[council] Policies Concerning Allocation of Expiring Names in .com/.net/.org

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

To the Names Council:

In recent weeks, some registrars have reported difficulty in accessing
the .com/.net/.org Shared Registration System during the hours in which
expiring names are deleted. Upon investigation, it appears that a
significant portion of the available bandwith and connections is being
consumed during these hours by a few registrars making very large
numbers of queries for the names expected to expire.

Under VeriSign's Registry Agreements with ICANN, it is obligated to
provide all accredited registrars "with equivalent access to its
Registry Services, including to its shared registration system."
VeriSign Registry proposed that, as an interim measure, it would place a
uniform limitation of 250 simultaneous connections and 256k bandwidth
applied to each accredited registrar. ICANN has advised VeriSign
Registry that these limitations appear consistent with its Registry
Agreements. These limitations will apply beginning tomorrow, Tuesday,
17 July 2001. See the message copied below.

This interim measure will not guarantee that all registrars will have 
access to the registry in all circumstances. To foster a fairer and more
orderly process, the DNSO may wish to begin consideration of possible
development of a policy for handling expiring names. 

Louis Touton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: VeriSign Global Registry Services 
To: registrars@verisign-grs.com 
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 4:49 PM
Subject: [RegistrarsList] Registry Advisory: Bandwidth and Session
Limits to be Deployed within the SRS

To All Registrars:

VeriSign Global Registry Services is responsible for ensuring equivalent
access to the Shared Registration System (SRS) by all registrars.
Recently, the deletion and subsequent availability of large numbers of
domain names have caused a domain "land rush" during certain hours of
the day. During these daily "land rushes" some registrars acquire
unnecessarily large numbers of RRP sessions, making it difficult for
other registrars to acquire the minimal number needed to conduct normal
business. Whether this is due to inefficient registrar systems, or a
conscious desire to block competition by monopolizing RRP connections,
it is a behavior that cannot be supported or condoned. VeriSign GRS has
been working with ICANN to determine an access policy that will address
this abusive behavior while protecting the equivalent access
requirements of the COM, NET and ORG Registry Agreements. Our goal is to
protect the equivalent access of each registrar without impacting
legitimate business operations.

The first step in this process will be to limit the total bandwidth any
single registrar can consume, along with the total number of RRP
sessions any single registrar can simultaneously open. Beginning Tuesday
July 17, each ICANN accredited registrar will be limited to 256K in
bandwidth and 250 simultaneous RRP connections.

As always, we recommend each registrar evaluate the efficiency of their
systems. VeriSign GRS will share with each registrar their bandwidth
utilization and RRP connection trends, in addition to efficiency (i.e.,
number of transactions per connection).

RRP bandwidth and connections will always be a finite commodity. The
recent "land rush" events indicate that the informal measures we have
relied on in the past will not ensure that all registrars have fair
access to this commodity. VeriSign GRS recognizes that, although they
should be helpful in the short term, the bandwidth and connection
limitations described above will not ensure access in all load
circumstances and are only a partial solution. We will therefore be
working with registrars and ICANN to develop fair and effective
longer-term means of providing every registrar appropriate access to the
SRS.

If you require additional information, please contact VeriSign Global
Registry Services at info@verisign-grs.com or +1 703-925-6999.

Best Regards,

Chris Sheridan
Manager, Customer Service
VeriSign Global Registry Services
www.verisign-grs.com
info@verisign-grs.com