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Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS)

IRIS is a protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Cross-Registry Internet Service Protocol (CRISP) Working Group. An XML-based protocol, IRIS uses XML Namespaces and XML Schemas to separate different types of registries and BEEP (RFC 3080) to deliver and negotiate levels of service and need between clients and servers. IRIS is intended to replace the aging Nicname/Whois protocol currently defined in RFC 954.

The following two pilots are currently available: 
IRIS for .COM and .NET  
Internet Credentials Registry (CredReg)

The Aging of NicName/Whois

Meta-data regarding many of the Internet’s infrastructure resources is only accessible via Nicname (commonly known as Whois), a protocol that predates both IPv4 and DNS. Nicname/Whois was designed for an Internet with centralized registry services and a tight-knit collective of operators needing no authentication. However, today’s Internet requires a kprotocol to enable decentralized resource registries, authentication and privacy protections, and divergent user needs.

VeriSign Support for IRIS

As the operator of the largest Domain TLD, VeriSign sees great value in improving the Nicname/Whois protocol to add capabilities, improve performance, and increase usability with privacy and security protections that currently do not exist.

VeriSign is a lead contributor to the IETF CRISP Working Group and the published standards for IRIS: RFC 3707, RFC 3958, RFC 3981, RFC 3982, and RFC 3983. We continue to improve upon the protocol with new data models (draft-ietf-crisp-iris-dchk, draft-ietf-crisp-iris-areg) and faster transfer protocols (draft-ietf-crisp-iris-lwz, draft-ietf-crisp-iris-xpc).

In addition, VeriSign has authored both client and server IRIS implementations and component libraries. This software is freely distributed and available under open source license from IRIS @ VeriSign.

IRIS and VoIP

IRIS is being applied to Voice-over-IP Internet resources. EREG, an IRIS registry definition for ENUM, is described in draft-ietf-enum-iris-ereg and will soon become an RFC. There are also plans to use IRIS to address E911 for VoIP, as documented in draft-hardie-ecrit-iris.