, .fr or .com. The expectation is that the .corsica TLD will come to be viewed by Corsicans in the same way that .cat is viewed by Catalans. For the broader community of Internet users the .corsica TLD will come to be recognized a badge of quality, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of the stable and secure management of the DNS.

The .corsica will not be run as for-profit enterprise. From the outset the emphasis will be placed on ensuring optimal levels of user experience. Over time the .corsica TLD will become synonymous with quality of content but also in terms of stability, resilience and security.

AFNIC: state-of-the-art back end registry
As the technical operator of the .corsica AFNIC will offer a world class quality of service notably in relation to
- WhoIs
- DNSSEC: Since 2010 counts among the pioneering registries that signs its TLD.
- IPv6 compatibility. AFNIC has been a pioneer in the deployment of IPv6 in France since 2003, and all its services are deployed in IPv6
- EPP: as an implementation whose compliance with standards was universally praised,
- Anycast. AFNIC has fully integrated and mastered this key DNS resolution technology. Since 2009 AFNIC deploys its own Anycast node for hosting high availability DNS services,

Promotion and appropriation of the .corsica ‘brand’

As the Internet continues to grow at an exponential rate and as it becomes harder - even perilous - for ordinary Internet users to navigate, the .corsica TLD will become a new, easily recognizable marker. In terms of user experience the most obvious advantage of the .corsica TLD will be its powerful signifying force at the level of the DNS - more powerful, arguably than the .cat TLD which does not necessarily denote ‘Catalonia’ in the minds of all those who encounter the extension for the first time. In the case of the .corsica TLD there will be no ambiguity.

The sense of belonging to a community which the .corsica TLD brings with it is expected to benefit registrants who feel a strong sense of attachment to the region, yet who do not have the means to reflect this at present at the level of the DNS. The TLD will contribute to defining the local and the global communities of ‘Corsicans’ taking into account the full extent of their diversity and numbers.

iv. Summary of .corsica TLD registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

A comprehensive charter describing registration policies for the .corsica will be prepared and published before the commercialization of the TLD. This document will be prepared in conjunction with AFNIC and a third party consultancy, and submitted to the Corsican parliament for approval, prior to the launch of the TLD. The charter will aim to be sufficiently open to encourage large numbers of registrations from legitimate content and service providers, but sufficiently restrictive and with sufficient provisos to protect the TLD against abusive behaviour. It will contain a complete description of the procedures in case of dispute over a domain name.

1) Pioneer Phase
The Pioneer Phase will start before the new TLD has even been delegated and may be compared more to a marketing campaign. Corporate groups such as the Corsican airline Corsair and Corsica Ferries will be encouraged, during this phase, to show their support for the .corsica project by making a sponsorship-type contribution. As an example of the type of offer that could be made, in exchange for agreeing to advertise the .corsica TLD on their vessels, aircraft, buses, etc. and for a ‘sponsorship’ fee of between 1,000€ and 20,000€, depending on the size of the company, the company will be given a multi-year lease of the domain name of their choice as well as opportunities to promote their brand during promotional events.

2) Sunrise period
During the Sunrise period, expected to last around 3 months, a major communications campaign will be run to draw attention to the launch of the .corsica TLD. During this period, owners of recognized brand names will be invited to pre-book their domain name or request that it is put on a ‘not for sale’ list of names. The Sunrise period will be implemented in light of ICANN best practices and, in particular, the recommendations of ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency ‘The Perfect Sunrise: How pre-launch Rights Protection Mechanisms and successful registry operations go hand in hand.’ The protection of Trademark owners rights during the Sunrise Period will be duly respected. The authenticity of demands for Trademark names will be verified by means of ICANN’s Trademark Clearing House. The .corsica registry will also have recourse to ICANN’s Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) in cases where it appears there has been a deliberate infringement against a trademark.

During the Sunrise period Pre-registrants will need to prove that they either the right to the commercial name applied for, or that they are registered with a recognized government or industry authority. The costs for pre-booking or domain name or putting a domain name on a not-for-sale list will be determined during the .charter. Prices will be in the range of 50 to 100 euros for pre booking a name and 75 euros for putting a name on a not-for-sale list.

3) Landrush period
The Landrush period, also expected to last around 3 months, will be open to all registrants, and the basic rule for the attribution of a domain name will be ‘first come first served’. During the Landrush period, the retail price for a domain name is expected to be approximately three times the eventual price, i.e. 45 to 55 euros.

4) General Availability
With the general launch of the .corsica TLD, registrar prices for domain names will be brought down to around to around 22 euros per domain name. Registrants that meet the eligibility criteria will be able to purchase domain names on a first come first served basis.

.Corsica Users Charter

The .corsica TLD Users Charter will draw on certain aspects of AFNIC’s own Charter (Charte de Nommage: Regles d’enregistrement des noms de domaines).

In summary:

1) There will be syntactic limitations with a ban on names that:
- are composed of one or two characters
- include accented letters
- start or end with a hyphen
- contain more than 255 letters

2) The principle of ‘first come first served’ will be observed.

With the exception of a pre-established and publicly available list of domain names that are banned or reserved the principle of ‘first come first served’ will be observed, i.e. the chronological order in which requests are received will be respected.

3) List of names requiring special approval: The .corsica registry will prepare a list of names which will require a more detailed assessment before they are registered. This list will include the names of the 360 villages across Corsica. For these types of names the registrar will need to obtain specified documents which attest to the applicant’s true identity and legitimacy.

4) List of banned names: The .corsica registry will also have a list of banned names due to their offensive nature e.g. ‘nazi’, ‘killer’, ‘pornography’,...

5) Domain names under the .corsica TLD will be held for fixed 12-month durations in accordance with the terms of reference of the naming policy.

6) The price of domain names will include setting up costs, annual maintenance and costs requiring the involvement of the registry.

7) Eligibility: the .corsica TLD will be available to individuals and corporate entities regardless of their geographic location.

8) Reachability: There will be a strict requirement for the owners of domain names to be reachable by phone or email.

v. Measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users

The protection of confidential information submitted by registrants and users, aside from any information that can be accessed via the ‘Whois’ database, will be rigorously enforced. All personal information received in the course of registering domain names will be stored in secure databases and never communicated to third parties. The only exceptions to this protection concern requests for information that may come from the French judicial system or certain state authorities, e.g. the fiscal authorities, customs office etc..

Personal data

The treatment of all personal data in relation to the registration is subject to French legislation (Loi 78-17 of 6th January 1978) pertaining to the freedom of information. Registrars contracted to commercialise the .corsica TLD will be required to adhere to the prescriptions of this law. Duly identified owners of domain names will have the right to access all the information concerning them which may be held by the .corsica registry, AFNIC or a domain name registry, as the case may be.

Whois Data

Whois data including the information that will be required as a matter of course to identify individuals or corporate entities that have registered domain names under the .corsica TLD will be maintained by AFNIC. This service will be provided in compliance with the obligation listed in specification 4 of the registry contracts. 

Outreach and communications

A multi-pronged outreach and communications campaign will be run to coincide with the delegation and launch of the .corsica TLD. This campaign will be designed and run by a third party operator to be selected following a public call for tender.

This campaign will include:

- Targeted correspondence and the organisation of meetings with the representatives of the villages of Corsica, all of whom will be given priority regarding the registration of their place name.
- Targeted correspondence and organisation of meetings with the main ICANN-Accredited Domain Name Registrars operating in France. 
- Participation in Internet governance fora, notably ICANN and CENTR meetings.
- Targeted correspondence and the organisation of meetings with the representatives and business owners of the main economic sectors (tourism, wine, gastronomy).
- Setting up of a comprehensive website regarding the .corsica TLD as well as a Facebook page and Twitter account.
- Production and distribution during Internet governance meetings and other selected events of promotional merchandising products including fliers, badges, pens, mugs etc..

For the majority of domain name applications the principle of ‘first come, first served’ will be observed. Hence, the strict chronological order in which applications are registered will be used to determine how names are attributed.

Should a dispute arise over the purchase and use of a domain name the ICANN approved Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) will be followed.

Accordingly, most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name. Disputes alleged to arise from abusive registrations of domain names (e.g. cybersquatting) may be addressed by expedited administrative proceedings that the holder of trademark rights initiates by filing a complaint with an approved dispute-resolution service provider.

To invoke the policy, a trademark owner will either (a) have to file a complaint in a court of proper jurisdiction against the domain-name holder (or where appropriate an in-rem action concerning the domain name) or (b) in cases of abusive registration submit a complaint to an approved dispute-resolution service provider (see below for a list and links).

ii. Cost benefits for registrants (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

The .corsica Registry will function as a not-for-profit enterprise and its principal aim will be to ensure the registration of domain names in a ‘low-cost’, effective, and fair manner in the interests of the community of Internet users that identify with this TLD. 

A number of actions will be undertaken to encourage rapid adoption of the .corsica TLD. The pricing structure will be relatively simple with a fixed and reasonably low wholesale price for domain names, after the general launch.

Promotional campaigns and promotional offers:

During pre-pre launch ‘Pioneer’ phase and the subsequent Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability phases a comprehensive communications campaign will include promotional offers targeted at specific audiences:

- The student population at the University of Corsica. All students enrolled at the university will be offered the possibility of creating a website in connection with their studies, using the domain name of their choice, under the .corsica TLD. The registration fees for the domain name will be waived for the duration of the studies and for one year after graduation. In addition, all students will be offered an email address under the .corsica TLD.

- The representatives of the 360 villages across Corsica. The Regional Government of Corsica plans to offer Corsica’s 360 local mayors a registration fee waiver for the name of their commune or village under the .corsica TLD. This waiver may be extended indefinitely subject to certain guidelines regarding the use of such domain names in the interests of the local populations concerned.
- Small business owners. Likewise, specific promotional campaigns and competitions will be organised targeted at certain professions e.g. wine producers, cheese producers, local artisans, hotel managers.

The details of all discount schemes and promotional campaigns will be developed in the months prior to the launch of the TLD, with local government and private actors.

iii. Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The applicant team for the .corsica TLD has read the New gTLD Registry Agreement. Accredited Registrars commercializing the .corsica TLD will, in accordance with this Agreement, have the option of obtaining initial domain name registrations for periods of up to ten years.

Price escalation

In addition, as required by the Registry Agreement, the .corsica Registry will provide all affiliated Registrars will advance written notice of price increases - even though there are no anticipated price escalations. The expected trend, over time, will be for domain name prices to come down.

The .corsica Registry is prepared to make a firm contractual commitment to registrants regarding price escalation. The wholesale launch price for the .corsica TLD, at 22 euros, has been determined in order to ensure that the TLD is:

- Sufficiently attractive (low cost) compared with other, more generic, TLDs, and
- Sufficiently high cost to dissuade abusive registrations and favour the optimal allocation of domain names.

Over time, as registration volumes increase, it is anticipated that prices will gradually decrease.

Yes

The community to be served by the .corsica TLD is the community of Corsicans worldwide, whether they be residents of the island of Corsica, members of the Corsican Diaspora, or simply members of the wider community of Internet users with an interest in Corsica and the values that are evoked by the word ‘corsica’. It covers the global community of individuals, institutions and corporate entities that identify themselves with the island of Corsica (Corse), and⁄or any aspect of its cultural, historical or linguistic heritage.
It is anticipated, at least in the early years of the .corsica TLD, that a majority of domain name purchases under the .corsica TLD will originate from the population of Corsica. In due course, it is anticipated that there will be as many registrations made by members of the community spread around the world.
The community includes:
- The population of Corsica: 302,000 as of the January 2008 census.
- The Diaspora of Corsicans around the world is estimated at 800,000 (cosicadiaspora.com)
- Businesses registered in Corsica: 80,000
- Non-profit associations: 2300
- Corsican businesses or other businesses promoting Corsican goods and services in other countries around the world: harder to quantify but estimated to be many thousands.
But it also includes (among many other sub-communities):
- The actors of the Corsican tourism sector, who use the Internet to promote the island’s many tourist attraction.
- The wine producers of Corsica, and the global community of Corsican wine consumers
- The many Corsica enthusiasts who have visited the island and discovered a passion for a certain aspect of its culture or history.
- The promoters of Corsica’s unique musical heritage.
- The promoters and consumers of Corsica’s world renowned hams and cheeses.
- The organisers of trecks and sailing expeditions across and around the island.
- The societies of Corsican archeology, history, and the Corsican language.
- The promoters of Corsica’s youth culture.
In short, the .corsica TLD will be open to all bona fide individuals, business owners and corporate entities whether they be resident on the island or abroad.

The applicant fot the .corsica TLD is the Regional Government of Corsica (Collectivité Territoriale de Corse - CTC), the democratically elected government of Corsica and, without doubt, the most legitimate entity representing the interests of the Corsican people.
The Region of Corsica is one of the 22 regions of France (27 including the overseas departments). Since 1991 and the passing of an act of parliament referred to as the of ‘13th May 1991 Act’, the region has enjoyed a special status with greater devolved powers and greater autonomy than is the case for the regions of mainland France.
The .corsica TLD will be managed by the Government of Corsica, as a not-for-profit enterprise, for and on behalf of the local and global community of Corsicans and those individuals and corporate entities who have an attachment to the region. The decision to apply for this TLD was formalised by an act of parliament of the Corsican Assembly, in December 2011 (see documents attached).
The Regional Government of Corsica is fully accountable to its people. Its primary concern is to ensure the wellbeing and economic prosperity of the Corsican people as well as the economic development of the region and the promotion of the region’s assets.

The .corsica TLD will serve the worldwide community of individuals who feel an affinity with the region of Corsica in a number of ways.
- Enhanced community visibility
The new .corsica TLD will provide Corsican Internet service and content providers with a new means of asserting their Corsican identity. In so doing, it is expected that the .corsica TLD will serve to strengthen ties within the community of Corsicans worldwide.
It is expected that many thousands of Corsicans and other individuals who identify with the region of Corsica and who use the Internet as a tool in the running of their activity or business, will seize the opportunity of a domain name under a .corsica TLD.
The purpose of the .corsica TLD is to introduce at the level of the DNS a new, easily identifiable marker or tag which will serve to organise and rationalise the large volume of information and services on the Internet pertaining to one of the many aspects of Corsican life and culture.
- Rationalisation of naming conventions within Corsica
At the level of Corsica’s government administrations and the region’s utility and public service providers, the .corsica TLD will be rapidly adopted, resulting in the simplification of domain naming conventions. For example, the Regional Government’s own Internet address - www.ctc.corse.fr - will be simplified to www.ctc.corsica.
- University of Corsica
The University of Corsica is expected to become one of the principal vectors for the promotion of the .corsica TLD. The new TLD serve to simplify the university’s current naming structure (currently under the lengthy univ-corse.fr extension). As part of the communications campaign coinciding with the launch of the .corsica TLD it is anticipated that students will be given option of creating a site under the new TLD, and a .corsica email address offered to each student.
- Catalyst for economic development and job creation
The .corsica TLD is intended by the Government of Corsica to serve as a catalyst for local and global innovation with positive knock-on effects for the region and people of Corsica in terms of enterprise development (e.g. through increase in the number of local registrars and diversification of services provided by ISPs) and job creation.
In addition, in the medium to long-term, as soon as income from domain name sales exceeds the annual cost of the technical operator and ICANN fees, all funds used to purchase a .corsica domain will remain in the Corsican economy thereby contributing to local economic development.

The relationship between the applied for .corsica gTLD and the global community of individuals, institutions and corporate entities that identify themselves with the island of Corsica (Corse) is direct: the .corsica TLD is applied-for for the community of Corsicans.
The word ‘corsica’ is the most instantly recognizable term to refer to the island of Corsica. It is the word used by the Corsicans themselves, in their native Corsu language, not to mention other major languages including English, Italian, Dutch.. For the people of Corsica, and the broader international community of individuals who feel a sense of belonging to the island of Corsica, or Corsican culture, it is a term that will have instant significance.
The .corsica TLD will be administered in an non-exclusive manner and made available to content providers on the Internet who feel an affinity with the island, its history or its people.
Risk of conflict with other communities using the name ‘Corsica’
Research carried out as part of the feasibility study for the .corsica TLD concluded that there are very few other ‘community’ uses of the word ‘corsica’. Hence, the risk of a rival bid, or that the .corsica TLD should be contested is considered to be negligible.
Corporate use of the word ‘corsica’:
There are many instances of the use of the word ‘Corsica’ as part the brand name, for example:
- Corsica Ferries: the name of one of the main ferry companies operating out of Corsica.
- Air Corsica: a local Corsican airline
- Chevrolet Corsica: the name given to a particular car model.
- Gites Corsica: The Corsican branch of the Gites de France site which organises holiday rental accommodation.
- Corsica Radio (www.corsicaradio.com): A local radio station broadcasting traditional Corsican music.
In-depth analysis using tools such as Google Trends regarding search statistics including the word ‘corsica’ reveals that more than 99% of search concern the island of Corsica.
Searches with the word ‘corsica’ systematically peak during the summer months and the high tourist season.
Searches using the word ‘corsica’ predominantly originate in Corsica itself, mainland France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

A comprehensive charter describing registration policies for the .corsica will be prepared and published before the commercialization of the TLD in late 2013, early 2014. This document will be prepared in conjunction with AFNIC and a third party consultancy, and submitted to the Corsican parliament for approval, prior to the launch of the TLD.
The charter will aim to be sufficiently open encourage large numbers of registrations from legitimate content and service providers, but sufficiently restrictive and with sufficient provisos to protect the TLD against all types of abusive behaviour. It will contain a complete description of the procedures in case of dispute over a domain name.
The launch of the .corsica TLD will be split into three phases: a Sunrise period, a Landrush period, and General Availability period.
1) Sunrise period
During the Sunrise period, expected to last around 3 months, an important communications campaign will be run to draw attention to the imminent delegation of the .corsica TLD. During this period, owners of recognized brand names will be invited to pre-book their domain name or request that it is put on a ‘not for sale’ list of names. The Sunrise period will be implemented in light of ICANN best practices and, in particular, the recommendations of ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency ‘The Perfect Sunrise: How pre-launch Rights Protection Mechanisms and successful registry operations go hand in hand.’
During the Sunrise period Pre-registrants will need to prove that they either the right to the commercial name applied for, or that they are registered with a recognized government or industry authority.
The costs for pre-booking a domain name or putting a domain name on a not-for-sale list will be determined in the .Corsica Users Charter. Prices will be in the range of 50 to 100 euros for pre booking a name and 75 euros for putting a name on a not-for-sale list.
2) Landrush period
The Landrush period, also expected to last around 3 months, will be open to all registrants, and the basic rule for the attribution of a domain name will be ‘first come first served’. During the Landrush period, the retail price for a domain name is expected to be approximately three times the eventual price, i.e. 45 to 55 euros.
3) General Availability
With the general launch of the .corsica TLD, registrar prices for domain names will be brought down to around to around 15 euros per domain name. Registrants that meet the eligibility criteria will be able to purchase domain names on a first come first served basis.
.Corsica Users Charter
The .corsica TLD Users Charter will draw on certain aspects of AFNIC’s own Charter (Charte de Nommage: Regles d’enregistrement des noms de domaines).
In summary:
1) There will be syntactic limitations with a ban on names:
- that are composed of one or two characters
- that include accented letters
- that start or end with a hyphen
- that contain more than 255 letters
2) The principle of ‘first come first served’ will be observed.
With the exception of a pre-established and publicly available list of domain names that are banned or reserved the principle of ‘first come first served’ will be obseved, i.e. the chronological order in which requests are received will be respected.
3) List of names requiring special approval
The .corsica registry will prepare a list of names which will require a more detailed assessment before they are registered. This list will include the names of the 360 communes and villages across Corsica. For these types of names the registrar will need to obtain certain specified documents which attest to the applicant’s true identity and legitimacy. (See attached list of names requiring special approval).
4) List of banned names
The .corsica registry will also have a list of banned names due to their offensive nature e.g. ‘nazi’, ‘killer’, ‘rape’,...
5) Domain names under the .corsica TLD will be held for fixed durations (typically 12 months) in accordance with the terms of reference of the naming policy.
6) The price of domain names will include setting up costs, annual maintenance and costs requiring the involvement of the registry.
7) The basic, ‘wholesale’ price for a domain name will be published on the registry’s Internet site.
8) Eligibility: the .corsica TLD will be available to individuals and corporate entities regardless of their geographic location.
9) Reachability: There will be a strict requirement for the owners of domain names to be reachable by phone or email.

Not Available

No

The .corsica Registry will not register, delegate, use or otherwise make available geographic names to any third party, but reserves the right to register such names in its own name in order to withhold them from delegation or use. 

Except to the extent that ICANN otherwise expressly authorizes in writing, the .corsica Registry Operator will reserve names formed with the following labels from initial (i.e. other than renewal) registration within the TLD. 

In conformity with GAC recommendations, a set of procedures will be defined for blocking, at no cost and upon demand of governments, public authorities or IGOs, names with national or geographic significance at the second level. 
 
The country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists shall be initially reserved at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD at which the Registry Operator provides for registrations:

- The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 List, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union:
http:⁄⁄www.iso.org⁄iso⁄support⁄country_codes⁄iso_3166_code_lists⁄iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#EU

-The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World. This lists the names of 193 independent States generally recognized by the international community in the language or languages used in an official capacity within each country and is current as of August 2006:
http:⁄⁄unstats.un.org⁄unsd⁄geoinfo⁄ungegn⁄docs⁄pubs⁄UNGEGN%20tech%20ref%20manual_m87_combined.pdf

- List of UN member states in 6 official UN languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the standardization of Geographical Names:
http:⁄⁄unstats.un.org⁄unsd⁄geoinfo⁄9th-UNCSGN-Docs⁄E-CONF-98-89- Add1.pdf

However, the registry recognises that there may be cases where a request to register and use a geographic name at the second level should be considered valid.

Examples of such cases are:

- The Regional Government of Corsica may wish to register a geographic-name.corsica domain for its own use as part of an official event organised in the region and referencing the geographic region in said domain name.
- The geographic regionʹs public authority wishes to register the domain name for its own use.

In all cases, whether it is the registry operator wishing to register a geographical name for official or public service use, or whether it is an individual applicant, the .corsica Registry is committed to obtaining the approval of the relevant authority.

For registration requests from the relevant public authority, the registry operator will put in place the procedure agreed between the GAC and Afilias for the Dot INFO gTLD as referenced in the letter written by Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, GAC Chair, on Sept 9, 2003.

For any other request to register a geographic name, the applicant will be required to provide the .corsica Registry with proof of non-objection or support from the relevant public authority. Once this has been submitted and verified, requests of this kind will be handled on a case-by-case basis only by registry operator.

The .corsica Registry does plan to monitor the use of geographic names below the second level (i.e. subdomain used by a .corsica domain name registrant), as the procedures that would be needed to monitor this are considered too complex and expensive. Traditional dispute resolution procedures or legal procedures exist to address such cases.

-Technical implementation of the protection of geographic names:

The .corsica registry will use its own reserved terms database. The purpose of this database, in addition to protecting the defined set of terms, will be to allow actions (creations, updates, deletions), user rights (consult or edit) and traceability (history of actions) for each term it contains.

During the registration of a domain name, the checker placed on the Shared Registry System (SRS) will use two types of checks on the requested terms. The first type of checks is based on syntax; the second on semantics. The reserved terms database is part of the second type of tests, based on semantics.

The reserved terms database will be used in the Shared Registry System (SRS) during its semantics checks only if the domain name request has successfully passed the syntax checks.

The database table will allow the classification of terms it contains by category. The categories will allow the registry to identify different types of terms (geographic names, religious terms, cultural...). In the case of geographic names the categories in the database will allow sub-classifications such as country names or city names.

The checker placed on the SRS will apply the semantics checks to a domain name request using the registry’s policies translated into technical rules. The SRS checker will use the reserved terms database to verify the presence or not of the term in its table and act accordingly. If the term and its category are present in the database the SRS checker will apply the registry’s policy of blocking the registration unless a valid authorization code is presented.

For example If “france” is requested by a registrar for registration without a valid authorization code the SRS checker will verify if the term and its category are present in the reserved terms database. The database will indicate that “france” is present in its tables under the “country” category. The SRS checker will then reject the creation request.

- Unblocking a reserved term through an authorization code mechanism:

In order to create a domain name containing a reserved term for a registrant, registrars will need to fill out an online form protected by a captcha code. This form will require the registrar to fill out the requested domain name, the registrant information (nic-handle) and the reason or legitimate interest within a maximum of 4000 characters.

The reserved term request will automatically be sent to the Registry’s back office into a queue for human validation by one of the registry’s validation agents. If the legitimate interest of the domain registrant is enough evidence that the domain creation complies with the registry’s policies the validation agent will generate an authorization code that will be sent by email to the registrar that made the request.

For security reasons the registrar’s email address on which the authorization code is sent to will be the one defined as the NOC email address.

For additional security reasons the .corsica Registry has decided that this authorization code will be valid on the SRS for a maximum of 15 days. After 15 days the authorization code will expire and a new request will be necessary to retrieve a new authorization code.

The code generated by the Registry’s validation agent can only be used for a domain name creation of the requested term for the requested registrant by the requesting registrar. Meaning that an authorization code cannot be used by another registrar or for another holder (identified by its nic-handle).

In case the request does not comply with the registry’s policies or if the given information is not sufficient to generate an authorization code, the validation agent will ask the registrar for complementary information. The registrar will have 15 days to answer and provide sufficient information and or complementary documentation to the registry’s validation agent. After 15 days without sufficient information or documents, the authorization code request will be abandoned.

Once the registrar receives an authorization code from the registry’s validation agent, the registrar will have 15 days to initiate a creation operation on the requested reserved term. This authorization code will be fully compatible with the registry’s EPP interface and used during a creation operation as the auth_info code (see question 24 on EPP).

When the domain name creation operation with the valid authorization code is initiated by the registrar the SRS checker will automatically verify the code, the holder and the requesting registrar with the information contained in the registry’s back office. If the data is correct the creation operation will be processed like any regular domain name creation.

Procedures regarding Corsican geographic names.

The names of the two main cities of Corsica, Ajaccio and Bastia, will be protected at the second level. A set of procedures will be developed and included in the naming charter for the .corsica TLD to ensure that only the democratically elected representatives of these two cities can apply for the creation second level domains using the names ‘ajaccio’ and ‘bastia’.

The names of the 360 communes and villages of Corsica will be restricted at the second level for 24 months after the launch of the .corsica TLD. During this ‘sunrise’ period only the elected representatives of the communes and towns in question will be able to apply for these domain names. Price incentives will be put in place to encourage mayors and⁄or other official representatives to acquire the name of their village or commune at the second level. It is planned to allow the representatives of villages and communes to acquire their corresponding domain names, indefinitely, for a one-off, non-renewable fee.

Table of Contents :

1 - Receipt of data from registrars concerning registration of domain names and nameservers : Shared Registration System (SRS)
2 - Operation of the Registry zone servers
3 - Provision to registrars of status information relating to the zone servers for the TLD
 3.1 - Standard DNS related status information
 3.2 - Emergency DNS related status information
4 - Dissemination of TLD zone files.
 4.1 - Incremental updates every 10 minutes
 4.2 - Complete publication of the zone
 4.3 - Propagation mechanism
 4.4 - Zone File Access⁄Distribution
5 - Dissemination of contact or other information concerning domain name registrations (Whois service)
6 - Internationalized Domain Names
7 - DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
 7.1 - Registrar Services
 7.2 - Signing Activity
8 - Other relevant services
 8.1 - Security and Redundancy
 8.2 - Consensus Policy Compliance


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1 - Receipt of data from registrars concerning registration of domain names and nameservers : Shared Registration System (SRS)
 
Operated by AFNIC, the .CORSICA TLD will adapt a domain shared registration system used in production by AFNIC to operate the .fr zone and which has been fully functional for the past 15 years. This Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) based Shared Registration System (SRS) has exhibited the ability to meet stringent SLAs as well as to scale from the operational management of an initial thousands of domain names to over 2 million in late 2011.

The SRS exists to interact with the Registrar’s systems, who are responsible for the provisioning of a registrant’s domain name with the .CORSICA TLD registry. Registrars interact with the registry through two primary mechanisms : 

 * Communication machine to machine via an EPP client (Registrar) to an EPP Server API (Registry).

 * A Web Portal Interface that expresses the functionality of the EPP API. The Web Portal also provides access to user configuration and other back-office functions such as report and invoice retrieval.

SRS functionality includes standard functions and features such as :

 * Domain Registration : The AFNIC SRS supports synchronous registrations (creations) of domain names through the EPP domain create command. It supports updates of associative status, DNS and DNSSEC delegation information and EPP contact objects with a domain and the deletion of existing domains. This allows Registrars to create domain registrations, modify them and ultimately delete them.

 * Domain Renewal : The AFNIC SRS allows registrars to renew sponsored domains using the EPP renew command. The SRS automatically renews domain names upon expiry.

 * Transfer : The AFNIC SRS supports the transfer of a given domain between two Registrars in a secure fashion by requiring two party confirmations and the exchange of a token (the EPP authinfo code) associated with the domain.

 * Contact Objects : The AFNIC SRS supports the creation, update, association to domain objects, and deletion of EPP contact objects. This functionality supports the required information to supply contact data displayed in Registration Data Directory Services (RDDS) (Whois) systems.

 * Hosts : A subordinate object of the domain object in an EPP based SRS, internal hosts are supported in the AFNIC SRS. These hosts cannot be removed when other 2nd level domains within the .CORSICA TLD zone are delegated to these nameservers. Delegation must be removed prior to the removal of the child hosts and a parent domain name to a given host in turn cannot be removed prior to the deletion of the related child host.

 * Redemption Grace Period (RGP) & Restoring deleted domain name registrations : AFNIC SRS supports the RGP for the purpose of retrieving erroneously deleted domain names prior to being made available again for public registration. 

Other features include :

 * Additional EPP commands in order to manage and update both domain and contact objects in the registry which are EPP info, check, delete and update commands. 

 * An inline billing system which is synchronised with the SRS. Actions can be taken daily from simple alerts to concrete account blocking.

 * Grace Periods and Refunds : the AFNIC SRS will support standard grace periods such as Add, Renew, Autorenew, Transfer and RGP grace periods. Refunds issued will reflect actual values deducted from registrar’s balance in consideration of any rebates issued conjunctively or separately for the relevant domain registration. 

 * The capacity to deal with reserved domain name registration. Reserved names are stored in a specific back office tool. Specific authorisations codes can be delivered out of band by support team to “unlock” creation of these reserved names. SRS uses standard EPP auth_info field in conformity with EPP RFCs to prevent or allow the registration of the domain name. 

[see attached diagram Q23_1_authorisation_code_workflow.pdf]
Diagram : Reserved names unlock
Description : This diagram illustrates process to unlock registration of reserved names. An out of band email process is used to deliver a specific authorisation_code, that can be used in EPP or through the web interface to register the domain name.

SRS EPP functions are compatible with the following list of RFCs :
RFCs 5910, 5730, 5731, 5732, 5733 and 5734. Since AFNIC will implement the Registry Grace Period (RGP), it will comply with RFC 3915 and the successors of the aforementioned RFCs. 
 

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2 - Operation of the Registry zone servers
 
The DNS resolution service is a core business of the Registry Operator. It is an essential function that must be provided with a very high level of service quality to satisfy queries concerning a zone 100% of the time with a response time as short as possible.

As the registry back-end service provider for the .CORSICA TLD, AFNIC has a set of sites, distributed internationally, to answer these queries. The high availability of responses is ensured by the number of servers that host the zone information; the response time is in turn linked to the geographical location of the servers (as near as possible to the exchange points and as a result to users). 

To ensure a very high level of availability of information and a response time as short as possible to a DNS query for a given zone, AFNIC has chosen to deploy its own DNS architecture, operated by our teams, while also relying on a set of internationally recognized service providers in order to significantly increase the number of servers hosting the zone to be published.

The AFNIC DNS service is based on the standards of RFCs (RFCs 1034, 1035, 1982, 2181, 2182, 2671, 3226, 3596, 3597, 4343, and 5966 and any future successors), related to the Internet, and the DNS in particular. 

In addition, special attention has been paid to the security component of the DNS servers and services in order to maintain a very high level of availability of the information, for example in the event of attacks or the denial of services. At present, a series of national and international servers are deployed as close as possible to the exchange points to ensure the DNS resolution service. To ensure a high level of availability, Anycast technology is applied to overcome the issues involved in the geographical location of sensitive servers. Through an effective pooling of DNS server resources, it ensures better resistance to denial of service attacks as the number of physical servers to attack is very high, and the geographical attraction of traffic by each server is very strong. Maintenance of the nodes is also improved since interventions on a given server have no effect on the visibility of the Anycast cloud for users.
As explained in the answer to Question 34 (Geographic Diversity), the registry also relies on two operators of Anycast clouds to expand the international coverage of the DNS nodes which must respond to queries for the domain extensions hosted on them. The two operators are Netnod Autonomica and PCH (Packet Clearing House) who are both known for their high quality services; in addition, Netnod Autonomica hosts one the root server i.root-servers.net.
 

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3 - Provision to registrars of status information relating to the zone servers for the TLD

Registrars interactions with the Registry Systems in two states in regards to the state of the TLD zone servers : 
 * an operational state where normal registry transactions and operational policies⁄practices result in a cause and effect in resolution of relevant domains AND 
 * an emergency state where resolution could be threatened by operational problems due to either internal or external factors to the DNS services.

 ------------------------
 3.1 - Standard DNS related status information

The SRS supports related updates to domain objects that allow a Registrar to populate internal (glue record) and or external DNS hosts associated with the domain. External hosts result in the correct associated NS records being inserted into the current TLD zone file, this in turns results in DNS resolution being delegated to the identified external hosts. The SRS expresses this status to the Registrar as “Active” in both the EPP API and the SRS Web Portal. The registrar may suspend the NS records associated with the external hosts by applying an EPP client HOLD in the system, which will also be displayed as a status in the same manner. This holds true of the Registry when it applied “Server Hold”. Internal hosts follow the same behaviour with one exception, IP addresses must also be provided to the SRS by the registrar for Internal hosts, resulting in A records or⁄and AAAA records for IPv6 (also known as glue records) being added to the zone file.

 ------------------------
 3.2 - Emergency DNS related status information

AFNIC registry services maintain emergency Network Operation Center (NOC) and Customer Service personnel on a 24⁄7⁄365 basis to address escalation and customer issue management. Part of these teams responsibility is to maintain contact lists for technical notification of regular or emergency situations including email lists, names and contact numbers. In the unlikely event that DNS resolution or DNS updates were or were expected to fall out of ICANN mandated SLAs, registrars will be contacted proactively by their email lists, status alerts will be posted to the Registry Operator’s Registrar Relations Web Portals and Customer Service personnel will be prepared to take and address calls on the current DNS status.


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4 - Dissemination of TLD zone files.

Publication of DNS resolution data to the TLD DNS nodes serving resolution :
One of the main challenges of DNS resolution is to provide updated information about the resources associated with a registered domain name. As soon as information is updated by a registrar on behalf of a customer, the latter expects the server to be accessible to its users as soon as possible.
For this reason, updates of DNS resolution data (publication) are entered into the AFNIC SRS, subsequently generated into incremented zone files, and are distributed to the authoritative DNS servers using the two following methods : 
 * Incremental updates every 10 minutes 
and 
 * Complete publication of the zone.

 ------------------------
 4.1 - Incremental updates every 10 minutes

The principle of publication by Dynamic Update (RFC 2136 and 2137) is designed to publish only the changes to the zone that have occurred since the last update. At the registry level, we have opted to propagate every 10 minutes the changes made during the last 10 minutes on all the zones managed. In this way, any changes made will naturally be published in the next 10 minutes.

 ------------------------
 4.2 - Complete publication of the zone

In addition to the publication described above, the registry’s DNS operations team produces a complete publication of all the data for all the zones once a week by running a series of computer scripts which regenerates zonefile from database, through the same validation and integrity mechanisms as dynamic publication. This is used as a training for eventual recovery measures to be triggered.

 ------------------------
 4.3 - Propagation mechanism

Whether during the publication by Dynamic Update or complete publication, the propagation mechanism is the same. The process involving the generation of the various zone files is triggered, without blocking any operation on the registration system.
These zone files are then transmitted in full to the authoritative server, via the AXFR protocol in conformance with RFC 5936. Once received and processed by the authoritative server, notifications are sent to secondary servers that will retrieve the changes in the different zones via the IXFR protocol in conformity with RFC 1995. The choice of an incremental (rather than complete) update of the zone files to the secondary servers during the dissemination process has been made to avoid sending large amounts of data to remote sites.

 ------------------------
 4.4 - Zone File Access⁄Distribution

In compliance with Specification 4, Section 2, AFNIC registry services will offer a subscription service for qualifying applicants to download a stateful copy of the TLD zone file no more than once per 24 hours period. Distribution of the zone file will occur through the ICANN authorized Centralized Zone Data Access Provider.


