An idn protocol for consideration in making the requirements

[Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman@imc.org>]

Greetings again. I have created a first draft of a proposed protocol that I 
think meets the idn requirements being discussed here. I did this not to 
say "here's a great protocol" but instead to say "what we're proposing is 
doable and here are the kinds of things that the eventual protocol may have 
to take into account".

Specifically, my proposal shows how it is possible to create 
internationalized domain names in a way that doesn't change the current DNS 
protocols or implementations. It also shows the kinds of considerations 
that other protocols that are compatible with the current DNS (such as the 
UTF-5 proposal) will have to deal with, such as ways to be sure that there 
are not two representations in the DNS for a single name.

The new draft has the ungainly name of CIDNUC (Compatible Internationalized 
Domain Names Using Compression); I chose this so that no one could accuse 
me of trying to market it. :-) You can find the draft at 
<http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-hoffman-idn-cidnuc-00.txt>. I 
hope this helps focus the requirements discussion.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium