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+Network Working Group Federal Networking Council
+Request For Comments: 1816 August 1995
+Obsoletes: 1811
+Category: Informational
+
+
+ U.S. Government Internet Domain Names
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
+ does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
+ this memo is unlimited.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This memo provides an update and clarification to RFC 1811. This
+ document describes the registration policies for the top-level domain
+ ".GOV". Thus far, Federal Agencies and their subsidiaries have
+ registered without any guidance. This has resulted in multiple
+ registrations for Federal Agencies and naming schemes that do not
+ facilitate responsiveness to the public. This document fixes this by
+ restricting registrations to coincide with the approved structure of
+ the US government. The document cited, FIPS 95-1, provides a
+ standard recognized structure into which domain registrations for
+ .GOV can be fit. This policy is exactly comparable to that for the
+ top-level domains. The IANA requires that an organization/country
+ apply for and get a 2 letter code from ISO/ITU (e.g., US for United
+ States) for additional top-level registration.
+
+ As a side effect, this reduces the number of .GOV level registrations
+ and reduces the workload on the Internic.
+
+U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES POLICY
+
+ The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the US
+ Federal Networking Council. The .GOV domain is for registration of
+ US governmental entities on the federal level only. Registrations
+ for state and local governmental agencies shall be made under the .US
+ domain in accordance with the policies for that domain.
+
+ 1) The document "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
+ Federally Assisted Organizations", FIPS 95-1 (or its successor)
+ lists the official names of US Government agencies.
+
+ A) Top-level entities (e.g., those with codes ending in 00 such as
+ "1200 Department of Agriculture"), and independent agencies and
+ organizations (e.g., "National Science Foundation and other non-
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ indented listings unless prohibited below) as listed in this
+ document are eligible for registration directly under .GOV.
+
+ B) Autonomous law enforcement components of top-level entities
+ (e.g., "Federal Bureau of Investigation", "Secret Service", "Coast
+ Guard") are also eligible for registration.
+
+ C) Cross-agency collaborative organizations (e.g., "Federal
+ Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task Force") are
+ eligible for registration under .GOV upon presentation of the
+ chartering document and are the only non-FIPS-listed
+ organizations eligible for registration under .GOV.
+
+ D) Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or other
+ entities are not eligible for separate registration.
+ International organizations listed in this document are NOT
+ eligible for registration under .GOV.
+
+ E) Organizations listed as "Federally Aided Organizations" are not
+ eligible for registration under .GOV and should register under
+ .ORG or other appropriate top-level domain.
+
+ F) Organizations subsidiary to "Department of Defense" must
+ register under the ".MIL" domain via the Defense Data Network
+ Network Information Center - contact registrar@nic.ddn.mil.
+
+ The only standard exceptions to these rules are changes to
+ governmental structure due to statutory, regulatory or executive
+ directives not yet reflected in the above document. The requesting
+ agency should provide documentation in one of the above forms to
+ request an exception. Other requests for exception should be
+ referred to the Federal Networking Council.
+
+ 2) A domain name should be derived from the official name for the
+ organization (e.g., "USDA.Gov" or "Agriculture.GOV".) The
+ registration shall be listed in the registration database under the
+
+ official name (per FIPS 95-1) for the organization or under the name
+ in the chartering document.
+
+ 3) Only ONE registration and delegation shall be made per agency.
+ The .GOV registration authority shall provide registrations on a
+ first-come first-served basis. It is an individual agency matter as
+ to which portion of the agency is responsible for managing the domain
+ space under a delegated agency domain.
+
+ 4) Those agencies and entities that have multiple registrations under
+ .GOV may retain them for a maximum of 3 years from the publication
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ date of this document. Within 6 months after the publication of this
+ document, one permanent domain must be selected for the agency. The
+ other (auxiliary) domains must cease further sub-delegations and
+ registrations at this time. As of 1 year after the publication of
+ this document, the auxiliary domains will become undelegated and will
+ revert to the control of the .GOV owner. As of 2 years after the
+ publication of this document, all registrations in the auxiliary
+ domains must be mirrored in the permanent domain and those names should
+ be used where possible. At the 3 year point, all auxiliary domain
+ registrations will be deleted.
+
+ 5) Those agencies and entities already registered in .GOV but not
+ listed in FIPS 95-1 (e.g., DOE labs, state entities) may retain their
+ registration within the constraint of the single registration rule
+ (see para 4). No further non-FIPS-listed registrations will be made.
+ State and local entities are strongly encouraged to re-register under
+ .US, but this is not mandatory.
+
+References
+
+ [1] Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 95-1 (FIPS
+ PUB 95-1, "Codes for the Identification of Federal and Federally
+ Assisted Organizations", U.S. Department of Commerce, National
+ Institute of Standards and Technology, January 4, 1993.
+
+ [2] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation", RFC
+ 1591, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.