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5 - Dissemination of contact or other information concerning domain name registrations (Whois service)

The AFNIC RDDS (Whois) service is in direct connection with the database of the Shared Registration System and offers access to the public administrative and technical data of the TLD. Contact data associated with registrations in the SRS is accessible both on port 43 (following specifications of RFC 3912) and through web access.

Data that can be accessed through the RDDS include:
 * contact data : holder, administrative, technical, billing
 * domain data : domain name, status
 * host data : name servers, IP addresses
 * ephemeris : creation, expiration dates
 * registrar data
These data elements are fully compliant to the mapping of RFCs 5730 to 5734 and an example of standard port 43 output is given at the end of answer to Question 26 (WHOIS).

Both web and port 43 RDDS offer natively compliance with privacy law with a “restricted diffusion” flag. This option is activated through EPP (see Question 25 (EPP)) while creating or updating a contact and automatically understood by the Whois server to anonymize the data. The choice to activate restricted diffusion is made in compliance with the policy and the local rules of the TLD. 

This service is accessible both in IPv4 and IPv6. The AFNIC RDDS service access is rate limited to ensure performance in the event of extreme query volumes generated in the cases of distributed denial of service (DDOS) and⁄or RDDS data-mining activities.


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6 - Internationalized Domain Names

Based on AFNIC’s Back-end registry’s operation experience, the .CORSICA TLD will allow registration of IDN domain names in full compliance with RFCs 5890 to 5893 and based on the character set described in detail in our answer to Question 44 (IDN). This feature will be available upon launch of the TLD and will be implemented following the policies presented in detail in our answer to Question 44 (IDN). For the purpose of clarity, a brief summary of this information is presented below.
 
The list of characters includes the French language as well as several other regional languages in use in France : Occitan, Breton, Frankish, Reunion Creole, Catalan, Corsican and Guadeloupe Creole. The list consists of some of the characters of the Latin1 standard (ISO-8859-1) and the Latin9 standard (ISO-8859-15), respectively in Unicode Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extended-A blocks.
 
Each domain name registration is autonomous : the registration of an ASCII domain name and the registration of one of its diacritic variants are independent. The actual registered domain name is the only one to be effectively registered and published by the Whois and DNS Services.
 
However, the registration of a given ASCII or IDN domain name leads to a default preference to its registrant (original registrant) for the subsequent registration of any of its diacritics variants. Any of these variants can be registered normally by the original registrant at any time. Other registrants are required to request a specific authorization code delivered by the Registry Operator before they can proceed to the registration of such names. This policy applies whether the original registrant initially applies for an ASCII domain name or a diacritic variant of that ASCII domain name. In the latter case, the ASCII name is subject to the same preference policy than the other diacritic variants of the domain name.


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7 - DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
 
AFNIC registry services fully support DNSSEC and will sign the .CORSICA TLD zone from initiation into the root servers. 

 ------------------------
 7.1 - Registrar Services

Operations are available for registrars through EPP with the SecDNS EPP extension version 1.1 exclusively (as defined in RFC 5910) or through registrars extranet (with a web form). Among the two interfaces defined in the RFC 5910, AFNIC chose the “dsData” interface : domain names keys are solely under registrars management and are not exchanged, only the keys hashes (DS records) are sent by the registrars to the registry back-end service provider. Each domain name can be associated to 6 distinct key materials at most.

Zonecheck : A complementary monitoring and validation service.
AFNIC notes that “Zonecheck” is a DNS monitoring and validation service that is outside standard registry services and could be offered by third parties other than a Registry Operator. In respect of DNSSEC monitoring, each change of DS data related to a domain name is verified by the AFNIC ZoneCheck tool, out of band of standard EPP registry functions. Registrar are notified via email of detected errors. This helps Registrars ensure the DNSSEC validation will operate correctly, for example by avoiding the “Security Lameness” scenario outlined in section 4.4.3 of RFC 4641. 

Registrar transfer by default removes DS data from the zonefile. This is done to cover cases when a current signed domain names goes from a DNSSEC enabled registrar to another registrar that is not yet prepared to handle DNSSEC materials (the registrar can also be the DNS hoster or not, but in both cases DS data of the domain name has to flow from the registrar to the registry, hence the registrar must have the technical capabilities to do so).

 ------------------------
 7.2 - Signing Activity

Each public-facing DNS server operated by AFNIC or through its anycast providers is fully DNSSEC enabled through RFC 4033, 4034, and 4035 by virtue of using standard open source software (BIND & NSD) that are developed according to these RFCs.

Each zone uses a standard Key Signing Key (KSK)⁄Zone Signing Key (ZSK) split (as defined in RFC 4641, section 3.1), which enables longer KSKs and frequent re-signing of zone content to deter DNSSEC-related brute force attacks and to make sure that keys rollovers are part of registry staff operational habits. All keys are created using RSA algorithms, as defined in RFC 4641 section 3.4 : KSKs are 2048 bits long (as recommended for “high value domains” in section 3.5 of RFC 4641), and ZSKs are 1024 bits. Algorithm SHA-256 (as defined in RFC 4509) is used for DS generations. Signatures of zone resources records are done using SHA-2 and more specifically RSA⁄SHA-256 as defined by RFC 5702.

Each zone has its set of dedicated KSKs and ZSKs: one of each is active at all time, while a second of each is ready to be used at next rollover. A third ZSK may be kept in the zone after being inactive (not used any more for signing) to ease transitions and make sure DNS caches can still use it to verify old resource records signatures. Following recommendations in section 4.1.1 “Time considerations” of RFC 4641, with a zone maximum TTL being 2 days and a zone minimum TTL of 1.5 hour, ZSK rollovers are done each 2 months, KSK rollovers are done each 2 years. Their expirations are monitored. Rollovers are operated according to the “Pre-Publish Key Rollover” procedure detailed in section 4.2.1.1 of RFC 4641.

1 year worth of key materials is generated in advance. Encrypted backup of keys is made on Hardware Security Module (HSM) cards (Storage Master Key), which are securely stored physically.
 

------------------------
8 - Other relevant services

 ------------------------
 8.1 - Security and Redundancy

AFNIC maintains primary and secondary datacenter locations as well as redundant key personal operating locations. High availability of AFNIC Registry infrastructure is provided through the implementation of either load‐balancing, or fail­‐over capacity in various layers of the architecture. It also enables fast scalability through expertise in virtualization technologies. AFNIC’s infrastructure is globally virtualized apart from services requiring very high performance rate and⁄or specific access to dedicated CPU for demanding computation such as DNSSEC zone signing or databases.
AFNIC maintains robust secure policies, protocols and third party testing and certification of security measures and practises. Systems involved in the AFNIC registry services used standard multi-factor authentication, high encryption transmission of data and are kept current with industry advancement in security technologies and best practices in prevention of data breaches. Registry systems follow standard EPP practices including required passphrases associated with each domain object and the use of those passphrases to successfully negotiate and verify domain transfers. Registrars are networked source restricted (2 IP addresses authorized by registrar) for SRS access in addition to the use of digital certificates and contact to Customer Service is restricted to registered Registrar personnel only (identified by personal passphrases⁄credentials listed on file).
 
 ------------------------
 8.2 - Consensus Policy Compliance

AFNIC registry services will fully comply with Specification 1 of the Application Guidebook, below is a list of current consensus policies that have cause and effect on the systems of a registry operator. This list will be updated from time to time as per the ICANN process and the AFNIC registry services will be adjusted to maintain and support full compliance.
 
 * Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (adopted by ICANN Board 26 August 1999; form of implementation documents approved 24 October 1999).
 * Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (effective on 12 November 2004, adopted by ICANN Board 25 April 2003; implementation documents issued 13 July 2004).
 * Registry Services Evaluation Policy (effective on 15 August 2006, adopted by ICANN Board 8 November 2005; implementation documents posted 25 July 2006)
 * AGP Limits Policy (effective on 1 April 2009, adopted by ICANN Board on 26 June 2008; implementation documents posted 17 December 2008)

FTable of Contents

1 - Global description
2 - Shared Registration System (SRS) architecture
3 - SRS architecture diagram
4 - Detailed infrastructure
5 - Rate limitation
6 - Interconnectivity and synchronization with other systems
7 - Performance and scalability
8 - Resources
 8.1 - Initial implementation
 8.2 - On-going maintenance


------------------------
1 - Global description

As one of the critical registry functions, the SRS is part of the core of AFNIC back-end registry solution as deployed to fit the needs of the .CORSICA TLD.
It both provides services for registrars and generates the data used for DNS publication and resolution service. In that aspect, it is responsible for most of the SLA’s to be respected. The following description will provide full and detailed description of the architecture of the SRS both from an application and from an infrastructure point of view.
This architecture is the same as the one used in production by AFNIC to operate .fr zone and has been fully functional for the last 15 years, with the ability to meet stringent SLAs as well as to scale from the management of a few thousands domain names in operations to over 2 million in late 2011.


------------------------
2 - Shared Registration System (SRS) architecture

AFNIC SRS is based on a three-layer architecture : front-end, business logic, middleware.
These three layers are supported by the data layer which is described in detail in Question 33 (Database Capabilities).
 
= Front end : Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) and extranet =

The automated front-end of the SRS is EPP. 
The EPP interface and implementation complies with RFCs 3735 and 5730-5734. It is itself described in detail in Question 25 (EPP).
An extranet web interface also offers the same functions as the EPP interface.
Both theses interfaces are supported by the same middleware layer.

= Business logic : flexible policies =

The Business logic enables configurability in order to allow for the adjustment of registry systems to the chosen registry policies. Various policy-related parameters such as delay for redemption, access rate-limiting and penalties can be configured in this layer. 
The Business logic also incorporates a scheduler which provides for semi-automated processes with human validation in order to address specific policy needs which cannot or should not be fully automated.
 
= Middleware : a guaranty for evolution and scalability =

The Middleware layer guarantees a consistent and registry oriented access for all the TLD data. All registry applications operate through this layer in order to centralize object management rules. It enables access through different programming languages (Java, php and Perl in AFNIC solution) with same rules and ease of switching from one language to another in case of application refactoring or migration. 
 
= Data =

The Data layer is the structured data repository for domain, contact, operations, historization of transactions, as well as registrars and contracts data. It provides all the necessary resilient mechanisms to ensure 100% uptime and full recovery and backup.
It also provides a complete toolbox for the fine tuning of the various applications. This layer is described in more details in Question 33 (Database capacities).


------------------------
3 - SRS architecture diagram

[see attached diagram Q24_3_SRS_architecture_diagram.pdf]
Diagram : SRS architecture diagram
Description : This diagram shows global interaction between Internet, DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and private network zones. Topology of network and servers is illustrated including dedicated IP address scheme and network flows.

This diagram does not shows additional sandbox and preproduction services. These services are offered respectively for registrars and back-end developer team to stabilize developments before production delivery. They are fully iso-functional to the SRS description above.

= SRS logical diagram =

Our robust infrastructure shows dual Internet Service Provider (ISP) connectivity both in IPv4 and IPv6 (Jaguar and RENATER), redundant firewall and switching infrastructure. This part of the architecture is mutualised for all TLDs hosted.

The networking architecture dedicates LAN for administration, backup and production. 

Servers are hosted on different network zones : database for database, private for servers not visible on the internet and public for external servers visible on the DMZ. Dedicated zones are also set up for monitoring servers, administration servers or desktop and backup servers.
Each server is load balanced and the service is not impacted by the loss of one server, the capacity of each server being sized to be able to host the whole traffic.

Servers are fully dedicated to the .CORSICA TLD, based on a virtualized hardware infrastructure shared among up to an estimated number of 5 TLDs of comparable scale and use case.

= SRS physical diagram =

The IP scheme used is the following : 

2001:67c:2218:1::4:0⁄64 for IPv6 Internet homing
192.134.4.0⁄24 for Ipv4 Internet homing
 
 = Production LAN =
192.134.4.0⁄24 for public network IP range
10.1.50.0⁄24, 10.1.30.0⁄24 for private network IP ranges distributed on the zones described above.


 = Backup LAN =
172.x.y.0⁄24 : x is different on each network zone. y is fixed to the value of the associated production LAN in the same zone (for example Private zone production LAN being 10.1.”50”.0⁄24, Private zone backup LAN is 172.16.”50”.0⁄24)

 = Administration LAN =
172.z.y.0⁄24 : z is the value of x+1, x being the digit chosen for the corresponding Backup LAN in the same zone. y is fixed to the value of the associated production LAN in the same zone (for example Private zone production LAN being 10.1.”50”.0⁄24, Private zone administration LAN is 172.17.”50”.0⁄24).

Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the SRS Oracle Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if the database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the SRS access is automatically swapped to the new base.


------------------------
4 - Detailed infrastructure

The SRS modules play a central role in the back-end registry infrastructure. This is highlighted in terms of capacity expenditures (CAPEX) by the fact that SRS modules account for approximately 30% of the global CAPEX of the solution.

In the following description “server” will refer to either a physical or a virtual server.
Due to very fast growth of performance in storage and processors technologies, the infrastructure described below could be replaced by more powerful one available at the time of the set up for the same cost. 

It is important to note that at the applicative and system level, AFNIC’s SRS is fully dedicated to the .CORSICA TLD
 
AFNIC has invested in very efficient VMWare Vsphere virtualization infrastructure. It provides a flexible approach to recovery both through quick activation of a new fresh server in case of local failure (cold standby) and through global failover to a mirrored infrastructure on another site.
This comes in addition to natural redundancy provided by the load balanced servers.

Nevertheless, internal protocols and best practices for server virtualization have shown that very high I⁄O-intensive (Input⁄Output) application servers are not good clients for virtualization. The SRS is therefore hosted on virtualized infrastructure to the exception of the database, which presents very high rate of I⁄O, and is hosted on a dedicated physical infrastructure.

The whole SRS service is located in the primary datacenter used by AFNIC in production, the secondary datacenter serves as failover capacity.

The Front end is hosted on two load balanced virtual servers and two load balanced reverse proxies ensuring authentication of registrars. 

The Business logic is hosted on two load balanced dedicated virtual servers. Scalability of these servers is ensured by quick resizing offered by virtualization technology if needed.

The Middleware is hosted on two load balanced dedicated virtual servers. It can be extended to any amount of servers needed to ensure performance commensurate with the amount of traffic expected. The dual use of Apache HAproxy and of a centralized lock mechanism ensure good queuing of each request in the system despite heavy load and parallelized middleware data access.

Scalability of all these servers are ensured by quick resizing offered by virtualization technology if needed.

All databases are based on Oracle technologies. The main database is replicated logically on two sites. Full local recovery processes are in place in case of loss of integrity through the Oracle redolog functions which provides full recovery by replay of historized logged requests.
 
The whole SRS service is located in the primary Tier 3 datacenter used by AFNIC in production, the secondary datacenter serves as failover capacity. Continuity mechanisms at a datacenter level are described in Questions 34 (Geographic Diversity), 39 (Registry Continuity) and 41 (Failover testing).

The detailed list of infrastructures involved can be described as follows :

This infrastructure is designed to host up to an estimated number of 5 TLDs of comparable scale and use case.

= Virtual servers =

EPP proxy : 2 servers
 * Processor: 1 bi-core CPU
 * Main memory: 8 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 500 GB

EPP service : 2 servers
 * Processor: 1 quad-core CPU
 * Main memory: 16 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 1 TB

Business logic : 2 servers
 * Processor: 1 bi-core CPU
 * Main memory: 16 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 500 GB

Data Gateway : 2 servers
 * Processor: 1 quad-core CPU
 * Main memory: 16 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 1 TB

= Data storage : see Question 33 (Database Capabilities) =

= Physical server =

Rate limiting database : 1 server
 * Processor: 1 bi-core CPU
 * Main memory: 8 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 500 GB

Back up servers, backup libraries, Web whois server : mutualized with the global registry service provider infrastructure
 
= Additionnal infrastructure =

Failover infrastructure : 6 servers
 * 1 bi-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, RedHat RHEL 6, 500 GB

Sandbox infrastructure : 6 servers
 * 1 bi-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, RedHat RHEL 6, 500 GB

Preproduction infrastructure : 1 server
 * 1 quad-core CPU, 16 GB of RAM, RedHat RHEL 6, 1 TB


------------------------
5 - Rate limitation

To ensure resiliency of the SRS a rate limitation and penalty mechanisms are in place. 
Rate limitation and penalties are directly implemented on the front end server.

Access is rate limited through token-bucket algorithms with rate-limiting IP data stored on a dedicated database.
Penalties are applied as follow :
 * Any command that follows a login command is immediately executed but the next one is only taken into account 2 seconds later. The following commands are not penalized (unless they do not follow one of the limitation rules).
 * For the same domain name, the domain:check commands will not be able to follow themselves more than 2 times every 4 seconds. Beyond this rate, a 2 second penalty will be applied on the following domain:check commands (for the same domain name). For instance, it is possible to have a domain:check follow a domain:create command that already followed a first domain:check on a same domain name without any penalty.
 * On the other hand, a customer making several domain:check commands on a same domain name will need to respect a 4 second delay between the first and the third call if he wishes not to be penalized.
 * Any domain:create command on an already existing domain name induce an additional 2 seconds in the answer time of this command.
 * Any domain:info command on a domain name that is not in your portfolio and for which you do not indicate the auth_info induce an additional 1 second in the answer time of this command.

The rate limiting database is hosted on one physical dedicated physical server. This server represents no failure point as a failure of the rate limiting system doesn’t affect the service (a standard uniform limitation is then applied instead of intelligent rate limiting).


------------------------
6 - Interconnectivity and synchronization with other systems 

= Whois (RDDS) =

The whois service will be described in detail in question 27. It is hosted on two servers directly connected to the main production database through read only API. Data updated by the SRS are immediately visible in the Whois with no further synchronisation needed. Rate limitation is applied on RDDS service to avoid any load on the database due to Whois direct access. Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the Whois Oracle Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if SRS and database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the Whois service is automatically swapped to the new architecture.

= Back office⁄billing⁄Escrow =

Back-office, escrow and billing system is hosted on mutualized server. It operates directly on production data through the middleware layer to ensure integrity of data. These can be considered as fully synchronous applications. Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the Middleware layer Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if SRS and database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the back office and billing service are automatically swapped to the new architecture.

= Monitoring =

Monitoring is operated through probes and agents scanning systems with a 5 minutes period. The monitoring system gets snmp data from all servers described in the SRS architecture and also from dedicated Oracle monitoring agent for the database. A specific prove for EPP simulating a full domain creation is also activated, still with the 5 minutes period.

