What is the IANA? ----------------- Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 19:08:13 -0700 From: postel@ISI.EDU Subject: Re: Finding the registered list of ESMTP extensions Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) ------------------------------------------ The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols. The IANA is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Federal Network Council (FNC) to act as the clearinghouse to assign and coordinate the use of numerous Internet protocol parameters. The Internet protocol suite, as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its steering group (the IESG), contains numerous parameters, such as internet addresses, domain names, autonomous system numbers (used in some routing protocols), protocol numbers, port numbers, management information base object identifiers, including private enterprise numbers, and many others. The common use of the Internet protocols by the Internet community requires that the particular values used in these parameter fields be assigned uniquely. It is the task of the IANA to make those unique assignments as requested and to maintain a registry of the currently assigned values. Requests for parameter assignments (protocols, ports, etc) should be sent to . Requests for SNMP network management private enterprise number assignments should be sent to . The most recent summary of these assigned parameter values is "Assigned Numbers" which is STD-2 and RFC-1700 published in October 1994. The IANA is located at and operated by the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California (USC). Jon Postel Associate Director for Networking HPCC Division, Information Sciences Institute University of Southern California