RFC 897

RFC 897: Domain Name System Implementation Schedule 💖

okay bestie, this is RFC 897 by Jon Postel at ISI, dated February 1984 🌸 It's a Network Working Group doc, and it updates RFC 881 (partially, not a full replacement) 🦋 The whole vibe is "here's the timeline for switching to domain style names" ✨

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Status of this Memo

This memo is a policy statement on how the Domain Style Naming System gets implemented on the Internet 💅 It's a partial update of RFC 881, and it's an official policy statement of the ICCB and the DARPA.

The memo lays out the schedule for rolling this out. If you want to know how the system actually works, the references are where to look 📚

The Current Situation ✨

Simple Names

Hosts in the ARPA research and DDN operational communities currently get names from a flat, global space of character strings. There are some limits: they MUST start with a letter, end with a letter or digit, and only have letters, digits, or hyphens as interior characters. Case doesn't matter 🫶

for example: USC-ISIF

Tables

Every host on the Internet is expected to have a way of translating any other host's name into its Internet address 🧚

Mostly, that translation happens by looking things up in a table of all the hosts. The table is maintained in one central place, the Network Information Center (NIC), and each host is expected to grab a current copy of it on a timely basis.

Interface to the World

A ton of mail moves between the Internet and other "systems" that carry mail between computers 📬 Right now, that's done by hiding some kind of "other-system" addressing info in the local-part of the address and using a mail-relay host in the host-part of the mailbox 🙈

for example:

OBERST%EDUCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS
EDMISTON.CIC@CSNET-RELAY

The Future Situation 🔮

Hierarchical Names

Because the Internet keeps growing, structured names (domain style names) will be used. Each element of a structured name will be a character string, with the same constraints that applied to simple names 💜

for example: F.ISI.USC.ARPA

Servers

Every host on the Internet will be expected to have a way of translating any other host's name into its Internet address 🌈 By and large, that translation will happen by talking to a service. A bunch of servers will each hold a piece of the name-to-address info, and the maintenance of that data will be split up and distributed.

There are several stages for the servers and several levels of using domain style names. Here's how they go:

First, we do a simple substitution of domain style names for the current host names, and split them into several domains. At this stage, every domain style name translates directly to a host address, and every domain style name has two components 💖

for example: USC-ISIF.ARPA or USC-ISIA.DDN

and: Postel@USC-ISIF.ARPA or Kahn@USC-ISIA.DDN

Here we expect USC-ISIF.ARPA to be the name of an Internet host, and that we can send mail for "Postel" to the SMTP port on that host. It may be that some backward host can still fake it by ignoring the .ARPA and looking up an address for USC-ISIF.

Using the domain name servers (but not the tables), mail forwarding may be supported. A domain name server query can say "I want to send mail to ABCDEF.ARPA". The response might be "to send mail to ABCDEF.ARPA send it to the mail relay GHIJKL.ARPA at address 123.123.123.123".

Second, we add an extension to more name components 🦋

for example: F.ISI.USC.ARPA or A.USC-ISI.DDN

and: Postel@F.ISI.USC.ARPA or Kahn@A.USC-ISI.DDN

Here we expect F.ISI.USC.ARPA to be the name of an Internet host, and that we can send mail for "Postel" to the SMTP port on that host. It is unlikely that a backward host can hack this at all 😭

Third, we add an extension to domain style names that may represent only organizations or administrative entities. Finding a host that represents one of these entities may require a level of indirection in the search 🧩

for example: USC-ISI.ARPA or ARPA.DDN

and: Postel@USC-ISI.ARPA or Kahn@ARPA.DDN

Here we don't count on USC-ISI.ARPA being the name of an Internet host. When we want to send mail to "Postel," we ask the domain name server about sending mail to USC-ISI.ARPA. The server tells us the name and address of a real Internet host that handles mail on this organization's behalf, for example F.USC-ISI.ARPA = 10.2.0.52. Then we send mail for "Postel" to the SMTP port on F.USC-ISI.ARPA 👑

Interface to the World

Mail will continue to move between the Internet and other "systems" 📨 This may be done by designating some "other-system" representative organization in the domain server databases. That organization can then indirect mail to a mail-relay host.

for example:

OBERST@EDUCOM.MAILNET
EDMISTON@CIC.CSNET

✨ that's where this part ends, and the rest of the doc picks up with the Transition Situation 🎀

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The Time Table ✨

okay bestie, this is the schedule section and it's giving project timeline energy 🗓️💖 every item is a milestone, so I'll go in date order.

Nov 83 Plan and Schedule 🌸

At this point the overall plan for the implementation of domain style names and name servers, and a schedule of events, was published (RFC-881). Also the draft design and specification for the protocol and data base were published (RFC-882, RFC-883). the planning era is officially starting 📋✨

Nov 83 Initial Domain Style Host Name Table 🦋

At this point a version of the host table that includes the domain style names is made available (DHOSTS.TXT). a first little preview of the new names 👀

Feb 84 Domain Requirements Specification 📜

At this point the requirements for establishing a new domain are published as an RFC. if you want a new domain, this is where you find the rules 🎀

14 Mar 84 Begin using Domain Style Names 💅

At this point all hosts should start using their domain style names as their official and primary names. The standard table of host names contains domain style names as the official and primary name (DHOSTS.TXT becomes HOSTS.TXT). this is the glow-up date 🌈✨

04 Apr 84 Server for ARPA Domain 🧚

At this point several domain name servers are in operation to supply host name to internet address translations, and one of these servers is at the NIC. the servers are finally showing up to work 🫶

04 Apr 84 Domain Table 👑

At this point a master table of top level domain names and their associated servers is established at the NIC. the top level domains get their own official list, iconic 😭

02 May 84 Stop using old style Names 💀

At this point the use of old style names must be completely phased out. no more old names, periodt 🙈

This is the big one, so don't sleep on it: old style names have a hard phase-out date here.

02 May 84 Certain New Domains 🍓

At this point a few new domains may be established, in particular the DDN domain. the DDN domain is the headliner of this batch 💜

06 Jun 84 General & Multilevel Domains 🌸

At this point additional new domains may be established, if they meet the requirements. Domain style names may have more than two segments. so the names can get longer and more layered, which is lowkey so cute 🎀

18 Jul 84 Organizational Domains 🦋

Domain style names may identify organizations. Finding an address for a host may involve a level of indirection. so a name can point to an organization, and getting from the name to the address can take an extra hop, not me being a fan of the extra steps but it's giving very thoughtful design 🔥

05 Sep 84 Decommission Host Table ⭐

At this point the master host table maintained by the NIC need no longer be complete for the ARPA research community. A full table of the DDN operational hosts will be maintained by the NIC. the big master table is retiring for the research crowd, and DDN gets its own full table 🫶

03 Oct 84 DDN Plan for Domains Name Service 👑

At this point the DDN PMO will establish a plan for the future support of name to address translations in the DDN community. the DDN folks are making their own long-term plan for the name service, and that's the final chapter of this timeline 🧚✨

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References

[1] Postel, J., "The Domain Names Plan and Schedule", RFC-881, USC Information Sciences Institute, November 1983.

[2] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities", RFC-882, USC Information Sciences Institute, November 1983.

[3] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification", RFC-883, USC Information Sciences Institute, November 1983.