= Dispute resolution =

Any operation on domain names triggered in the context of a dispute resolution is made through a back-office tool (see Back office)

= DNS publication =

DNS publication relies on a specific table of the production database hosted on the same oracle instance. These data are directly generated by the SRS system. Dynamic Update batches are generated at each operation. The use of theses batches for DNS Dynamic update or of the whole data for full zonefile generation are made directly from these production data. No further synchronization is needed. The detail of frequency and workflow for dns publication is described in Question 35 (DNS) and Question 32 (Architecture). Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the DNS publication Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if SRS and database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the dns publication is automatically swapped to the new architecture.


------------------------
7 - Performance and scalability

The Registry’s SRS offers high level production SLAs and derives from the branch of systems that have evolved over the last 15 years to successfully operate a set of french ccTLDs.

The Registry’s SRS is used to operate .fr, .re, .yt, .pm, .tf, .wf TLDs. It is used by more than 800 registrars in parallel managing more than 2 millions domain names.

AFNIC’s SRS is designed to meet ICANN’s Service-level requirements as specified in Specification 10 (SLA Matrix) attached to the Registry Agreement.

Actual and current average performance of AFNIC’s SRS is :
 * SRS availability : 99,4%
 * SRS session-command RTT : 400ms for 99,4% of requests
 * SRS query command RTT : 500ms 
 * SRS transform command RTT : 1,4 s on availability period
 * SRS max downtime : 2 hours⁄month

As described in Question 31 (Technical Overview) in relation to each of the phases of the TLD’s operations, the following transaction loads are expected on the SRS :
 * launch phase : up to 300 requests⁄minute
 * routine ongoing operations : up to 3,840 requests⁄day

The system is designed to handle up to 400,000 domain names and up to 10 requests per second.

The targeted TLD size being approximately 4,000 domain names after 3 years of operations and the expected peak transaction rate being 300 requests per minute during the launch phase, this ensures that enough capacity is available to handle the launch phase, unexpected demand peaks, as well as rapid scalability needs. 

Capacity planning indicators are set up to anticipate exceptional growth of the TLD.
Technologies used enables quick upgrade on all fields :
 * Servers : virtual resizing to add CPUs or disk space if resource is available on the production ESX servers. If not, 2 spare additional ESX servers can be brought live if additional performance is needed.
 * Database : database capacity has been greatly oversized to avoid need of replacement of this physical highly capable server. Precise capacity planning will ensure that sufficient delay will be available to acquire new server if needed. A threshold of 40% of CPU use or total storage capacity triggers alert for acquisition.
 

------------------------
8 - Resources

Four categories of profiles are needed to run the Registry’s Technical Operations : Registry Operations Specialists (I), Registry Systems Administrators (II), Registry Software Developer (III) and Registry Expert Engineers (IV). These categories, skillset and global availability of resources have been detailed in Question 31 (Technical Overview of Proposed Registry) including specific resources set and organisation to provide 24⁄7 coverage and maintenance capacity. 
Specific workload for SRS management is detailed below.

 ------------------------
 8.1 - Initial implementation

The set up is operated on the pre-installed virtualization infrastructure. It implies actions by system, database and network administrators to create the virtual servers and install the applicative packages.

Then, developers, assisted by a team of experts and senior staff members apply proper configuration for the given TLD. Specific policy rules are configured and tested.

The initial implementation effort is estimated as follows :

Database Administrator 0.10 man.day
Network Administrator 0.10 man.day
System Administrator 0.10 man.day
Software Developer 0.40 man.day
Database Engineer 0.40 man.day
Software Engineer 0.80 man.day
DNS Expert Engineer 0.40 man.day

 ------------------------
 8.2 - On-going maintenance

On-going maintenance on the SRS includes integration of new policy rules, evolution of technology, bug fixing, infrastructure evolution, failover testing.

Although all the defined technical profiles are needed for such on-going maintenance operations, on a regular basis, it is mainly a workload handled by monitoring and development teams for alert management and new functional developments, respectively.

The on-going maintenance effort per year is estimated as follows, on a yearly basis :

Operations Specialist 1.60 man.day
Database Administrator 0.40 man.day
Network Administrator 0.40 man.day
System Administrator 0.40 man.day
Software Developer 2.40 man.day
Database Engineer 0.20 man.day
Network Engineer 0.20 man.day
System Engineer 0.20 man.day
Software Engineer 0.20 man.day

Table of Contents

1 - Global description
2 - Description of commands
 2.1 - Introduction
 2.2 - Global commands
 2.2.1 - session management commands ‘greeting’, ‘hello’, ‘login’, ‘logout’
 2.2.2 - poll command ‘poll’
 2.3 - domain commands
 2.3.1 - query commands ‘check’, ‘info’
 2.3.2 - transform commands
 2.4 - contact command
 2.5 - Return Codes
3 - Compliance to RFCs
 3.1 - Delivery process
 3.2 - XML validation
 3.3 - Cross checking
4 - Specific extensions
 4.1 - Specific extension : DNSSEC
 4.2 - Specific extension : IDN
 4.3 - Specific extension : Sunrise period
 4.3.1 - New objects
 4.3.2 - command extensions
 4.3.2.1 - EPP Query Commands
 4.3.2.2 - EPP Transform Commands
 4.3.2.2.1 - EPP ʹcreateʹ Command
 4.3.2.2.2 - EPP ʹupdateʹ Command
 4.3.2.2.3 - EPP ʹdeleteʹ Command
5 - Resources
 5.1 - Initial implementation
 5.2 - On-going maintenance


------------------------
1 - Global description

The main service of the Shared Registration System (SRS) for its registrars is the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) interface. The interface has been developed and is maintained in full compliance with the relevant standards RFCs 5730-5732 and with RFCs 5910 and 3735 for the standard registration interface. Contacts are handled as described in RFC 5733. Transport is guaranteed according to RFC 5734. In addition, AFNIC’s EPP implementation is also compliant with RFCs 4034, 5730 and 5731 for DNSSEC support and with RFCs 5890 and 5891 for Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) support.
 
The EPP service is available through IPv4 and IPv6, based on a SSL certificate authentication.
No specific extension is used.

Note : Throughout the document we write the XML markups describing the EPP requests between the two characters ʹ and ʹ.

For contact management, the registry service provider uses a dedicated “Repository Identifier” for each TLD, this Repository identifier being declared to IANA prior to the launch of the TLD. It is also used as a post-extension to contact nic-handles, each contact for a given TLD being then identified by a unique code XX1234-REPID. An example of this declaration can be found for .fr extension (2008-05-10) at IANA epp repository identifier’s page :

[...]
NORID, #x004E #x004F #x0052 #x0049 #x0044 UNINETT Norid AS 2007-12-10 info&norid.no
FRNIC, #x0046 #x0052 #x004e #x0049 #x0043 AFNIC 2008-05-29 tld-tech&afnic.fr
CIRA, #x0043 #x0049 #x0052 #x0041 Canadian Internet Registration Authority 2009-07-22 info&cira.ca
[...]


------------------------
2 - Description of commands

 ------------------------
 2.1 - Introduction

The EPP interface, based on a double system of real-time answer by the server and asynchronous notifications, implements all standard operations : ‘domain:create’ (1 to 10 years), ‘domain:info’, ‘domain:checkʹ, ‘domain:transfer’, ‘domain:update’, ‘domain:renew’. Similar commands are available concerning contact objects.
The registry’s EPP server implement name servers management as domain name attributes in conformity with RFC 5732.

[see attached diagram Q25_2.1_EPP_xsd_main_schema.pdf]
Diagram : EPP xsd main schema
Description : Registry service provider SRS EPP interface is based on standard xsd schema as defined in RFC 5730.

In the following description of the commands, an example of client command and server answer has been added only for the create command as an example. All other commands work in the same way in full compliance with descriptions and schema of RFCs 5730-5734 and same examples can be found in the RFCs text.

 ------------------------
 2.2 - Global commands

 ------------------------
 2.2.1 - session management commands ‘greeting’, ‘hello’, ‘login’, ‘logout’

As all of these commands are basic and totally compliant with the IETF’s STD69 (RFCs 5730 to 5734), they have not be described again here.

Focus points are :
 * Enforcing a limit of 2 simultaneous connection per registrar (checked at login), ensuring equitable access for all registrars.
 * List of namespaces announced in ʹgreetingʹ is strictly checked in registrar ʹloginʹ command.
 * ʹhelloʹ can be used by registrars as a keepalive command, otherwise inactive sessions are closed by server after 20 minutes.

 ------------------------
 2.2.2 - poll command ʹpollʹ

For some operation on objects, notifications are added in a queue that can be read by using the ʹpollʹ command. The use of the ʹpollʹ command will retrieve the oldest message in the queue. The number of messages awaiting in the queue is indicated at each command answer with the ʹmsgQʹ element. To delete a message from the queue, the ʹpollʹ command should be used with the message number as indicated in RFC 5730.

 ------------------------
 2.3 - domain commands

 ------------------------
 2.3.1 - query commands ʹcheckʹ, ʹinfoʹ

ʹcheckʹ command allows the client to check if a domain object is available. 
ʹinfoʹ command allows the client to retrieve information on any objects (domain names or contacts) that are indicated in the command. Registrars can only use this command for objects they already manage in their portfolio. This command can also be used for domain names outside the registrar’s portfolio if the ʹauth_infoʹ code that protects the domain is given as well. 

 ------------------------
 2.3.2 - transform commands

In compliance with RFCs 5730 (commands presentation), 5731 (domain objects), 5732 (contact objects) and 5910 (DNSSEC specifications) AFNIC’s Registry solution use the following commands that allow for objects updates :

= ʹcreateʹ =

The EPP protocol (RFC 5730) allows domain name creation (RFC 5731). The registry service provider allows two types of creations: direct domain creations (with auth_info freely determined by the registrar) and domain names creation “with authorization code” (the correct auth_info value must be sent for the creation to succeed) 

Both are standard domain:create command as defined in the RFCs.

[see attached diagram Q25_2.3.2_EPP_client_create_command_example.pdf]
Diagram : EPP client create command example
Description : This is a standard EPP client create command following RFC 5731. Parameters sent in the following example are domain name, period of registration, registrant identifier, administrative, technical and billing identifier, and auth_info password.

Creation “with authorization code” enables the registry service provider to manage protected names or names under specific registration conditions. An authorization code is associated to three items (the registrar, the domain name and the holder nic-handle ) and is delivered outside the automated process through a manual process defined by a specific policy rule. The registry-generated authorization code must be present in the ʹdomain:authInfoʹ item of the creation request. No registrar-computed value is permitted. 
In every case, domain creation proceeds through standard EPP command.

[see attached diagram Q25_2.3.2_EPP_server_create_answer_example.pdf]
Diagram : EPP server create answer example
Description : This is a standard EPP server create command answer following RFC 5731. Parameters sent in the following example are result code, message, creation and expiry date, and client and server transaction ID.

[see attached diagram Q25_2.3.2_SRS_authorisation_code.pdf]
Diagram : SRS authorisation code
Description : The EPP auth_info field that can usually be freely filled in by the registrar has a specific use for registration of reserved names : an authorisation_code is delivered through an out of band process and must be used in the create command for the answer to be successful.

= ʹupdateʹ =

The registry offers EPP ʹdomain:updateʹ command to :
 * update the administrative, technical, registrant contacts of a domain name
 * update the DNS and DNSsec configuration of a domain name
 * update the status of a domain name or its auth_info

This command is also used to add or delete signed delegations (DS records), through a ʹsecDNS:updateʹ extension if DNSSEC operations are wanted and if the secDNS extension was chosen by the client at login.

When requested the status of domain name is changed to “pendingUpdate”.

= ʹdeleteʹ =

The whole deletion process (including redemption grace period and pending delete) of a domain name comes with a restoration mechanism (restore). This mechanism, based on RFC 3915, is applied to the deletion operation only. 

The status of the domain name is switched to ʺpendingDeleteʺ for the total duration of the ʺredemption grace periodʺ and as long as the domain is not restored or totally deleted. 

= ʹtransferʹ =

The registry offers standard EPP ʹdomain:transferʹ command to allow a change of registrar to the registrant.

A transfer can be initiated only by an incoming registrar and using the auth_info that the registrant has given him. This standard mechanism acts as a security and associates the triggering of transfer to the acceptance of the owner of the domain.
The transfer operation can be triggered only if the domain is not protected by a clientTransferProhibited lock.

The transfer implementation follows RFC 5730 section 2.9.3.4 and its lifecycle follow the inter registrar transfer policy as revised by the ICANN in 2008.

 ------------------------
 2.4 - contact command

Postal addresses are managed as indicated in RFC 5731 with the following specific rules : only the type “loc” for postal addresses is accepted and only one element of type ʹcontact:postalInfoʹ can be indicated for the contact .

ʹdiscloseʹ parameters is implemented and enables to activate restricted publication in the RDDS.
The choice to activate restricted diffusion is made in compliance with the policy and the local rules of the TLD towards privacy law.

 ------------------------
 2.5 - Return Codes

Some operations under normal working conditions of the SRS will answer with a 1000 return code. Otherwise, two different levels of return codes have been chosen according to the two different types of problems that can happen on the SRS :
 * minor problems answer with Return code 1001 : Minor problems do not affect requests reception. This code indicates the command was taken into account but that its complete execution is delayed. The final result will be known later on and will be sent in a message placed in the notification queue of the concerned registrar(s).
 * blocking problems answer with Return code 2400 “command failed” : no operations that transform a domain name can be taken into account. 


------------------------
3 - Compliance to RFCs

The system has been launched compliant with RFCs. Mechanisms are in place to ensure that ongoing maintenance and new functional delivery stay compliant with RFCs.

 ------------------------
 3.1 - Delivery process

The SRS evolutions are developed on the development environment.
The development process implies strict coding rules and use of shared best practices. Pair programming is standard practice. Unit test are developed prior to function development to ensure resiliency of the produced code. 

Delivery process take place in four steps :
 * 1st step : XML validation and RFC compliance is checked through automated tools. A 100% compliance signal must be received to be able to proceed to second step.
 * 2nd step : delivery to the pre-production environment. The development is delivered on the preproduction environment. This environment is available for internal testing team. They proceed through a standard Operational Test which goes through a full lifecycle of a domain name. Specific tests are made on new functions in any.
 * 3rd step : delivery to the sandbox environment. This sandbox environment is opened for registrar where they have two accounts to validate their clients before production activation.
 * 4th step : the new release is delivered in production.

 ------------------------
 3.2 - XML validation

EPP RFC compliance is reached through three mechanisms :
 * a batch of unitary tests on each operation, each answer of the server being validated through the XSD schema.
 * XML validation through perl XML::LibXML::Schema library
 * fuzzy testing, by sending garbage input and checking error return codes.

 ------------------------
 3.3 - Cross checking

EPP cross checking partnership is established with .at Registry operator to validate in sandbox environment prior to delivery in production through mutual agreement.


------------------------
4 - Specific extensions

 ------------------------
 4.1 - Specific extension : DNSSEC

The EPP server provides the secDNS-1-1 extension as described in RFC 5910. Implementation specifications are as follows :
 * The server only supports “the DS data interface” (ʹsecDNS:dsDataʹ); section 4.1 of RFC 5910, without information on the associated key (the ʹsecDNS:keyDataʹ element is not included); if information on the key is indicated the server will answer with a 2102 error code.
 * DNSSEC elements are only accepted during an update operation request. If included during a create operation the server will answer with a 2103 error code.
 * Each domain name can have up to 6 associated DS records : the number of elements ʹsecDNS:dsDataʹ present in the ʹsecDNS:addʹ section during an update operation is therefore limited in order to have the domain name’s final status with no more than 6 DS records.
 * The maxSigLife attribute is not supported, its presence inside a client request will generate a 2102 error code.
 * The urgent attribute is not supported, its presence inside a client request will generate a 2102 error code.

[see attached diagram Q25_4.1_EPP_xsd_dnssec_extension_schema.pdf]
Diagram : EPP xsd dnssec extension schema
Description : Registry service provider DNSsec EPP secDNS-1-1 extension is based on standard xsd schema as defined in RFC 5910.

 ------------------------
 4.2 - Specific extension : IDN

No specific IDN extension has been used. The script used for the TLD is declared in the greetings and no further indication is needed in the following transaction. Usage is in full compliance with RFCs 5890, 5891, 5892, 5893, and 5894. This may be a pending situation : if a standard IDN extension was to be produced in the months to come it would be added to the EPP schema in order to deal more precisely with each specific language management policies.

 ------------------------
 4.3 - Specific extension : Sunrise period

Sunrise period is managed through a specific EPP extension. The sunrise registration workflow is described in Question 29 (Right Protection Mechanism).

The extension used is described below but will follow work in progress at the IETF initiated by Cloud Registry (draft-tan-epp-launchphase-01.txt). The xsd schema has been designed by AFNIC’s partner CORE and is fully in accordance with the draft. It could be modified before the launch if the IETF draft was to be accepted as an RFC with modifications.

AFNIC Registry extension is fully compatible with extension mechanism described in RFC 5730. It offers trademark holders a specific mapping to provide information related to trademarks. It also enables query function to keep the sunrise process transparent to everybody.

For illustration and further information purposes, please refer to the Q25_4.3_EPP_xsd_sunrise_extension_schema.pdf file attached (EPP XSD sunrise extension schema) which describes the registry back-end services provider’s EPP extension XSD schema used to deal with sunrise period. This schema is designed based on the work in progress at IETF, as initiated by Cloud Registry (draft-tan-epp-launchphase-01.txt). This extension is fully compatible with extension mechanism described in RFC 5730.

 ------------------------
 4.3.1 - New objects

application : to deal with multiple demands on same domain name. The server creates an application object corresponding to the request and assigns an identifier for the application and returns it to the client. This mapping defines an ʹlp:applicationIDʹ element which is used to specify an ID to this object.

phase : optionnal element ʹlp:phaseʹ to be used in case of multiple sunrise phases.

status : status of each application in link with internal state of the process of the application. The ʹlp:statusʹ values that can be used in order to process the applications are pending, invalid, validated, allocated, rejected. These statuses have to be mapped with the sunrise workflow described in Question 29 (Right Protection Mechanism).

claim : claim object contains the details needed to applicantʹs prior right to the domain name.
The ʹlp:claimʹ element has the boolean ʺpreValidatedʺ attribute, which indicates whether a third party validation agency has already validated the claim in case of inter connection with the IP clearing house.

