[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 230 (Tuesday, December 1, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 66102-66104]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-31828]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

41 CFR Part 101-35

RIN 3090-AG79


User Fees; Network Registration Services

AGENCY: Office of Governmentwide Policy, GSA.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This proposed rule establishes fees for registration services 
provided by GSA to Government agencies and commercial organizations in 
order to provide and maintain unique global names and network addresses 
for X.400 Private Management Domains (PMRD) and the X.500 
Organizational Units (OU), Administrative Authority Identifiers (AAI) 
and Internet .GOV Domain names.

DATES: Comments must be submitted February 1, 1999 to be considered in 
the formulation of the final rule.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Mr. Jack L. Finley, 
Director, Center for Electronic Messaging Technologies (TOT), General 
Services Administration, 1800 F Street, NW, Suite G-222, Washington DC 
20405. E-mail comments may be sent to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jack L. Finley, 202-501-3932.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

    The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model uses naming 
hierarchies in order to provide global unambiguous identities. The 
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines two major 
naming hierarchies or ``trees.'' The ISO 3166 Codes for the 
Representation of Names of Countries assigns the United States with an 
alpha-2 code of US and a numeric code of 840. The American National 
Standards Institute (ANSI) has assigned the Federal Government with the 
alpha code of ``GOV'' and the numeric code of 101.
    Another ISO naming structure is ISO 6523, Structure for the 
Identification of Organizations. The British Standards Institute (under 
ISO authority) has issued an International Code Designator (ICD) of 
0005 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The 
NIST has delegated the responsibility of managing and administering the 
ICD of 0005 to the GSA. The NIST has also delegated to GSA the 
authority for the namespace ``U.S. Government'' as an organization 
domain subordinate to country level of ``US'' for the purposes of 
Governmentwide Directories (X.500/LDAP).

X.400 PRMD

    The GOSIP standard is based on the Open Systems Interconnection 
(OSI) profile, which incorporate several series of international 
protocol standards. The X.400 series define a protocol for electronic 
Messaging Handling Systems (MHS). Top level Management Domains (MD) are 
assigned and delegated into

[[Page 66103]]

Administrative Management Domains (ADMD) and subordinately Private 
Management Domain (PRMD). The GSA assigns the PRMDs for the U.S. 
Government using a prefix of the characters ``GOV+'' followed by the 
assigned name. For example, a PRMD for the Department of Transportation 
may be shown as P=GOV+DOT. The service provided by GSA allows 
government to use unique PRMD names, regardless of the ADMD provider.

X.500/LDAP

    The International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication 
Standardization Sector (ITU-T) issued a X.500 Series of Recommendations 
for distributed directory services. The GSA has developed a 
governmentwide X.500 schema for a Distributed Information Tree (DIT). 
Under C=US, O=U.S. Government, agencies may establish a directory 
container as an Organizational Unit (OU). The GSA also provides 
operational Directory Support Services at the C=US level to public 
entities in cooperation with ANSI. Services include root Directory 
Systems Agents (DSA) with links to other Top Level Domains (TLD). The 
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers will also require 
registration services and operational services to connect with the 
distributed X.500 DSAs.

Object Identifier (OID)

    In the context of this document, an arc is a point where branches 
of the hierarchical tree are connected together and to the superior 
reference. The GSA is responsible for registration of technical objects 
identifiers under the arc joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(16) us(840) 
organization(1) us-government(101) as well as (joint-iso-ccitt(2) 
countries(16) usa(840) US Government). There is a second US branch of 
the OID tree, 1.2.840 (iso(1) member-bodies(16) usa(840) US 
Government(101), but new registrations are made under the 
2.16.840.1.101 arc. Typical use of Object Identifiers (OID) is to 
identify attributes and object classes that are not currently described 
in OSI standards.

NSAP AAI

    Globally unique network addresses are important in communicating 
across various networks. The GOSIP V2 profile established a method of 
assigning Network Service Access Point (NSAP) addresses using the ICD 
47 0005 (ISO 6523) under the authority of the NIST. The administration 
and registration of the ICD is delegated to the GSA. The octet 
following the ICD is 80 to indicate that the remaining octets are in 
the GOSIP V2 format. An Administrative Authority Identifier (AAI) 
consisting of three octets are delegated to organizations in order to 
complete the assignments of network addresses. Thus, a registration for 
a GOSIP NSAP AAI will be:

47 0005 80 NNNNNN (where N is assigned by GSA)

    The organization may use the remaining octets to further define 
according to their requirements.