+
+Addendum
+
+CLARIFICATION
+
+ * All current registrations in .GOV are grandfathered and do NOT
+ require re-registration with the exception of duplicate registrations
+ for the SAME organization at the same level. E.g., two registrations
+ which represent the Department of Transportation would be duplicates;
+ registrations for each of the Department of Transportation and the
+ FAA would not (The FAA is an autonomous component contained within
+ the DOT).
+
+ * The policy requires resolution of all duplicate registrations
+ within the next three years.
+
+ * Local and state agencies registered under the ".GOV" domain may
+ remain there. However, they are strongly encouraged to transfer to
+ the US domain.
+
+ * Cross-agency collaborative efforts may register under ".ORG" or
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ ".US" as an alternative to asking for an exception to the policy.
+
+FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / ANSWERS
+
+EXISTING .GOV REGISTRATIONS
+
+ Q. What are examples of FIPS-95-1 Departments possessing duplicate
+ top level domain names, and what guidance has been given to them
+ regarding these names?
+
+ A. Examples of FIPS-95-1 Departments with duplicate DNS' include
+ "STATE.GOV" and "LABOR.GOV". These departments have six months to
+ determine which name is permanent and which is auxiliary and three
+ years to drop the auxiliary registration.
+
+
+ Q. Currently, our services are defined as www.cdc.gov, ftp.cdc.gov,
+ and gopher.cdc.gov. Does this proposal mean that our names will now
+ be: www.ntb.ops.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, etc or at a minimum:
+ www.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, ftp.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, and
+ gopher.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov?
+
+ A. In the case of CDC, NIST, NIH, FDA, and the numerous other non-
+ FIPS-95-1 agencies registered with ".GOV" domains, there will be no
+ changes. The existing DNSs of these agencies are grandfathered under
+ this policy. In addition, the policy effects only the domains
+ allowed to be registered directly under .GOV; further delegations are
+ under the control of the subdomain owner. For the above, assuming
+ the HHS subdomain owner concurs, there is no problem with the HHS
+ registering "cdc.dhhs.gov" as a subdomain of "dhhs.gov".
+
+
+ Q. How will registrations by Federal Laboratories be addressed?
+
+ A. The existing domain names will be grandfathered, i.e., LBL.GOV.
+ Any new registrations will generally be within the domain of the
+ sponsoring agency (and subject to that agencies policies), within the
+ .US domain as a geographic entity, or within the .ORG domain.
+
+
+ Q. What are some examples of state government agencies registered
+ under ".GOV" domain? Will they need to change their DNS?
+
+ A. Examples of cities and states that originally registered under
+ the ".GOV" include:
+
+ WA.GOV Department of Information Services, State of Washington
+ LA.GOV Bureau of Sanitation, City of Los Angeles
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ These entities are strongly encouraged to reregister in the ".US"
+ domain but this is NOT mandatory. No further state and local
+ agencies will be registered under .GOV.
+
+
+ Q. It is not in anyone's best interest to name things by
+ organizational boundaries as these things change. Internet domain
+ names and host names, once defined and used, become so widely
+ distributed that they become virtually impossible to change.
+ Organizational structure changes but not the underlying networking
+ structure.
+
+ A. The policy does not require organizations to change their names
+ once established, but individual agency policies may. The DNS system
+ contains some capabilities to assist in name transition - the CNAME
+ record provides a capability for cross-domain aliases which can be
+ used to ease a transition between one name space and another. As
+ noted in the clarifications, naming and subdomain conventions WITHIN
+ an agency or department DNS delegation are solely the province of
+ that entity.
+
+
+ Q. How can two entities have the same name registered? How does
+ this apply to NIH.GOV, FDA.GOV, and CDC.GOV, all of which are large
+ components of DHHS/PHS? NCIFCRF.GOV is a component of NIH. Does it
+ have to change? I don't understand how a distinction is made if some
+ are grandfathered and some are not.
+
+ A. US-STATE.GOV and STATE.GOV for example. The problem is actually
+ one entity with two names. NIH.GOV and FDA.GOV represent separate
+ entities (albeit within DHHS). If there were an NIH.GOV and an NIH-
+ EAST.GOV for example, NIH would have to eliminate one of them
+ (probably moving NIH-EAST.GOV to EAST.NIH.GOV).
+
+
+ Q. How much is the taxpayer being asked to spend to alter tens of
+ thousands of existing computer and telecommunications systems to
+ support RFC 1816?
+
+ A. There are currently less that half-a-dozen duplicate DNS names at
+ the FIPS-95-1 level which will need to be changed. Given the fact
+ that this will be accomplished over the next three years, the costs
+ should be minimal.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+CROSS-AGENCY COLLABORATIONS
+
+ Q. An organization maintains a domain name which represents a
+ cross-agency community, IC.GOV, which represents members of the
+ intelligence community. As a cross-agency collaborative effort, does
+ the domain have to be reregistered?
+
+ A. The policy states that "Cross-agency collaborative organizations
+ (e.g., "Federal Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task
+ Force") are eligible for registration under .GOV upon presentation of
+ the chartering document and are the only non-FIPS-listed
+ organizations eligible for registration under .GOV." "IC.GOV"
+ however, is grandfathered since it is an existing domain.