Several child elements of the ʹlp:claimʹ element are defined :
ʹlp:pvrcʹ, the Pre-Validation Result Code, is a string issued by a third-party validation agent. ʹlp:claimIssuerʹ contains the ID of a contact object (as described in RFC 5733) identifying the contact information of the authority which issued the right (for example, a trade mark office or company registration bureau).
ʹlp:claimNameʹ identifies the text string in which the applicant is claiming a prior right. ʹlp:claimNumberʹ contains the registration number of the right (i.e. trademark number or company registration number).
ʹlp:claimTypeʹ indicates the type of claim being made (e.g. trademark, symbol, combined mark,
company name).
ʹlp:claimEntitlementʹ indicates the applicantʹs entitlement to the claim (i.e. owner or licensee). ʹlp:claimRegDateʹ contains the date of registration of the claim.
ʹlp:claimExDateʹ contains the date of expiration of the claim.
ʹlp:claimCountryʹ indicates the country in which the claim is valid.
ʹlp:claimRegionʹ indicates the name of a city, state, province or other geographic region in which the claim is valid. This may be a two-character code from WIPO standard ST.3.

 ------------------------
 4.3.2 - command extensions

 ------------------------
 4.3.2.1 - EPP Query Commands

ʹinfoʹ command is the only extended query command.

In order to indicate that the query is meant for an application object, an ʹlp:infoʹ element is sent along with the regular ʹinfoʹ domain command. 

The ʹlp:infoʹ element contains the following child elements :
ʹlp:applicationIDʹ, the application identifier for which the client wishes to query, and ʹlp:phaseʹ (optional), the phase the application is associated with.
If the query was successful, the server replies with an ʹlp:infDataʹ element along with the regular EPP ʹresDataʹ. The ʹlp:infData contains the following child elements:
 * ʹlp:applicationIDʹ the application identifier of the returned application.
 * ʹlp:phaseʹ (optional) the phase during which the application was submitted or is associated with.
 * ʹlp:statusʹ (optional) status of the application.
 * ʹlp:claimʹ (optional) one or more ʹlp:claimʹ elements.
If present, the ʹlp:claimʹ elements may contain the child elements as described above in the claim object description.

 ------------------------
 4.3.2.2 - EPP Transform Commands

There are three extended EPP transform commands : ʹcreateʹ, ʹdeleteʹ and ʹrenewʹ

 ------------------------
 4.3.2.2.1 - EPP ʹcreateʹ Command

The EPP ʹcreateʹ command is used to create an application. Additional information is required to submit a domain name application during a launch phase :
* ʹlp:phaseʹ (optional), the phase the application should be associated with
* ʹlp:claimʹ (optional) elements to substantiate the prior rights of the applicant.

When such a ʹcreateʹ command has been processed successfully, the EPP ʹextensionʹ element in the response contains a child ʹlp:creDataʹ element that identifies the registry launchphase namespace and the location of the registry launchphase schema. The ʹlp:creDataʹ element contains a child ʹlp:applicationIDʹ element, which informs the registrar about the application ID the server has assigned.

 ------------------------
 4.3.2.2.2 - EPP ʹupdateʹ Command

This extension defines additional elements to extend the EPP ʹupdateʹ command to be used in conjunction with the domain name mapping.
Registry policies permitting, clients may update an application object by submitting an EPP ʹupdateʹ command along with an ʹlp:updateʹ element to indicate the application object to be updated.
The ʹlp:updateʹ element contains the following child elements:
* ʹlp:applicationIDʹ the application identifier for which the client wishes to update.
* ʹlp:phaseʹ (optional) the phase during which the application was submitted or is associated with.

 ------------------------
 4.3.2.2.3 - EPP ʹdeleteʹ Command

Registry policies permitting, clients may withdraw an application by submitting an EPP ʹdeleteʹ command along with an ʹlp:deleteʹ element to indicate the application object to be deleted. The ʹlp:deleteʹ element contains the following child elements:
* ʹlp:applicationIDʹ the application identifier for which the client wishes to delete.
* ʹlp:phaseʹ (optional) the phase during which the application was submitted or is associated with.


------------------------
5 - Resources

Four categories of profiles are needed to run the Registry’s Technical Operations : Registry Operations Specialists (I), Registry Systems Administrators (II), Registry Software Developer (III) and Registry Expert Engineers (IV). These categories, skill set and global availability of resources have been detailed in Question 31 (Technical Overview of Proposed Registry) including specific resources set and organisation to provide 24⁄7 coverage and maintenance capacity. 
Specific workload for EPP management is detailed below.

 ------------------------
 5.1 - Initial implementation

The set up is operated on the pre-installed virtualization infrastructure. It implies actions by system, database and network administrators to create the virtual servers and install the applicative packages.

Then, developers, assisted by a senior staff member expert in internet technologies and RFCs apply proper configuration for the given TLD. Compliance is strictly tested.
 
The initial implementation effort is estimated as follows :

Database Administrator 0.10 man.day
Network Administrator 0.10 man.day
System Administrator 0.10 man.day
Software Developer 0.40 man.day
Software Engineer 0.80 man.day

 ------------------------
 5.2 - On-going maintenance

On-going maintenance on the SRS includes integration of new policy rules, evolution of technology, bug fixing, infrastructure evolution, failover testing.

Although all the defined technical profiles are needed for such on-going maintenance operations, on a regular basis, it is mainly a workload handled by monitoring and development teams for alert management, new functional developments and RFC compliance checks, respectively.

The on-going maintenance effort per year is estimated as follows, on a yearly basis :

Operations Specialist 0.80 man.day
System Administrator 0.40 man.day
Software Developer 1.60 man.day
Software Engineer 0.40 man.day

Table of Contents

1 - General description
2 - Data access
 2.1 Typology of accessible data
 2.2 Profiles for data access control
3 - RDDS architecture
4 - RDDS infrastructure
5 - Rate limitation
6 - Reverse lookups
7 - Interconnectivity and synchronization with other systems
8 - Performance and scalability
9 - ICANN Bulk access compliance
10 - RFC compliance
11 - Resources
 11.1 - Initial implementation
 11.2 - On-going maintenance


------------------------
1 - General description

Registration Data Directory Service (RDDS) is one of the five vital functions of the Registry.
It is in direct connection with the database of the Shared Registration System and offers access to the public administrative and technical data of the registry.
The registry back-end solution implements data access through various interfaces that will be described below as well as their data access policies.

The main focus will be made on Whois on port 43 following RFC 3912 which is the main point of access.
The web Whois offers similar functionalities, is based on the same architecture and will be presented through screenshots.

The following description will provide full and detailed description of the architecture of the RDDS both from an application and from an infrastructure point of view.
This architecture is the same as the one used in production by AFNIC for .FR zone and has been fully functional for the last 15 years, with the ability to meet stringent SLAs as well as to scale from the management of a few thousands domain names in operations to over 2 million in late 2011.


------------------------
2 - Data access

When considering the data access services, we must address :
 * the typology of accessible data
 * access control : who can access what kind of data
 * performance : guarantee of availability and performance for requesting data

Potential limitations to the systems will also be described. 
To be able to maintain a good access to everybody (registrar, holders, outside world), our back-end solution provides multiple access with consistent role and access policies.

 ------------------------
 2.1 Typology of accessible data

Data that can be accessed through the RDDS are mainly :
 * contact data : holder, administrative, technical, billing
 * domain data : domain name, status
 * host data : name servers, IP addresses
 * ephemeris : creation, expiration dates
 * registrar data

These data are all described in the RFCs and fully compliant to the mapping of RFCs 5730 to 5734 and an example of standard port 43 output is given at the end of the present answer.

 ------------------------
 2.2 Profiles for data access control

= Whois for registrars =

The main registrar access tool is our RDDS service accessible both on port 43 following specifications of RFC 3912 and through web access. 
Both web and port 43 RDDS offer natively compliance with privacy law with a “restricted disclosure” flag if needed by the TLD. This option is activated through Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) standard ʹdiscloseʹ parameters while creating or updating a contact and automatically understood by the whois server to anonymize the data.
This service is accessible both in IPv4 and IPv6.
RDDS access for registrar is rate limited to ensure performance. (see performance)

= Public whois =

RDDS access is also available on port 43 to everybody through a rate limited access to ensure performance. (see performance)

= Legal requirements =

AFNIC back end solution implements by default French privacy laws with opt-out holder personal data privacy.
This option can be deactivated if necessary to be compliant with the policy of the TLD.


------------------------
3 - RDDS architecture

= RDDS architecture =

RDDS is running on two load balanced front virtual servers directly connected to two databases : the production database for data access, and a rate-limiting service database which applies rate-limiting policies and store IP involved. This server implements token bucket algorithm to flatten traffic on the server.

The two front servers are load balanced using classical round robin implementation.

The network infrastructure is the same as described in the global architecture (referred to below) and no specific dedicated switch or router is to be considered as the rate limiting tool is an applicative one. A global description of the network infrastructure (switch and routers involved) can be found in answers to Question 32 (Architecture).

[see attached diagram Q26_3_RDDS_architecture_diagram.pdf]
Diagram : RDDS architecture diagram
Description : This diagram shows global interaction between Internet, DMZ and private network zones. Topology of network and servers is illustrated including dedicated IP address scheme and network flows.

= RDDS logical diagram =

Our robust infrastructure shows dual Internet Service Provider (ISP) connectivity both in Ipv4 and Ipv6 (Jaguar and RENATER), redundant firewall and switching infrastructure. This part of the architecture is mutualized for all TLDs hosted.

The networking architecture dedicates LAN for administration, backup and production.

Servers are hosted on different network zones : database for database, private for servers not visible on the internet and public for external servers visible on the DMZ. Dedicated zones are also set up for monitoring servers, administration servers or desktop and backup servers.
RDDS servers are directly on the public zone.
Each server is load balanced and the service is not impacted by the loss of one server, the capacity of each server being sized to be able to host the whole traffic.

Servers are fully dedicated to the .CORSICA TLD, based on a virtualized hardware infrastructure shared among up to an estimated number of 5 TLDs of comparable scale and use case.

= RDDS physical diagram =

The IP scheme used is the following :

2001:67c:2218:1::4:0⁄64 for IPv6 Internet homing
192.134.4.0⁄24 for Ipv4 Internet homing

 = Production LAN =
192.134.4.0⁄24 for public network IP range
10.1.50.0⁄24, 10.1.30.0⁄24 for private network IP ranges distributed on the zones described above.

 = Backup LAN =
172.x.y.0⁄24 : x is a different on each network zone. y is fixed to the value of the associated production LAN in the same zone (for example Private zone production LAN being 10.1.”50”.0⁄24, Private zone backup LAN is 172.16.”50”.0⁄24)

 = Administration LAN =
172.z.y.0⁄24 : z is the value of x+1, x being the digit chosen for the corresponding Backup LAN in the same zone. y is fixed to the value of the associated production LAN in the same zone (for example Private zone production LAN being 10.1.”50”.0⁄24, Private zone administration LAN is 172.17.”50”.0⁄24)

Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the RDDS Oracle Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if the database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the Registration Data Directory Services (RDDS) access is automatically swapped to the new base.


------------------------
4 - RDDS infrastructure

In the following description “server” will refer to either a physical or a virtual server.
Due to very fast growth of performance in storage and processors technologies, the infrastructure described below could be replaced by more powerful one available at the time of the set up for the same cost.

It is important to note that at the applicative and system level, AFNIC’s SRS is fully dedicated to the .CORSICA TLD.

AFNIC has invested in very efficient VMWare Vsphere virtualization infrastructure. It provides a flexible approach to recovery both through quick activation of a new fresh server in case of local failure (cold standby) and through global failover to a mirrored infrastructure on another site.
This comes in addition to natural redundancy provided by the load balanced servers.

The RDDS is therefore hosted on virtualized infrastructure on the public zone (Demilitarized Zone - MZ) to the exception of the database, which presents very high rate of I⁄O (Input⁄Output), and is hosted on a dedicated physical infrastructure on the private zone.

The rate limiting database is hosted on one physical dedicated physical server. This server represents no failure point as a failure of the rate limiting system doesn’t affect the service (a standard uniform limitation is then applied instead of intelligent rate limiting).
The main database is the production database also used by the SRS and other registry vital functions and is described more in detail in Question 33 (Database Capabilities).

Databases are based on Oracle technologies. The main database is replicated logically on two sites. Full local recovery processes are in place in case of loss of integrity through the Oracle redolog functions which provides full recovery by replay of historized logged requests.

The whole RDDS service is located in the primary Tier 3 datacenter used by AFNIC in production, the 
secondary datacenter serves as failover capacity. Continuity mechanisms at a datacenter level are described in Questions 34 (Geographic Diversity), 39 (Registry Continuity) and 41 (Failover testing).

The detailed list of infrastructures involved can be described as follows :

This infrastructure is designed to host up to an estimated number of 5 TLDs of comparable scale and use case.

= Virtual servers =

RDDS server : 2 servers
 * Processor: 1 bi-core CPU
 * Main memory: 16 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 500 GB

= Data storage : see Question 33 (Database Capabilities) =

= Physical server =

Rate limiting database : 1 server
 * Processor: 1 bi-core CPU
 * Main memory: 8 GB of RAM
 * Operating system: RedHat RHEL 6
 * Disk space: 500 GB

Back up servers, backup libraries, Web whois server : mutualized with the global registry service provider infrastructure

= Additionnal infrastructure =

Failover, sandbox, preproduction infrastructure : 3 servers
 * 1 bi-core CPU, 16 GB of RAM, RedHat RHEL 6, 500 GB


------------------------
5 - Rate limitation

To ensure resiliency of the RDDS a rate limitation mechanism is in place.
RDDS is largely used by various public users and registrars, some of them for domain name drop catching. Potentiality of heavy load on this service is very high.
Therefore a rate limitation is applied with threshold calculated from the level of activity expected in order not to penalize normal use of the service. A double level mechanism enables different threshold for identified IP (white list) from registrar and for the public access.

Rate limitation is directly implemented on the front end server.

Access is rate limited through token-bucket algorithms with rate-limiting IP data stored on a dedicated database.
Penalties are applied as follow :
 * any IP : 7,200 request ⁄ 24 hour ⁄ IP. 
 * white listed IP for registrars : 86,400 requests⁄ 24 hour ⁄IP. 


------------------------
6 - Reverse lookups

The web RDDS access offers advanced searchability capacities.
The following functions are available :

= Direct queries =

 * Partial match query on domain name, administrative, technical, and billing contact name and address, registrant name and address, registrar name including all the sub-fields described in EPP (e.g., street, city, state or province, etc.).
 * Exact match query on registrar id, name server name, and name server’s IP glue records
The result of direct queries is the object queried (contact, domain, ...)

= Reverse queries =

 * Partial match query on domain name, administrative, technical, and billing contact name and address, registrant name and address, registrar name including all the sub-fields described in EPP (e.g., street, city, state or province, etc.).
 * Exact match query on registrar id, name server name, and name server’s IP glue records including IPv6 queries.
The result of reverse queries is the list of objects of a given type linked with the result object (list of domains with a given contact result, or name server result,...)

This powerful tool is limited in access :
 * Captcha system avoids scripting of the interface.
 * Direct queries are open to every user but the number of result objects is limited to 1,000 answers for 1 query.
 * Reverse queries can only be done by registrars on the extranet interface, and the number of result objects is limited to 10,000 answers for 1 query. The interface cannot be used more than 100 times a day.


------------------------
7 - Interconnectivity and synchronization with other systems

= SRS =

Data updated by the SRS are immediately visible in the RDDS with no further synchronisation needed. Rate limitation is applied both on SRS and RDDS service to avoid any load on the database. SRS and RDDS are partly in the same network zone, both RDDS servers and EPP SSL reverse proxies being in the public network zone (DMZ).

= Main database =

Hot standby of the production database is automatically taken into account by the RDDS Oracle Transparent Network Substrate configuration. Therefore if database are migrated in hot standby due to failure of part of the system, the RDDS service is automatically swapped to the new architecture. 

= Rate limiting database =

No standby is implemented on the rate-limiting database. In case of failure, a standard global limitation is applied while, replacement of the database is operated.

= Monitoring =

Monitoring is operated through probes and agents scanning systems with a 5 minutes period. The monitoring system gets snmp data from all servers described in the RDDS architecture and also from dedicated Oracle monitoring agent for the database.
Hot standby is not implemented on monitoring agents. 


------------------------
8 - Performance and scalability

The Registry’s RDDS offers high level production SLAs and derives from the branch of systems that have evolved over the last 12 years to successfully operate a set of french ccTLDs.

The Registry’s RDDS is used to publish .fr, .re, .yt, .pm, .tf, .wf TLDs information. It is used by more than 800 registrars in parallel managing more than 2 millions domain names and by a large user community.

AFNIC’s RDDS is designed to meet ICANN’s Service-level requirements as specified in Specification 10 (SLA Matrix) attached to the Registry Agreement.

As described in Question 31 (Technical Overview) in relation to each of the phases of the TLD’s operations, the following transaction loads are expected on the WHOIS servers :
 * launch phase (including sunrise if applicable) : up to 540 requests⁄minute peak
 * routine on going operations : up to 6,912 requests⁄day

It can serve up to 10,000 requests⁄min on load balanced service to be compatible with the launch and growth scenario described in Question 31 (Technical Overview).
 
The targeted TLD objective being around 4,000 domain names with a provision for up to 540 requests per minutes during the launch phase, this ensures that enough capacity is available to handle the launching period, as well as demand peaks and unexpected overhead. 

Capacity planning indicators are set up to anticipate exceptional growth of the TLD.
Technologies used enables quick upgrade on all fields :
 * Servers : virtual resizing to add CPUs or disk space if resource is available on the production ESX servers. If not, 2 spare additional ESX servers can be brought live if additional performance is needed.
 * Servers (alternate) : additional servers can be added and taken into account immediately through dns round robin algorithm.
 * Database : database capacity has been greatly oversized to avoid need of replacement of this physical powerful server. Precise capacity planning will ensure that sufficient delay will be available to acquire new server if needed. A threshold of 40% of CPU use or total storage capacity triggers alert for acquisition.


------------------------
9 - ICANN Bulk access compliance

The Registry Operator will provide both data escrow and ICANN bulk access in a same process.
Data escrow generates data on a daily basis. One file per week is kept for ICANN access to bulk data.


------------------------
10 - RFC compliance

The system has been launched compliant with RFCs. Mechanisms are in place to ensure that on going maintenance and new functional delivery stay compliant with RFCs.

= Delivery process =

The RDDS evolutions are developed on the development environment.
The development process implies strict coding rules and use of shared best practices. Pair programming is standard practice. Unit test are developed prior to function development to ensure resiliency of the produced code.

