NOTE: This version discusses a DNS structure with 3-letters in it's 2nd tier. ============================================================================ Harish Pillay March 21st 1995 SG-DNS-NAMES-RFC Version 0.2 The SG Domain Status of this Memo This is an alpha version of a proposed SG Internet Domain Naming Scheme. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. This memo would eventually take the form of a RFC and would be binding to all Internet access sites under the SG domain. Naming Structure Singapore being a city-state enjoys a status where we do not have states as a political subdivision. This lets us tag the numerous entities we have to the second tier. This lets the SG domain to be creative in it's structure. Additional criteria to the structure are: a) Scalability: The DN must be scalable allowing for growth that is manageable and maintainable. b) Addition of new 2nd tiers: This DN uses three letters in it's 2nd tier instead of two letters as a trade off to provide a mechanism for new, yet unknown, additions. c) Pronounceability: This is NOT important and is used only when there is a choice of multiple names. The preference will be given to the one that is pronouceable. d) Identifiability: The domain name should help identify the nature of the domain - be it educational, commercial and so on. This is to allow for the creation of individual, user-centered domain names. The SG domain will use 3-letter name tokens in it's 2nd tier level. The proposed hierarchy is as follows: com.sg: All commercial organizations - sole proprietorships, private limited companies and public-listed companies. Entries in this group have to be registered with the Registry of Companies and Businesses. This DN could potentially grow to levels that it may not be easily managed. At the state of current technology, when the number of sites reach about 30,000, the com.sg will be closed. The number indicated will be reviewed, upwards in all likelihood, from time to time to account for technical advances. bus.sg: Businesses both private limited and public companies. tra.sg: Trading - chiefly soleproprietorships. mnc.sg: Multinational Companies that have a global reach but are Singapore-based/headquartered. The three domain names above are to handle spill overs from the com.sg domain space when it fills up. edu.sg: All tertiary institutions awarding diplomas and degrees. This would mean that all current ac.sg sites and nus.sg will have a CNAME record in the primary and secondary nameservers to provide the mapping. At a future date to be determined by the proposed SGNIC, the CNAME translation will be dropped. pte.edu.sg: The option for commercially-run schools to be placed under this domain or under com.sg. res.sg: All research-only establishments that do not themselves conduct academic courses on which diplomas/degrees are awarded. ISEAS, IME, IMCB and other research-only establishments would be appropriate candidates. ISS, on the other hand, would fall under edu.sg as they award diplomas. They do not have to fall under nus.edu.sg. Similarly for ICIS. gov.sg: All government related entities. This is potentially a large domain and would have to be subdivided into a third tier as such: mindef.gov.sg: Ministry of Defense. mita.gov.sg: Ministry of Information and the Arts. env.gov.sg: Environment Ministry. moe.gov.sg: Ministry of Education. law.gov.sg: Law Ministry. mha.gov.sg: Ministry of Home Affairs. health.gov.sg: Ministry of Health. mti.gov.sg: Ministry of Trade and Industry. finance.gov.sg: Ministry of Finance. mnd.gov.sg: Ministry of National Development. mincom.gov.sg: Ministry of Communication. mcd.gov.sg: Ministry of Community Development Departments that fall under each department, for example, Public Works Department, has the choice of being pwd.mnd.gov.sg or pwd.gov.sg. This is a policy decision that is not addressed in this RFC. It will be mutually decided upon jointly by the Domain Name Administrators of both gov.sg and mnd.gov.sg. org.sg: Organizations that are clubs, societies, associations and including political parties. This domain name can have a one more level to indicate entities such as community centers, resident's committees and political parties. cc.org.sg: Community Centers. rc.org.sg: Residents' Committees. po.org.sg: Political Organization. rotary.org.sg: The Rotary Club. lions.org.sg: The Lions Club. twc.sg: All town councils. gen.sg: General .sg-wide services domain. This is a catch-all for public knowledge services and information kiosks. This will have specific .sg wide domains that do not have specific ownership by any one of the entities in other name spaces. Examples are: www.gen.sg: The well-known DN to all WWW servers under .sg. gohper.gen.sg: The well-known DN to all gophers under .sg whois.gen.sg: The well-known WHOIS server for .sg ns.gen.sg: The well-known nameserver for .sg The entity that manages .sg will also manage gen.sg as well as these well-known domains. The management of such name spaces will be neutral and transparent. sch.sg: All schools under the Ministry of Education and includes independent, autonomous and privately-run schools. This is not the complete domain name as all schools have to be identified under as to whether they are junior colleges, institutes or secondary or primary or private schools. jc.sch.sg: All Junior Colleges anderson.jc.sch.sg, anglo-chinese.jc.sch.sg, catholic.jc.sch.sg, hwa-chong.jc.sch.sg, jurong.jc.sch.sg, nanyang.jc.sch.sg, national.jc.sch.sg, serangoon.jc.sch.sg, st-andrews.jc.sch.sg, raffles.jc.sch.sg, tampines.jc.sch.sg. temasek.jc.sch.sg. victoria.jc.sch.sg, yishun.jc.sch.sg. inst.sch.sg: All 3-year pre-university schools: jurong.inst.sch.sg, outram.inst.sch.sg, seletar.inst.sch.sg, townsville.inst.sch.sg. sec.sch.sg: All secondary schools. The names can be either the commonly known initial or a full name to remove ambiguity. The aim is to keep the name identifiable with what is commonly used. For example: ri.sec.sch.sg: Raffles Institution sji.sec.sch.sg: St Joseph's Institution asci.sec.sch.sg: ACS (Independent). acs.sec.sch.sg: ACS (Barker Road). temasek.sec.sch.sg: Temasek Secondary School. raffles-girls.sec.sch.sg: Raffles Girls' Secondary School. tkgs.sec.sch.sg: Tanjong Katong Girls' Secondary School. pri.sch.sg: All primary schools - raffles-girls.pri.sch.sg, temasek.pri.sch.sg. pte.sch.sg: All privately-run and special education schools. The private schools have the option of being under co.sg as these are commercially run entities. net.sg: All networks. tec.sg: All technical education entities that award technician certificates. Hence, campuses of the ITE will be under this name space. nii.sg: The National Information Infrastructure. NII could conceivably be placed under gen.sg. However, in the interests of brevity the NII should have it's own name space on the second tier. ten.sg: The Tendered out - vanity - name space. This name space will be held by the SGNIC authority. Under this name space, there will be any number of names that can be leased. For example, a name such as superman.ten.sg can be put up for auction and the highest bidder will win the right to lease it. There will be a monthly rental fee to all such names leased out. SGNIC will ensure that all such names leased out are within the boundaries of common decencies and conforms to the laws of the Republic of Singapore. Hence, commonly construed vulgar and rude terms will not be available for leasing. The monies derived from such leases will be used to offset the operations of the SGNIC. The advantage of the ten.sg is that it offers individuals to have their personal name space within the domain name scheme and is not tied to a corporation or educational entity.