.arpa
| Manager: | IANA |
| Registry Provider: | .ARPA Registry |
| Date Implemented: | 1985 |
| Type: | TLD |
| Community TLD: | Internet-infrastructure purposes only |
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.arpa stands for Address and Routing Parameter Area. It is one of the original top level domain names (TLDs) delegated in the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the internet. It is classified as infrastructure top-level domain name and it is exclusively used to support operationally-critical infrastructural identifier spaces. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) collaborate in managing the .arpa TLD. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is in-charge in the operational administration of the TLD with the cooperation of the technical community. Technical guidelines are provided by IAB.[1] [2]
Originally, .arpa was established as a temporary domain that will serve as a transition mechanism for a set of host names in the ARPANET that were administered by DARPA. The host names will be phased out after a replacement domain name has been created under the categorized TLDs which include .com, .edu, .mil, .net, .gov and .org.[3] Although the initial plan for .arpa is to purge everything after the transition, the sub-domain in-addr.arpa remained active and it has been utilized for reverse DNS query of Internet Protocol addresses. [4]
In 2000, the IAB informed the technical community that the .arpa has been re-designated as Address and Routing Parameter Area. The .arpa will serve as a single domain where all new infrastructure sub-domains will be placed to maintain the stability of the internet. The IAB also recommended to the IESG No new infrastructure domains should be added to .int and protocols that need specific domain roots should be rooted elsewhere, new infrastructure domains from IETF protocols must be allocated to the .arpa TLD and it will be managed by IANA. In addition. the IAB also recommended for IETF to review its existing infrastructures allocated under .int if the costs of transferring them is greater than the risk of staying in place. The IAB believed that allocating the IPv6 reverse mapping domain is more significant and beneficial. [5]