Delivery process take place in four steps :
 * 1st step : RDDS validation and RFC compliance is checked through automated tools. A 100% compliance signal must be received to be able to proceed to second step.
 * 2nd step : delivery to the pre-production environment. The development is delivered on the preproduction environment. This environment is available for internal testing team. 
 * 3rd step : delivery to the sandbox environment. This sandbox environment is opened for registrar where they have two accounts to validate their clients before production activation.
 * 4th step : the new release is delivered in production.

= Format validation =

RDDS rfc compliance is reached through a specific RDDS checker which is use for non-regression test before each new release. 

= Cross checking =

Whois cross checking partnership is established with .at Registry operator to validate in sandbox environment prior to delivery in production through mutual agreement.

= Whois Output =

Output of a whois query is 100% similar to the whois query example available in RFC 3912.


------------------------
11 - Resources

Four categories of profiles are needed to run the Registry’s Technical Operations : Registry Operations Specialists (I), Registry Systems Administrators (II), Registry Software Developer (III) and Registry Expert Engineers (IV). These categories, skillset and global availability of resources have been detailed in Question 31 (Technical Overview of Proposed Registry) including specific resources set and organisation to provide 24⁄7 coverage and maintenance capacity.
Specific workload for RDDS management is detailed below.

 ------------------------
 11.1 - Initial implementation

The initial implementation effort is estimated as follows :

Database Administrator 0.10 man.day
Network Administrator 0.10 man.day
System Administrator 0.10 man.day
Software Developer 0.40 man.day
Software Engineer 0.20 man.day

 ------------------------
 11.2 - On-going maintenance

On-going maintenance on the RDDS module includes mainly integration of new policy rules, privacy law evolutions, evolution of contracts, infrastructure evolution, failover testing.

Although all the defined technical profiles are needed for such on-going maintenance operations, on a regular basis, it is mainly a workload handled by monitoring and development teams for alert management and new functional developments, respectively.

The on-going maintenance effort per year is estimated as follows, on a yearly basis :

Operations Specialist 0.60 man.day
System Administrator 0.20 man.day
Software Developer 0.80 man.day
Software Engineer 0.40 man.day

Table of Contents

1 - Global description
2 - Data associated with a domain name
 2.1 - Technical data
 2.2 - Administrative data
3 - Full domain name lifecycle overview
4 - Basic create⁄update⁄delete life cycle
 4.1 - create
 4.2 - update
 4.2.1 - technical update
 4.2.2 - administrative update
 4.2.3 - context update
 4.3 - delete⁄restore
5 - Transfer
6 - Renewal and auto-renewal
7 - Grace period and refund
8 - Resources allocated
 8.1 - Initial implementation
 8.2 - On-going maintenance


------------------------
1 - Global description

Domain names represents the core technical part of the Domain Name System. The lifecycle of a domain name can have both technical impacts, when it relates to technical data associated with the domain name, and administrative impact when related to the registrant of the domain name.

The following diagrams and descriptions will bring detailed answers to the question of the lifecycle of the domain name in regards to both these aspects 


------------------------
2 - Data associated with a domain name

To clearly understand the lifecycle of the domain name, we must first give an exhaustive description of the data involved in the various operations to be made.
 
 ------------------------
 2.1 - Technical data

A domain name is a technical label used for Domain name resolution. To be effective, it is associated with nameservers -server hosting the configuration of the domain name -, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses - to identify on the network servers independently of the DNS, DNSsec signature information - delegation signer and cryptographic algorithm used-.
Less directly related to the technical basic configuration are :
 * = clientHold = label : relates to the DNS or not DNS-publication status of the domain name.
 * = auth_info = : a protection code linked with the domain and used by the owner to unlock some operations
 * = client*Prohibited = : a list of status activated by the registrar to lock the domain name and prevent some operations
 * = server*Prohibited = : a list of status activated by the registry service provider to lock the domain name and prevent some operations

 ------------------------
 2.2 - Administrative data

A domain name has to be managed by his owner. Therefore it comes associated with a list of operational and administrative contacts that can be used to get in relation with the domain name owner or technical staff. The most important are administrative contact, technical contact, billing contact, and of course registrant contact. The last contact object is the registrar object which shows which registrar is in charge of domain name operations at the registry level.

Both these administrative and technical data are modified and used in the lifecycle and we will now describe this in detail.


------------------------
3 - Full domain name lifecycle overview

We have chosen to illustrate the registration lifecycle through a state diagram
This state diagram is joined as a separate file.

[see attached diagram Q27_3_global_lifecycle.pdf]
Diagram : Global Lifecycle
Description : Considering the wide range of the states and transition, the choice has been made to present a linear scenario going through all available operations. In this scenario, impact on registrar objects, registrant objects, domain objects, host objects are described at each step. Also statuses and forbidden operations at each step are indicated.
The following domain states have been introduced to describe the lifecycle major steps :
 * registered : the domain name is registered, published in the Registration Data Directory Services (RDDS) but not in the DNS (clientHold label is set or there is no host information)
 * active : the domain name is registered, published in the RDDS and in the DNS
redemption : the domain name is registered, published in the RDDS but not in the DNS. It will be - deleted if no action is taken by the registrar.
 * locked : specific operations as transfer or delete have been forbidden by the registrar.
Impact on expiry dates has also been indicated though adequate formulas.

All aspects of the registration lifecycle are covered by standard Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) RFCs and the EPP implementation is described in Question 25 (EPP). 


------------------------
4 - Basic create⁄update⁄delete life cycle

The basic life cycle is described below without explanation of add grace period. The behavior of add grace period is described in chapter 7.

 ------------------------
 4.1 - create

A domain name is created through a standard EPP domain:create command.
Administrative data linked with the creation are registrant contact, admin contact and technical contact, period before renewal.
Technical data linked with the creation are nameservers host objects, IP address for glue records, auth_info code.
The state of the domain name is REGISTERED if no host objects have been filled.
The state of the domain name is ACTIVE if host objects have been filled.
The state of the domain name can exceptionally be PENDING during the operation if a technical issue makes it asynchronous.
Otherwise this operation is real time and there is no delay elements to be considered.

Elements needed to create a domain are contacts (mandatory), host objects (optional) and auth_code (mandatory).
It can then be managed through domain:update commands. 

 ------------------------
 4.2 - update

domain:update commands enables a wide range of fields updates

 ------------------------
 4.2.1 - technical update

Part of the fields of the update enables to update technical configuration. It enables nameserver, IP address, and dnssec options management. It is also used to remove a technical configuration..

The state of the domain name is REGISTERED if no host objects have been filled or have been removed.
The state of the domain name is ACTIVE if host objects have been filled.
The state of the domain name can exceptionally be PENDING during the operation if a technical issue makes it asynchronous.

 ------------------------
 4.2.2 - administrative update

It is used to freely modify the various contacts linked with the domain name : administrative, technical, billing, and registrant contact.
The state of the domain name is not modified if only these fields are used.
The state of the domain name can exceptionally be PENDING during the operation if a technical issue makes it asynchronous.

 ------------------------
 4.2.3 - context update

It is used by the client to modify status of the domain name and⁄or to modify the auth-info code linked with the domain name.
The status that can be changed are the following : clientHold, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited.
The clientHold flag enables to remove the domain name from publication temporarily without deleting its technical configuration.
The other client*Prohibited statuses prevent the corresponding operation to be used.
The state of the domain name is REGISTERED if status is updated to clientHOLD.
The state of the domain name is LOCKED if status is updated to clientTransferProhibited.
The state of the domain name can exceptionally be PENDING during the operation if a technical issue makes it asynchronous.

 ------------------------
 4.3 - delete⁄restore

Deletion can be used only by the registrar in charge of the domain name. It brings the domain name in Redemption grace period for a period of 30 days. It can be restored at any time during this period without any changes to the data. Deletion remove the domain name from the DNS publication service.
The state of the domain name is DELETED during redemption period.
The redemption period lasts 30 days. The domain is destroyed at the end of this period and a notification is sent.


------------------------
5 - Transfer

The transfer is described below without explanation of transfer grace period. The behavior of transfer grace period is described in chapter 7.

A transfer can be initiated only by an incoming registrar and using the auth_info that the owner has given him. This standard mechanism acts as a security and associates the triggering of transfer to the acceptance of the owner of the domain.
The transfer operation can be triggered only if the domain is not protected by a clientTransferProhibited lock.

[see attached diagram Q27_5_transfer_lifecycle.pdf]
Diagram : Transfer lifecycle
Description : Transfer operation includes various steps with impact on both outgoing and incoming registrars.

The outgoing registrar receive a transfer notification and can technically accept or reject the registrar change. Rejection can only be done in specific cases described in ICANN consensus policies.
If the outgoing registrar accepts the transfer, the operation is accepted immediately.
If the outgoing registrar does not validate the transfer, the operation is automatically accepted after 5 days.
If the outgoing registrar rejects the transfer, the operation is automatically cancelled and both registrars are notified of the rejection.
When the transfer succeeds, both registrars are notified through their EPP notification queue.

A reverse transfer can be asked by the losing registrar. The documents and cases where this cancellation of the transfer can be asked follow ICANN consensus policies on transfers. In case of disputes, the ICANN TDRP (Registrar Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy) is followed.

The state of the domain name is PENDING during the operation.


------------------------
6 - Renewal and auto-renewal

Domain:renew command is used by the registrar to increase the period of registration. If a domain name is registered for less than 10 years it can be renewed for a period up to 10 years at any time. The expiry date is updated. 
The domain:renew command can be sent at any phase of the lifecycle (exception of add grace period is described in next chapter).

The registry lifecycle works with auto-renewal mechanisms. If a registrar do not renew or delete the name when it reaches the expiration date, a one year auto-renew period is added. As for other commands, a grace period is linked with this action (see chapter 7)

[see attached diagram Q27_6_grace_period_renew_autorenew_lifecycle.pdf]
Diagram : Grace Period renew⁄autorenew lifecycle
Description : This renew⁄autorenew lifecycle sum up impact of operations on domain name availability and statuses.


------------------------
7 - Grace period and refund

= Grace period =

The Grace Period mechanism refers to a specified period following an operation or change of status in which the operation may be reversed and a credit may be issued to the Registrar. 

= Redemption Grace Period =

The Redemption Grace Period has been described in the delete⁄restore chapter.
During this period, domain name is still registered and can be reactivated through domain:restore command. No specific refund is linked with this period.

= Create - Add Grace Period (AGP) =

The implemented AGP is a five-day period following the domain:create command of a domain name.
The Registrar may delete the domain name at any time during this period and receive a full credit for the registration fee from the Operator. Once a domain name is deleted by the registry at this stage, it is immediately available for registration by any registrant through any Registrar.

= Auto-renew Grace Period =

The auto-renew add grace period is implemented. If during this 45 days period the domain is deleted by the incoming registrar, the ʹdomain:renewʹ command is refunded.

= Renew Grace Period =

The renew grace period is implemented. If during the 5 days period following explicit renew bye the registrar, the domain name is deleted, the renew is then refunded.

= Transfer Grace Period =

The transfer grace period is implemented. If during the 5 days period following a transfer the domain is deleted, the transfer is then refunded.

= AGP Limits Policy =

If too many deletions take place during the AGP from a given registrars, a financial penalty is applied.
The Add Grace Period Limits Policy allows a registrarʹs account to be debited each month for all AGP deletions that exceed the greater of either:
 * 50 domain names, or
 * 10% of net new adds for the previous month
 

------------------------
8 - Resources allocated

Four categories of profiles are needed to run the Registry’s Technical Operations : Registry Operations Specialists (I), Registry Systems Administrators (II), Registry Software Developer (III) and Registry Expert Engineers (IV). These categories, skillset and global availability of resources have been detailed in Question 31 (Technical Overview of Proposed Registry). Specific workload for this question is detailed below.

 ------------------------
 8.1 - Initial implementation

The set up of a precise lifecycle implies actions by developers, assisted by a senior staff member expert in internet technologies and RFCs to apply proper configuration for the given TLD. Compliance is strictly tested.
 
The initial implementation effort is estimated as follows :

Software Developer 1.00 man.day
Software Engineer 1.00 man.day

 ------------------------
 8.2 - On-going maintenance

On-going maintenance on the lifecycle includes mainly integration of new policy rules.
The on-going maintenance effort per year is estimated as follows, on a yearly basis :

Software Developer 1.00 man.day
Software Engineer 1.00 man.day

The .corsica Registry will establish and make publicly available on its website a clear set of methods and procedures to prevent the abusive use of .corsica domain names, .corsica registrant data or the associated infrastructure, as well as mitigating any impact from such abuse (should it occur despite the preventive measures).

In order to achieve this, the .corsica Registry is committed to the deployment of far-reaching organizational and technical measures.

1) Policies for handling complaints regarding abuse

a. Abuse Single Point of Contact

To ensure that the .corsica Registry gets notified of any cases of abuse as rapidly and as easily as possible, an area of the public web site operated by the .corsica Registry for the .corsica TLD will be dedicated to the reporting of such cases.

The respective web pages will include a single point of contact where abuse cases can be reported via a simple web form. An e-mail address and a phone number will also be provided as alternative means of communication.

Every case reported will raise a high-priority ticket within the .corsica support staffʹs ticket system, examined immediately and treated in accordance with the Rapid Takedown Policy (and the other Compliance Procedures related to Eliigibitly and Use, and IP Claims).

b. Prevention of Domain Name Tasting or Domain Name Front Running

The life cycle of a .corsica domain name will include a 5-day Add Grace Period (AGP) during which a newly created domain name may be deleted with a refund of the domain fee. This is common practice and corresponds to the policies of almost all existing generic top level domains even though, in the past, the Add Grace Period has been abused for practices such as domain name tasting and domain name front running.

Domain name tasting refers to the creation of domains simply for the purpose of testing whether revenue can be generated by them, e.g. creating a web page with advertisements for the domain. If this was deemed to be possible within the first few days after the creation of the domain, the domain is retained, otherwise it is deleted within the add grace period for a full refund, i.e. the domain was ʺtastedʺ for potential revenue without any payment to the registry.

Domain name front running refers to the practice of pre-registering domain names somebody has merely expressed interest in (e.g. by searching for them on the Whois web frontend of a registrar) with the purpose of reselling the domain to that person (at an inflated price) afterwards. Again, the Add Grace Period has been abused for this purpose since a registrar could do that without any cost (if the unsold domain was deleted before the end of the add grace period).

In 2008, ICANN introduced the so-called ʺAGP Limits Policyʺ (http:⁄⁄ www.icann.org⁄en⁄tlds⁄agp-policy- 17dec08-en.htm) which addresses these and other issues resulting from the Add Grace Period.

The .corsica TLD, will fully implement this policy by restricting Add Grace Period refunds to registrars according to the limits specified by the policy. At the end of every month, the registration systemʹs billing module will determine every registrarʹs net domain adds and check whether the add grace period refunds granted during that month exceed the permissible number according to the policy. If this is the case, additional charges to the registrarʹs account will be initiated to effectively revert the excessive refunds.

Any exemption requests by registrars, whether they are granted (as permitted by the policy) or rejected, will be documented, and such documentation will be maintained and made available for review by ICANN on request. The registryʹs monthly report to ICANN will contain per-registrar information on the granted add-deletes, as well as additional columns regarding the exemption requests.

The related report columns are (with column header names in parentheses):

- number of AGP deletes (ʺdomains-deleted-graceʺ)
- number of exemption requests (ʺagp-exemption-requestsʺ)
- number of exemptions granted (ʺagp-exemptions-grantedʺ)
- number of names affected by granted exemption request (ʺagp- exempted-domainsʺ)

c. Prevention of Domain Name Sniping (Grabbing)

Domain name sniping (also known as ʺgrabbingʺ) is another common form of abuse. It refers to the practice of trying to re-register potentially interesting domain names immediately after they are deleted (sometimes by accident, or because a registrant failed to renew the domain with his registrar in time).

Starting in 2002, registries started to implement an ICANN proposal, the so-called ʺRedemption Grace Periodʺ (RGP, http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄registrars⁄redemption-proposal-14feb02.htm). The
proposal recommends the introduction of a 30-day period after a nameʹs deletion during which the name is removed from the TLD zone (in order to give the registrant the chance to take notice of his nameʹs deletion) but is still eligible for being restored by the previous registrar⁄registrant.

Supporting the RGP significantly reduces the chances for domain grabbers to obtain inadvertently deleted domains, since a registrant gets 30 days to notice the mistake and restore the domain before it becomes available for re-registration.

The .corsica Registry supports the Redemption Grace Period as proposed by ICANN and will implement it in full compliance with RFC 3915 (ʺDomain Registry Grace Period Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)ʺ).

d. Preventing Use of Reserved, Invalid, Illegal or Otherwise Unsuitable .corsica Names

As laid out in our answer to Question 29 (Rights Protection Mechanisms), the .corsica Registry will take extensive steps to protect the legal rights of domain name buyers (such as trademark holders).

In addition, the .corsica Registration System will provide general means to ensure that no .corsica names are registered which are for other reasons deemed invalid, reserved, illegal, offensive or unsuitable.

-- Rule Engine

For the most part, this will be achieved by the deployment of a complex rule engine that checks each registered name at the time of registration for compliance with a configurable set of rules. Among other things, these rules will include:

- a test to ensure that the domain name has the proper number of labels (two for a traditional registry that allows only second level domains to be registered),
- a test to ensure that no hyphens occur in position 3 and 4 of any of the domainʹs U-labels (to protect ʺxn--ʺ and future ACE prefixes),
- a test to disallow hyphens at the beginning or end of the name,
- a test to find ASCII characters which are neither a letter, nor a digit or a hyphen,
- a test to find invalid IDN characters, i.e. characters not contained in any of the support IDN character tables
- a test to disallow reserved geopolitical names
- a test to disallow registry reserved names
- a test to disallow ICANN reserved names
- a test to disallow otherwise reserved or unsuitable names

For the tests checking for reserved names, custom lists of labels can be conveniently maintained by the registry to define the disallowed names for each category.

-- Pattern matching and fuzzy string comparison

In addition to the pre-registration checks described above, the rule engine also supports testing registered domain names against a set of configurable string patterns, as well as for their similarity to a set of disallowed strings. The former is implemented by matching names against regular expressions, the latter by calculating the so-called ʺLevenshtein distanceʺ between the registered name and a given disallowed string (which is a measure for their similarity).

Prior to performing any of these checks, the registered name is subjected to a number of normalizations in order to maximize its comparability; this includes the mapping of IDN characters with accents to their ASCII counterparts where feasible, the removal of hyphens and the removal of digits. If a name matches a regular expression, or if the calculated Levenshtein distance falls below a certain threshold, the name is still registered, however it is also internally flagged for review. Due to the fuzzy nature of the pattern and Levenshtein matching, a name flagged via these checks may not necessarily be invalid or illegal; this is why the flagged names need to be reviewed manually by the .corsica support staff.

