I* organizations

Within their respective regions, RIRs such as APNIC provide services for the administration, management, distribution and registration of Internet number resources, specifically IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, and Autonomous System numbers.

There are five RIRs:

• AFRINIC
• APNIC
• ARIN
• LACNIC
• RIPE NCC

Services are based, in part, on policies the communities of each RIR develop in a multistakeholder, bottom up approach that is open to all interested parties. The Policy Development Process within each RIR region defines the way these policies are developed and adopted.

RIR community

The heart of the RIR system is the NRO, an umbrella organization to coordinate the activities of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). The CEOs of each registry make up the Executive Council (NRO EC).

Current NRO EC members.

Number Resource Organization (NRO)

The Number Resource Organization (NRO) is a coordinating body for the five RIRs. The NRO contributes to an open, stable and secure Internet, through:

• Providing and promoting a coordinated Internet number registry system
• Being an authoritative voice on the multistakeholder model and bottom-up policy process in Internet governance
• Coordinating and supporting joint activities of the RIRs.

The CEOs of each registry make up the Executive Council (NRO EC).

NRO Number Council

Three individuals are appointed to the Number Council (NC) from each of the Regional Internet Registry regions.

The RIRs are free to select these members in any way they see fit. The members of the NRO NC perform the functions of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization Addressing Council (ASO AC).

Current NRO NC members.

Read more about the NRO NC election.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the international organization responsible for the management and oversight of the coordination of the Internet’s domain name system and its unique identifiers such as IP addresses. ICANN oversees the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

ASO

The Address Supporting Organization (ASO) is one of three ICANN Supporting Organizations. The purpose of the ASO is to review and develop recommendations on IP address global policies and to advise the ICANN Board on IP addressing related matters. Since 2004, the NRO Number Council performs the role of the ASO within ICANN.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is one of the Internet’s oldest institutions, with its activities dating back to the 1970s. Today the IANA functions are provided by ICANN affiliate Public Technical Identifiers (PTI). PTI’s various activities can be broadly grouped in to three categories:

• Domain names – IANA manages the DNS root, the .int and .arpa domains, and an IDN practices resource
• Number resources – IANA coordinates the global pool of IP and AS numbers, providing them to RIRs
• Protocol Assignments – PTI manages the number systems of Internet protocols in conjunction with standards bodies

Find out more about the IANA oversight transition.

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1992, dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. Its purpose is to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large, open, international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers who are interested in the evolution of Internet architecture and its smooth operation. The IETF is open to any interested individual. The technical work of the IETF is carried out in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (for example, routing, transport, security, and more). The IETF holds meetings three times a year, however much of the work is handled via mailing lists.

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is both an IETF committee and an ISOC advisory body.

It is responsible for architectural oversight of IETF activities, Internet Standards Process oversight and appeal, and the appointment of the RFC Editor.

The IAB is also responsible for the management of the IETF protocol parameter registries.

A Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) is a two-letter top-level domain specifically designated to a particular economy, sovereign state, or autonomous territory.

The implementation of ccTLDs was started by IANA, which maintains a database that contains authoritative information relating to ccTLDs. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. To determine whether new ccTLDs should be added or not, IANA follows the provisions of ISO 3166 – Maintenance Agency.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops standards and guidelines to help everyone build a web based on the principles of accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security.