+ Nevertheless, it would be appropriate to provide a copy of the
+ chartering document to the FNC for the record. This would ease
+ future changes to the IC.GOV domain if necessary.
+
+FUTURE .GOV REGISTRATIONS
+
+ Q. Top level domains are roughly equivalent to the cabinet-level
+ agencies identified in FIPS-95-1. What will happen if non-FIPS-95-1
+ entities apply for the ".GOV" registration in the future?
+
+ A. The Internic will use RFC 1816 as guidance and will not grant the
+ ".GOV" to any new entity which is not listed in the FIPS-95-1 or
+ which has not been granted an exception status by the FNC Executive
+ Committee.
+
+
+ Q. Suppose NIH were moved to a new Dept. of Science? Would our
+ domain name have to be changed?
+
+ A. NIH.GOV is grandfathered under the existing policy and would not
+ change. The "Department of Science" under its own policies may
+ require you to re-register though.
+
+FNC INTENT
+
+ Q. It is unclear how this will policy will facilitate access by the
+ public to our information, especially since most of the public
+ doesn't know our organizational structure or that CDC is part of
+ DHHS/PHS.
+
+ A. The policy attempts to avoid confusion as an increasing number of
+ entities register under the ".GOV" domain and to transfer authority
+ and responsibility for domain name space to the appropriate agencies
+ and away from a centralized authority. For facilitating access,
+ various tools and capabilities are coming into use on the Internet
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ all the time. Most of these tools provide a fairly strong search
+ capability which should obviate most concerns of finding resources
+ based on domain names.
+
+
+ Q. Section 1D of RFC 1816 unfairly constrains the organizations
+ within the .gov domain in stark contrast to Section 1F which grants
+ .mil domain organizations full freedom to operate subdomains in any
+ manner chosen.
+
+ A. The Federal Networking Council has jurisdiction over the ".GOV"
+ domain names; ".MIL" domain names fall within the jurisdiction of the
+ Department of Defense. The .MIL domain has had a written policy
+ delimiting which DOD agencies get registered directly under .MIL
+ since about 1987 when the DNS first started to come into use.
+ Individual agencies under the .MIL domain (e.g., AF.MIL/US Air Force)
+ are responsible for setting policy within their domains and for
+ registrations within those domains. This is exactly equivalent to
+ the .GOV domain - an individual agency (e.g., Treasury.GOV/Dept of
+ Treasury) may and should set policy for subregistrations within their
+ domain.
+
+
+ Q. Section 1B identifies several law enforcement agencies as being
+ "autonomous" for the purposes of domain registration. What is the
+ selection criteria for an "autonomous law enforcement" agency? For
+ instance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is responsible for law
+ enforcement as is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).
+
+ A. The selection criteria for "law enforcement agency" is based on
+ primary mission. A case could be made for either or both of these
+ being law enforcement agencies, although the IRS' primary mission is
+ tax revenue collection and has few armed officers relative to its
+ size. An "autonomous" agency is one with mission and role distinct
+ and (possibly) separate from its containing department.
+ Unfortunately, 95-1 does not do a good job of identifying
+ "autonomous" entities. In the event of problems with registration,
+ ask the registrar to get a ruling from the FNC.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 7]
+
+RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
+
+
+ROUTING QUESTIONS
+
+ Q. How will Domain Name Service resolution on the Net work? Instead
+ of a root DNS server returning the address of cdc.gov and immediately
+ directing inquires to our DNS servers, will the root server return a
+ DNS pointer to DHHS, then DHHS will resolve to PHS, then a fourth DNS
+ query to get to CDC? This will add unnecessary traffic to the Net.
+ (example is host.CDC.PHS.DHHS.GOV)
+
+ A. The answer is based on how you (personally and agency wide)
+ configure your servers. First, most servers cache previous answers -
+ they may have to ask once, but generally remember the answer if they
+ need it again. Information directly under .GOV will be fairly long-
+ lived which substantially reduces the requirement to query .GOV
+ server. Secondly, multiple levels of the DNS tree MAY reside on the
+ same server. In the above example the information for DHHS.GOV,
+ PHS.DHHS.GOV and CDC.PHS.DHHS.GOV could all reside on the same
+ server. Assuming the location of the DHHS.GOV server was not cached,
+ it would require 2 queries. Further queries would cache the location
+ of this server and the servers associated with the domains it serves.
+ Lastly, the individual agencies may structure their domains as they
+ please. CDC could reside directly under DHHS.GOV as CDC.DHHS.GOV
+ subject to HHS's own policies.
+
+Security Considerations
+
+ Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
+
+Author's Address
+
+ Federal Networking Council
+ 4001 N. Fairfax Drive
+ Arlington, VA 22203
+
+ Phone: (703) 522-6410
+ EMail: execdir@fnc.gov
+ URL: http://www.fnc.gov
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 8]
+