Flagged names automatically create tickets within the support teamʹs issue system, which starts a workflow that ultimately decides whether the name is permissible (in which case the flag is removed) or invalid⁄illegal (in which case the name is deleted and the registrar gets notified).

e. Domain Data Access Control

One important point of attack that may lead to abuse of .corsica domains and their associated data is the unauthorized or excessive access to data stored within the .corsica repository. This applies to both read access (e.g. via public interfaces such as the port 43⁄port 80 Whois) and write access (such as registrar interfaces like EPP or the web-based Control Panel). The measures taken in the .corsica TLD to properly restrict access are laid out in the following sub-sections.

-- Prevention of Whois Data Mining

The port 43⁄port 80 Whois interfaces grant public access to domain, host and contact data. As such they are a potential target for data mining, i.e. the retrieval of large amounts of postal or e-mail addresses for e.g. the purpose of advertising.

As explained in detail in the answer to question 26 (Whois), the Whois implementation provided by the .corsica Registration System prevents such data mining attempts, most importantly by:

- rate-limiting access to all Whois interfaces (for machines not whitelisted for unlimited access),
- requiring web interface users to pass a CAPTCHA before access is granted and,
- providing full support for contact disclosure flags as specified in RFC 5733, the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Contact Mapping, giving registrants control over the contact fields they want to disclose in the Whois. In this respect, the system is configurable and allows restricting the use of EPP contact disclosure settings via rules defined by specific registry policies or legal requirements.

-- Prevention of Unauthorized Data Modifications

Domain data within the .corsica Registry is exclusively provisioned by registrars, i.e. registrants have no direct write access to their data within the repository; all their modifications have to be done via the registrar sponsoring the respective domain. In this constellation, registrants needs to trust their registrar and will expect that the management of domain is conducted in a diligent and correct manner. This means that the registryʹs interfaces used by registrars need to be secured in order to only allow the sponsoring registrar of a domain (and nobody else) to modify domain data.
The EPP interface provided by the .corsica Registration System does this by:

- requiring SSL⁄TLS on the transport layer,
- requiring a strong EPP password (minimum length, mandatory digits and non-alphanumerical characters),
- requiring changing the EPP password on a regular basis,
- requiring registrars to provide lists of IP addresses or subnets from which exclusive access will be granted,
- requiring registrars to use SSL client certificates known to and trusted by the registry, thus providing an additional means of authentication beyond the EPP password.

Likewise, the web-based Control Panel :

- requires SSL⁄TLS on the transport layer,
- requires registrars to log in with a user name and password (for which the same rules regarding minimum length, mandatory digits and non- alphanumerical characters apply),
- requires changing the password on a regular basis,
- requires registrars to supply lists of IP addresses or subnets from which exclusive access will be granted,
- requires registrars to install SSL client certificates known to and trusted by the registry in their web browsers, thus providing an additional means of authentication beyond the web password.

2) Measures for management and removal of orphan glue records for names removed from the zone when provided with evidence in written form that the glue is present in connection with malicious conduct.

According to the definition found in the ʺSSAC Comment on the Orphan Glue Records in the Draft Applicant Guidebookʺ (http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄ committees⁄security⁄sac048.pdf), a glue record becomes an ʺorphanʺ when the delegation point NS record (the ʺparent NS recordʺ) that references it is removed while retaining the glue record itself in the zone. Consequently, the glue record becomes ʺorphanedʺ since it no longer has a parent NS record. In such a situation, registrars and registrants usually lose administrative control over the record, and the recordʹs attribution to a certain registrar may become unclear, which makes it a potential vector for abuse.

The glue record policy in effect for the .corsica TLD avoids this situation entirely by disallowing orphan glue records altogether. This corresponds to policy #3 mentioned in section 4.3 (page 6) of the SSAC document mentioned above. The technical implementation within the Registry and its associated zone generation process ensures this by the following measures:

- A host object within the .corsica TLD (like e.g. ʺns.example.corsicaʺ) cannot exist without its parent domain (ʺexample.corsica ʺ). Any attempt to create the host ʺns.example.corsicaʺ will be rejected by the SRS if the domain ʺexample.corsica ʺ doesnʹt already exist or isnʹt sponsored by the registrar creating the host. Likewise, the domain ʺexample.corsicaʺ cannot be deleted by the registrar if subordinate hosts like ʺns.example.corsicaʺ still exist. These subordinate hosts have to be deleted before the domain may be deleted; if such hosts are used in delegations for other .corsica names, these delegations in turn have to be removed before the host may be deleted.

- If a domain name is put on hold (e.g. as a consequence of the Rapid Takedown Policy described above), this not only means that the delegation for the name itself is removed from the zone; it also means that any occurrences of NS records referencing a name server that is subordinate to the domain are also removed from other .corsica domains, along with any accompanying glue records. The same of course holds true should the domain name have to be deleted entirely by the registry.

Consequently, no glue records can exist for a certain domain in the .corsica zone after that domain is put on hold or deleted as part of abuse prevention or mitigation procedures.

It should be noted that this policy may lead to other domains (not directly involved in the abuse case) being affected by the takedown if they were delegated to a name server subordinate to the offending domain. Depending on their overall DNS architecture, such domains may become unreachable or less reachable after the delegation point is removed. While this could in theory be avoided by a less rigid orphan glue record policy, the overall benefit of adopting the strict policy described above is deemed higher than the potential damage to domains using an DNS infrastructure depending on an offending domain name.

3) Resourcing plans for the initial implementation of, and ongoing maintenance of, this aspect of the criteria (number and description of personnel roles allocated to this area).

Thanks to the experience and investment of its Registry Service Providers, the technical operator for the .corsica Registry already supports the technical abuse prevention and mitigation measures above at the time of writing. No additional engineering is required for these, which means that no special developing resources will be needed.

Continuous audits and monitoring, as well as timely reactions to reports of malicious activity will be provided by the support staff on duty at the Registry operator.

==================

Since the .corsica TLD will be operated as a so-called ʺthick registryʺ, the .corsica Whois displays information about the registrant, as well as the administrative, technical and billing contacts of every .corsica domain. In cases of malicious or abusive activity involving a .corsica domain, this Whois contact information usually is the first and most important source of information, e.g. for law enforcement authorities, to determine the people or organizations responsible for the domain in a timely manner. Consequently, it is deemed very important to maximize the accuracy of contact information stored in the registry repository.

The .corsica Registry is, therefore, committed to taking diligent measures to promote Whois accuracy, including (but not limited to) the following:

- Contact data completeness policy: While RFC 5733, the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Contact Mapping, merely requires contact data to contain a name, a city, a country code and an e-mail address for a syntactically complete EPP request, the .corsica TLD policy for contact data mandates the specification of at least one address line (street), a voice phone number and a postal code in addition. This means that, in addition to the XML schema validation conducted by the .corsica SRS for every EPP request received from the registrar (which ensures the presence of all RFC-mandated contact data), the SRS also requires these essential fields to be present and will reject requests lacking them with a ʺparameter value policy errorʺ message. The validation done by the SRS also goes beyond validating against the EPP XSDs with respect to field content. For instance, contact e-mail addresses are required to contain an ʹ@ʹ character and a valid domain name; this is not mandated by the XSDs specified in RFC 5733.

- Domain data change notifications: The .corsica Registration System will be configured (on a per- registrar basis) to automatically notify certain contacts of a domain (e.g. both the registrant and the administrative contact in order to reach multiple people concerned with the domain) after every change made to the domain (i.e. alterations of associated contacts or name servers). When enabled, this feature will allow unauthorized or unintended changes to domain and contact data to be detected immediately. This functionality will however need to be deployed after consultation with .corsica registrars, since many registrars do not endorse direct communication between the registry and registrants, i.e. their customers.

- Contact data monitoring: On a regular basis, the registry will run automated plausibility audits on the contact data submitted by registrars. Using publicly available databases, contact address lines will e.g. be mapped to cities and zip codes, which are then compared to the ones provided by the registrant.

- WDRP auditing: In 2003, ICANN adopted the so-called ʺWhois Data Reminder Policyʺ (WDRP, http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄registrars⁄wdrp.htm) which obliges ICANN-accredited registrars to send yearly Whois data reminder notices to registrants. These notices contain the Whois data currently on file for the respective domain, as well as instructions for the registrant about ways to correct the data if required. While the .corsica Registry does not intend to replicate this reminder procedure on the registry level, it will establish an auditing process that monitors the WDRP activities of .corsica registrars to make sure that WDRP responsibilities are honoured.

==================

• Description policies and procedures that define malicious or abusive behavior, capture metrics, and establish Service Level Requirements for resolution, including service levels for responding to law enforcement requests. This may include rapid takedown or suspension systems and sharing information regarding malicious or abusive behavior with industry partners;

Rapid Takedown Policy for Cases of General Malicious Activity

The .corsica Registry is committed to collaborating closely with law enforcement authorities and security agencies in order to take action without delay should a .corsica domain name be reported to be involved in malicious activity.

For this purpose, a ʺRapid Takedown Policyʺ will be established that:

- identifies cases of malicious activity,
- specifies ways for the registry to be notified of such activity (e.g. via a dedicated web site, e-mail address or phone hotline),
- defines clear and consistent procedures to quickly stop the malicious activity (after the activity was confirmed and impact of the measures has been assessed),
- defines related service levels (e.g. with respect to the maximum time the registry may take to respond to takedown requests). This time limits will never exceed 14 business days in the case of less urgent cases, and not exceed 24 hours in the most urgent cases such as phishing. defines rules regarding the notification of involved parties (registrant, administrative contact, technical contact, registrar, informant),
- defines ways to appeal against any measures taken (through the general Eligibility Restrictions Dispute Resolution Procedure as is the case for all appeals against Registry decisions, but with panelists that are specilized in Security and Malicious Conducts).
- defines how cases covered by the policy need to be documented and reported. In this context, cases of malicious activity may include (but are not limited to) :

-- wrong, invalid or harmful DNS setup (e.g. pointers to false IP addresses),
-- use of trademarked or otherwise reserved names without proper rights,
-- use of the domain in actions that affect the stability and security of the Internet (e.g. in Denial of Service (DoS), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or botnets)
-- use of the domain for the distribution of malware (such as computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware or rootkits)
-- use of the domain for phishing or scamming use of the domain for spamming (affecting e-mail or other forms of electronic messaging)

Where applicable, the policy includes metrics and thresholds for finding quantitative indications of malicious conduct.

Procedures to stop malicious activity may include (but are not limited to) :

- notifying the domainʹs sponsoring registrar, specifying a deadline until which the activity needs to be ceased,
- notifying the domainʹs registrant, administrative or technical contact directly (again specifying a deadline until which the activity needs to have ceased),
- locking the domain and putting it on hold in order to prevent changes to the domain and to remove it from the .corsica zone (ʺtakedownʺ)
- deleting the domain name and blocking it from further registration if need be. Escalation rules (defining which steps are to be taken in which order and conditions for moving on to the next, more drastic measure) are part of the policy.

Since removing a domain name from the .corsica zone will have serious consequences (such as rendering web sites and e-mail addresses utilizing the domain name unusable), the .corsica Registry will, in accordance with the policy, exercise extreme caution with regard to any takedown decision.

At the same time, the .corsica Registry is aware that malicious activity potentially affects a large number of Internet users, which sometimes warrants drastic measures. The Rapid Takedown Policy aims at finding appropriate measures, taking the interests of all involved parties into consideration. The Rapid Takedown Policy will be announced to both .corsica registrars and .corsica registrants and be part of the Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA) and the .corsica registration terms.

The .corsica TLD is committed to preventing abusive uses of its namespace, regarding legal rights of third parties, and beyond. It is fully committed to an orderly namespace with clear and effective policies guaranteeing the domain names are used according to the principles of the TLD by the relevant community, as explained at greater length in questions 18 and 20.

In this regard, this is an outline of the Enforcement Policies that have an effect on Rights Protection and which will be implemented under .corsica. These policies aim to comply fully with and exceed Specification 7 of ICANN’s Registry Agreement.

1 - Sunrise: Criteria; Conflict Resolution; Mechanisms

As explained in answers to questions 18 and 20, .corsica Sunrise will consist of three-month period during which multiple applications will be accepted and published, and then validated, prioritized and eventually accepted or rejected according to their relative priority.

The Sunrise will have three main Categories, each one with different sub-categories:

- Public Administrations (for public authorities with legal competences in the territory of .corsica as defined, but also with a last-in-priority phase for other public administrations wishing to protect their names under .corsica).
- Trademarks, and other Distinctive Signs (with full compliance with the Trademark Clearinghouse process; also giving priority to Trademarks that have legal effect in the relevant territory for the .corsica TLD, that is : TM registered in France at INPI, European TM registered with OHMI, and International TM in force in France according to the Madrid system)

Each application will be individually validated against the general requirements of .corsica registration policies and the specific requirements of each Category or Sub-Category. Priority will be differentiated by Category (and Sub-category) each one having absolute priority over the next one.

Within each Category (and Sub-category) all validated applications will be deemed to carry the same rights. Auction will be the last resort resolution mechanisms for intra (sub-)category concurrent applications, but the party may avoid it by electing for Mediation.

When rejecting an application the applicant will have one week to notify its intention to appeal the decision (before an independent Mediation and Arbitration Center). In that case, no application for the same name from the same or lower rank in Sunrise priority will be approved, pending the Appeal. If the Appeal decisions ruling that the Registry failed to apply the Sunrise Registration Policies in an adequate manner, will result in the restoration of the domain name which processing will then resume according to the Sunrise Registration Policies (within the category or lower priority categories).

The registry will also offer the TM Claims mechanism as provided by the TM Clearinghouse. This service will be provided not just during the Sunrise period, but also afterwards, during the Ongoing Registration Phase.

2 - Compliance Mechanisms. Ongoing Registrations

As explained in question 18 and 20, once in Ongoing (live) Registration mode, the .corsica Registry will perform ex-post validation based on whois data and use of the domain name, both against the Registrations Policies and, when collected, the Intended Use Statement provided by the registrant.

2.1 - Ex-officio random checks

Checks will be performed by compliance agents both based on complaints and ex-officio, on statistically targeted random checks. Registry will start with 50 such random cases per day, and will adapt the practices according to the experience gained (it is expected that the number will decrease over time, as reputation and enforcement will make compliance easier over time).

Checks will be carried both on compliance with .corsica policy and at the same time on registrant data accuracy.

Should the compliance agents discover a problem, either on policy compliance or on data accuracy, they will escalate the issue to the Compliance Officers, and the registrant will be contacted to clarify⁄correct the situation. If not solved in due time (30 days), the name will be put on registry hold for 30 additional days. Unless the situation is corrected by this deadline, the name will be removed.

2.2 - Complaints, Rights Protection.

Similarly, in case of a third-party complaint for infringement of rights of others, the Compliance Officers will request the complainant to compile a specific form including such information as :

- identification of complainant,
- identification of right infringed,
- declaration of good faith belief that the domain name is used to violate said right,
- acceptance of jurisdiction of the Corsican courts in case the name is blocked and the registrant wants to sue the complainant for damages.

Then the registrant will be contacted. In case it provides within the following 14 business days a counter-statement with some specific content (identification; signed declaration of non-infringement of rights, with explanation of reasons) the domain name will not be blocked, and the complainant shall use the URS, the UDRP, the .corsica Eligibility Registrictions Dispute Resolution Procedure (ERDRP) or file a lawsuit in a competent court. In case the registrant fails to provide all the elements (which will often be the case in blatant violations) the domain name will be put on registry hold.

Against these decisions (not just for Rights Protections, but also in cases of Compliance decisions for Eligibility or use breaches or malicious conduct) the parties may appeal to an independent Mediation and Arbitration Authority according to .corsica ERDRP.


3 - Dispute Resolution (and Prevention) Mechanisms involving Rights Protection

3.1 - Compliance with ICANN-mandated Dispute Resolution Mechanisms

The .corsica TLD will comply and agrees to adhere to any remedies ICANN imposes on RRDRP and PDDRP, as implemented and amended in the future.

.corsica further agrees to implement UDRP and URS in the manner established in the .corsica TLD Agreement and the Consensus Policies.

3.2 - Additional compliance measures related to ICANN-mandated policies

3.2.1 - UDRP

While compliance with the UDRP as it is now lies on registrars’ side, the .corsica Registry is not willing to accept non-compliant registrars preventing its implementation. In addition to ICANN-applied sanctions, the .corsica TLD will suspend the ability to register new domain names under .corsica for those registrars failing to implement UDRP decisions.

In order to do this, the .corsica Registry will implement a specific complaints form for successful UDRP complainants facing non-cooperative registrars for .corsica names. Upon evidence of non-compliance the offending registrar would be prevented from registering any new .corsica name for three months after effective compliance the first time, and six months in case of repeated failures to comply. This measure is more effective and less harmful for the end users than termination, and will be included in the .corsica RRA.

3.2.2 - URS

The .corsica Registry will immediately comply with URS decisions upon notification from the URS Service provider, through its Compliance Team.

Furthermore, .corsica Registry will offer the successful complainant, if the names becomes available for registration at any given time, a Notification Service for any future attempt to register such a name. This service will be free of charge to the successful URS complainant.

3.2.3 - TM Notifications

As noted above, .corsica intends to extend the TM Claims services beyond the mandatory Sunrise period, and into the Ongoing Registration phase.

4 - Technical Implementation details

4.1 - Sunrise

The .corsica Shared Registration System (SRS) fully supports the requirements of the above mentioned Sunrise policy and phases via features described in this section.

4.1.1 - Sunrise EPP Extension Support

The system supports an EPP extension for submission of trademark data along with domain applications during launch phases such as Sunrise. Please refer to the answer to question 25 (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) for more information about the extension.

4.1.2 - Trademark Clearinghouse Support

The .corsica Shared Registration System (SRS) is prepared for accessing APIs of the Trademark Clearinghouse in order to validate the trademark information submitted by the registrar during Sunrise. In addition, the system also contains provisions to make use of the Trademark Clearinghouse APIs for providing a Trademark Claims Service as soon as .corsica enters a period of general availability (see below for more information on this service).
Since Trademark Clearinghouse Service Providers have not been assigned by ICANN at the time of writing, the concrete technical specifications for these APIs are not yet known. While basic provisions have been made in the .corsica Shared Registration System (SRS), the details will therefore have to be finalised once the Service Providers have been announced. As described below, respective developer resources are allocated to perform this task.

4.1.3 - Support for Multiple Applications for the Same Domain Name

The .corsica Shared Registration System (SRS) is designed to maintain multiple domain objects representing the same domain name at a given point in time. This feature is required to store multiple applications for the same name during launch phases like Sunrise.
To distinguish between the various applications of the name in the database (as well as in external APIs), each application is assigned a unique domain ID. These domain IDs are returned to registrars in the responses to domain applications via EPP and may subsequently be used, among other things, to inquire an applicationʹs review status. Also, review results are reported back to registrars via poll messages carrying the unique domain ID. Registrars can utilize the ID to clearly associate results with their applications.

4.1.4 - Issue System

When a manual review of Sunrise applications is required, this typically involves a specific support team workflow that, among other things, consists of
* storing application data in a database,
* making application data available to the support staff via a web interface back office tool (BO)
* assigning the task of reviewing applications for a certain domain name to a specific support member (for the purpose of clear responsibilities),
* having the application reviewed by the assigned person, who in the process may
* request additional information or documentation from the registrant,
 * adds such documentation, as well as comments concerning the review, to the application,
 * make a decision about the applicationʹs outcome or
 * forward the task to a different support person with better insight or higher decision privileges (who may then make the final decision).

To support this workflow, the .corsica Shared Registration System (SRS) is equipped with a built-in Issue System integrated in its Back-Office (BO) that offers registry personnel a convenient web interface to review domain name applications and approve or reject them accordingly.

The Issue System
* offers an SSL-secured web interface accessible by .corsica registry staff only;
* allows searching for applications by various criteria (e.g. domain name or current workflow⁄approval state);
* allows a registry support person to find newly submitted or otherwise unassigned applications and take responsibility for them;
* offers a two-level review workflow that allows the delegation of preselection tasks to the first level support staff, after which a final decision - if still required - can be made by second level personnel;
* conveniently displays all application details, including registrant information, the supplied trademark information, as well as the results of the verification of that trademark data with the Trademark
Clearinghouse;
* fully tracks and documents application status and history, allowing for a complete audit in case of legal inquiries and
* is fully integrated with the registry backend, i.e. it automatically notifies the SRS about the reviewersʹ decisions and immediately activates the respective domain in case of an approval. The Issue System also triggers the creation of appropriate EPP poll message in order to keep registrars
informed about the outcome of their applications.

Such an Issue System has been used on many occasions including the launch of puntCATʹs elaborate multi-phase Sunrise period in 2006, as well as the relaxation of registration restrictions in the .FR TLD, and proved on these occasions to be an invaluable tool for efficiently organizing a TLD roll-out process.

The experience gathered from developing and operating the Issue System in that context helped to develop a second-generation version from which the .corsica TLD will benefit.

4.2 - Trademark Claims

As stated above, beyond the requirements set forth by ICANN in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement, the .corsica Registry will implement a continuous Trademark Claims Service to ensure that even after Sunrise, registrants are notified whenever their registered domain name potentially violates a trademark holderʹs rights as stored in the Trademark Clearinghouse. Likewise, the service makes the trademark holder aware of any domain registrations that potentially infringe on his trademarks registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse.

For the purpose of implementing this service, the .corsica SRS will interconnect with the API provided by the Trademark Clearinghouse Service Provider once its details are developed and publicized by ICANN.

When a match of a registered name is found via the API provided by the Trademark Clearinghouse, the Trademark Claims Service is supposed to provide clear notice to a prospective registrant of the scope of the mark holderʹs rights. The registrant will in turn be required to provide statement that
• he received notification that the mark is included in the Trademark Clearinghouse,
• he received and understood the notice and
• his registration and use of the requested domain name will not infringe on the rights that are subject of the notice.

The registrant will be directed to the Trademark Clearinghouse Database information referenced in the Trademark Claims Notice to enhance understanding of the Trademark rights being claimed by the trademark holder. Also, if a domain name is registered in the Clearinghouse, the registry will, through an interface with the Clearinghouse, promptly notify the mark holders(s) of the registration after it becomes effective.


5 - Resourcing Plan

10.1 - Initial Implementation

Thanks to the experience and prior investment by its Technical operator (AFNIC), the .corsica Registry already supports the above mentioned functions and their support systems.

One aspect to be considered for resource planning is the registry systemʹs connection to the Trademark Clearinghouse; since the involved API isnʹt fully defined at the time of writing, some software development will have to be done in order to integrate the Clearinghouse into the sunrise workflow, as well as to incorporate it into the designated Trademark Claims Service. It is estimated that a Software Developer will be allocated to work 10 man.day on the development of this feature.

Staff that are already on hand will be assigned this work as soon as ICANN releases the relevant technical specifications.

10.2 - Ongoing maintenance

The operation of the above mentioned mechanisms will be ensured by a team of highly experienced individuals with a distinct track record in handling dispute and managing TLDs in a manner that very significantly minimize conflict. These individuals have learned directly for launch management and dispute resolution around the .FR TLD.

This team will be composed of administrative and expert-level staff for respectively handling and advising on issues and cases.Their skill set will primarily be made of administrative and legal training, as well as domain name policy expertise.

Table of Contents

1 - Background
2 - Organization of security
 2.1 - The place of Security in AFNIC’s processes:
 2.2 - Security Coordination
 2.3 - Assignment of responsibilities
 2.3.1 - Organizational chain of responsibility
 2.3.2 - Relations with the authorities and groups of specialists
 2.4 - Independent security review
 2.5 - Relations with third parties
 2.5.1 - Risk Management
 2.5.2 - Security of sensitive areas
 2.5.3 - Sensitive external sites
 2.5.4 - Security assurances for domain name registrants
3 - Registry Asset Management
 3.1 - Responsibilities for Registry assets
 3.1.1 - Inventory of assets
 3.1.2 - Qualification of support assets
 3.1.3 - Ownership of assets
 3.1.4 - Good and fair use of assets
 3.2 - Guidelines for the classification of information
4 - Security related to human resources
 4.1 - Roles and Responsibilities
 4.2 - Background checks conducted on security personnel
5 - Physical and environmental security
 5.1 - Secure areas
 5.2 - Hardware security
6 - Operations Management and Telecommunications
 6.1 - Procedures and responsibilities related to operations
 6.2 - Scheduling and acceptance testing of the system
 6.3 - Protection against malicious and mobile code
 6.4 - Back-up
 6.5 - Security management of network services
 6.6 - Monitoring operation of the System
7 - Access Control
 7.1 - Business requirements for access control
 7.2 - Control of network access
 7.3 - Control of access to operating systems
8 - Acquisition, development and maintenance of information systems
 8.1 - Cryptographic measures
 8.2 - Management of technical vulnerabilities
9 - Managing incidents related to information security
 9.1 - Managing improvement and incidents related to information security
10 - IT Disaster Recovery Plan
11 - Integrating audits of the information system


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1 - Background
 
The security policy is designed to ensure proper management of the risks that may significantly impact the services provided, the contexts in which they are implemented, and the key personnel involved in operating the Registry. It also defines security level for the scalability ⁄ responsiveness to security incidents, the Registry Data integrity and the confidentiality of personal data of domain name owners.
 
The Information Security Policy is reviewed at least once a year.


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2 - Organization of security

 ------------------------
 2.1 - The place of Security in AFNIC’s processes:
 
AFNIC has set up a Quality Management System (QMS) following the European Framework for QUality Management (EFQM) excellence model. It describes AFNIC’s activities as a series of business processes. Security Process called “ENSURE SECURITY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY” is one of the cross-business-processes supporting process. It is designed to be compliant with the ISO 27001 norm. 
Ensuring security and business continuity mainly consists in defining and controlling how to :
 * Supervise the governance of security,
 * Apply security measures into the concerned operational fields,
 * Manage the risks that could negatively impact the Registries operations. 

The implementation of the AFNICʹs ISMS (Information Security Management System) is performed in the framework of the Security process with a view to obtaining ISO 27001 certification by 2014.

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 2.2 - Security Coordination

The overall responsibility for security rests with the CEO. He is assisted in this role by the AFNIC Security Manager (ASM).
 
Strategic supervision is ensured in a concerted manner by the AFNIC Security Council (ASC) chaired by the AFNIC CEO. The purpose of the ASC is to assist and ensure that the conditions are conducive to attaining the security objectives that fall within the scope of the current strategy.
 
The ASC further supports the development of security practices at AFNIC through the supporting of operation business functions in implementing security policies, business continuity plans, and staff awareness activities. In carrying out its assignment, the ASC may refer at any time to the Executive Management for advice or a decision on the security of AFNIC and TLD.

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 2.3 - Assignment of responsibilities

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 2.3.1 - Organizational chain of responsibility
 
The application of security measures to the SRS, DNS, Whois, and other Information Systems is the responsibility of the CTO (head of the Information Systems Division).
The implementation of security measures for staff and premises is the responsibility of the CFO.
The implementation of security measures with respect to legal obligations and registry policies is the responsibility of the Registryʹs Legal Affairs and Policies Director.
The application of security measures relating to damage to the Registryʹs image is the responsibility of the Marketing and Innovation Director.
All the collaborators must be aware of their responsibility concerning the security of resources and information they are accessing, manipulating, publishing.

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 2.3.2 - Relations with the authorities and groups of specialists
 
AFNIC has an agreement with the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI). Against this background, the two structures cooperate on security issues that may affect AFNIC services related to its Internet business and risk management in this area.
They cooperate within the framework of two programs on the resilience of the Internet in France :
 * Cooperation between the operators of vitals infrastructures in order to improve their capacity to respond to major crises affecting several operators at the same time: the Internet critical services (IP Routing and DNS) are now included in the nomenclature;
 * Cooperation to assess the resilience of the French .fr TLD and more generally all the TLDs operated by AFNIC for use by the public.

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 2.4 - Independent security review 
 
Security audits must be conducted by independent organizations twice a year on global and ⁄ or specific issues related to security.

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 2.5 - Relations with third parties

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 2.5.1 - Risk Management
 
Risk studies are conducted using the EBIOS methodology (Expression of Business needs and Identification of Security Objectives, in French). This method was designed in 1995 by the French National Agency for Information Security. It is currently used to identify the worst-case scenarios that could affect registry activity. That leads Afnic to design and apply mitigation measures to enhance the protection against these worst-case scenarios.
 
The control of the effectiveness and efficiency of mitigation measures is performed by the AFNIC’s Security Council all along the year.

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 2.5.2 - Security of sensitive areas
 
All sensitive areas are under control. That means that access must be controlled and could be restricted to authorized personnel only.
Co-contractors may be requested to sign a confidentiality agreement if required by the sensitivity of information and data they need to know and⁄or use. They only have access to critical technical facilities if accompanied, and never work on production systems.

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 2.5.3 - Sensitive external sites

All security must be applied to protect AFNIC’s resources on external sites. That can be made by private zones and access control to them managed by AFNIC itself.

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 2.5.4 - Security assurances for domain name registrants
 
The Registry guarantees the following for registrants :
 * The continuous availability of operations on its portfolio of domain names, in accordance with the SLA on the SRS
 * The continuous availability of information related to the domain, on condition that the registrant uses the services provided to carry out the operations in question,
 * The confidentiality of the registrantsʹ personal data (except where other special conditions apply related to the policy of the registry)
 * The confidentiality of non-public data relating to the domain and ⁄ or its portfolio of domain names,
 * The confidentiality of the transactions with the Registryʹs system,
 * The integrity of the information related to its domain name,and published in the WHOIS and the DNS.


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3 - Registry Asset Management

The security of the registryʹs assets is ensured by the staff assigned to the registryʹs production operations and management activities.
Considering the network connectivity provided by third party, AFNIC’s property begins at the service delivery point. 

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 3.1 - Responsibilities for Registry assets

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 3.1.1 - Inventory of assets

Assets used in the run of critical services are identified, qualified, and managed under the guidance of the present policy. Assets considered are staff, infrastructure, software, connectivity, data and providers.

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 3.1.2 - Qualification of support assets
 
The assets contributing to the Services are classified in 3 main categories :
 * Computer Systems and Telecommunications : Hardware and Software; Communications Channels; Outsourced Services;
 * Organizations : Staff; Corporate departments;
 * Physical locations for business : Offices; Hosting Datacenters;

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 3.1.3 - Ownership of assets

Registry data belong to the Registry owner. They are subject to the rules of the contract with ICANN, plus the applicable legal and ⁄ or legislative rules depending on the context in which the registry is implemented

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 3.1.4 - Good and fair use of assets
 
All the registry operations and services must be used by third party in accordance with the contractual rules defined by the owner and the operator of the TLD.

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 3.2 - Guidelines for the classification of information

The data used or produced in the context of the Registry are classified in the 3 following categories :

= Critical information = : it can⁄must be accessed⁄showed only by accredited persons. Disclosure or alteration may result in significant damage but repairable.

= Reserved information = : Information is limited to persons, entities or authorized partners. Disclosure or alteration may result in significant harm.

= Internal Information = : Information is available to staff of AFNIC and authorized partners. Disclosure or alteration may perturb the normal functioning of the company, without lasting consequence.


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4 - Security related to human resources

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 4.1 - Roles and Responsibilities

There are 2 categories of staff :

 * Technical staff : These personnel have access to resources according to defined rights.
 * Administrators in charge of administering production resources. They can access all the production resources and data.
 * Technicians in charge of the operation, maintenance and monitoring of the production system. They have limited rights of access to production resources. They can access certain resources on request and when accompanied by an administrator.
 * Experts in charge of the design and development of production resources. They only have access to the production resources on request and when accompanied by a technician and ⁄ or an administrator.
 * Non-technical staff :
 * Administrative staff and managers (excluding production).

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 4.2 - Background checks conducted on security personnel

French law applies to all staff. The contract they sign with their employer contains sufficient provisions in terms of professionalism and ethics for the activity involving the TLD. Same rules are applicable a Data Center level.


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5 - Physical and environmental security

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 5.1 - Secure areas

AFNIC production sites are secured at the means of access to them. The DATA CENTER sites must meet the standards of industrial and environmental security compatible with the constraints implied by their activity. The layout of the premises must be such that access is restricted only to authorized personnel at entry points selected and controlled by AFNIC.

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 5.2 - Hardware security

The Data centers that host AFNIC services ensure at least Tier 3 levels of resilience.


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6 - Operations Management and Telecommunications

AFNIC controls the operation of all the resources used to deliver essential services with the exception, of course, of outsourced services such as certain DNS servers.
AFNIC operates dark fiber connections between its sites. The terminals are owned by AFNIC. They are operated by AFNIC personnel.

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 6.1 - Procedures and responsibilities related to operations

Operating procedures are documented and kept up to date on the intranet of the IT team.
Access to the applications, servers and databases must be defined and kept up to date for each staff member.
Access privileges are defined in order to respect the security rules associated with the classification of information.
Operations related to DNSSEC are subject to even more stringent security regulations and require respecting the DPS procedure.

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 6.2 - Scheduling and acceptance testing of the system

The test, pre-production and production phases must be clearly specified. Any production launch must be announced to the registrars at least 2 month before it applies.

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 6.3 - Protection against malicious and mobile code

All the entry points to the production servers are filtered by the firewall, which applies the filtering policy common to all the procedures, whether they involve a human operator or an automated process.
 
Each development must apply security rules and recommendations on the development of application.
The Web access must be protected against the most common (Script kiddies, SQL injection …)

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 6.4 - Back-up

Registry data are stored and secured using the real-time replication mechanisms of the production Database Management System (production DBMS).
 In addition, a physical backup of the entire database must be performed at the same time as the back-up of the other components of the SRS.
To be compliant with the ICANN requirements, a data escrow deposit must be performed every day between 0:00 am end 12:00pm

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 6.5 - Security management of network services

A strict partitioning into zones must be implemented in order to avoid interconnections between the external production, administration and backup networks.
 
Any internal and external attempts to access production servers must pass through a Firewall. They are recorded in a log file for later analysis. The detection of malicious code based on a regularly updated list must be performed at this level.
 
An intrusion detections system must be installed and running between firewall and production servers.

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 6.6 - Monitoring operation of the System

Automated monitoring must be implemented. It must cover the hardware, software systems and production applications.
Any failure must be subject to a specific alert sent to the staff:
 * on duty during office hours;
 * on standby outside office hours;


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7 - Access Control

 ------------------------
 7.1 - Business requirements for access control

Access to the information system requires prior identification and authentication. The use of shared or anonymous accounts must be avoided. Mechanisms to limit the services, data, and privileges to which the users have access based on their role at AFNIC and the Registry must be implemented wherever possible.

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 7.2 - Control of network access

The internal network must be partitioned to isolate the different services and applications and limit the impact of incidents. In particular it is highly desirable to isolate services visible from the outside in a semi-open zone (DMZ). Similarly, access to the wireless network must be controlled and the network must be subject to appropriate encryption.

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 7.3 - Control of access to operating systems

The production servers must be confined in secure facilities. Access must be restricted to authorized personnel only. The personnel in question are the members of the operating teams and their managers, IT personnel and those of the Security Manager.


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8 - Acquisition, development and maintenance of information systems

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 8.1 - Cryptographic measures

Cryptographic measures must be implemented to secure the exchanges :
 * between the workstations of technical staff and the access proxies to production servers;
 * between the Registrars and the EPP server;
 * between the DNS master servers and the resolution servers;
 * to upload the records of the Escrow Agent.

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 8.2 - Management of technical vulnerabilities

The technical configuration of hardware and software used must be subject to up to date documentation.
The changes in technical configurations must be constantly monitored and documented.
Security alerts involving updates and ⁄ or patches to production systems must be constantly monitored.
Application procedures must be documented and updated based on the recommendations of the designers of a component.


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9 - Managing incidents related to information security

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 9.1 - Managing improvement and incidents related to information security
 
The crisis management procedure serves to mobilize at a sufficiently high echelon, all the appropriate levels of responsibility for taking decisions on the actions required to resolve the crisis and return to normal.
Each security incident must be analyzed under the cover of the Security Council and the recommendations, if any, are applied, checked and evaluated as required by the QMS.


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10 - IT Disaster Recovery Plan
 
The risk analysis must produce some inputs for the elaboration of a disaster recovery plan. That plan has to be established and regularly tested in order to maintain or recover Registry activity and make critical services available at the required SLA after an interruption or a crash of critical services of the Registry.


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11 - Integrating audits of the information system

Security audits are performed annually. They are launched on the initiative of the CTO or upon request from the ASC. They are carried out by independent bodies and relate to one or more of the essentials services of the Registry.
 
The ASC and the ASM control the implementation and the efficiency of these measures in the framework of S3 process (see section 2.1).