INTERNET .GOV and FED.US DOMAIN NAMES

    The National Science Foundation (NSF) has delegated to GSA through 
the Federal Networking Council (FNC), the authority to manage and 
administer the GOV (dot-gov) domain used by Internet Domain Name 
Service (DNS). The GSA is also providing second-level domain 
registrations in the GOV domain (e.g. Fed.gov). Similarly, the GSA is 
providing second-level domain registrations in the fed.us domain under 
authority from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Internet 
registration services are limited to Federal, State, and local 
Government organizations. GSA is not responsible for and will not 
charge fees for any further delegation of a domain name assigned to an 
agency. For example, if USDA were to register usda.fed.us, the 
registrations such as region1.usda.fed.us would be the responsibility 
of the domain manager for USDA.

B. E.O. 12866

    GSA has determined that this proposed rule is not a significant 
regulatory action for the purposes of Executive Order 12866 of 
September 30, 1993.

C. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The proposed rule is not expected to have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities within the meaning of 
the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601, et seq.

D. Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act does not apply because the proposed 
regulation does not impose recordkeeping or information collection 
requirements, or the collection of information from offerors, 
contractors, or members of the public which require the approval of the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under 44 U.S.C. 501, et seq. This 
rule is also exempt from Congressional review prescribed under 5 U.S.C. 
801 since it relates solely to agency management and personnel.

List of Subjects in 41 CFR Part 101-35

    Archives and records, Computer technology, Government property 
management.

    Therefore, it is proposed that 41 CFR 101-35 be amended as follows:

PART 101-35--TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT POLICY

    1. The authority citation for part 101-35 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 40 U.S.C. 486(c) and 31 U.S.C. 9701.

    2. Subpart 101-35.7 is added to read as follows:

Subpart 101-35.7--Network Address Registration

Sec.
101-35.701  Scope of subpart.
101-35.702  Registration services.
101-35.703  Procedures for using GSA's registration services.
101-35.704  Fee schedule.
101-35.705  Method of payment.

Subpart 101-35.7--Network Address Registration


Sec. 101-35.701  Scope of subpart.

    This subpart addresses registration services provided by GSA to 
Government agencies and the public.


Sec. 101-35.702  Registration services.

    (a) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
Department of Commerce has designated GSA as the Government Open 
Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) Address Registration Authority 
for unique naming assignments of X.400 Private Management Domains 
(PRMD), X.500 Organizational Units (OU) and Network Service Access 
Point (NSAP) Administrative Authority Identifiers (AAI). (See FIPS PUB 
146-2, Section 5.2.1.) GOSIP registration is limited to government 
agencies, with the exception of NSAP AAI's, which may be used by 
commercial organizations to identify private Asynchronous Transfer Mode 
(ATM) networks.
    (b) For purposes of global interoperability, GSA will operate an 
X.500/LDAP Directory Service at the ``country=US'' level and at the 
``O=U.S. Government'' level. Federal Agencies may link operational 
directories to the ``O=U.S. Government'' and Commercial organizations 
may link ``country=US'' level in accordance with the fees set forth in 
section 101-35.704.
    (c) The National Science Foundation (NSF) has delegated to GSA 
through the Federal Networking Council (FNC), the authority to manage 
and administer the

[[Page 66104]]

GOV (dot-gov) domain used by Internet Domain Name Service (DNS). The 
GSA is also providing second-level domain registrations in the GOV 
domain (e.g. Fed.gov). Similarly, the GSA is providing second-level 
domain registrations in the fed.us domain under authority from the 
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Internet registration 
services are limited to Federal, State, and local Government 
organizations. GSA is not responsible for and will not charge fees for 
any further delegation of a domain name assigned to an agency. For 
example, if USDA were to register usda.fed.us, the registrations such 
as region1.usda.fed.us would be the responsibility of the domain 
manager for USDA.


Sec. 101-35.703  Procedures for using GSA's registration services.

    Individuals or organizations who wish to register or would like 
more information should contact the registration officials at GSA by 
sending an e-mail message to [email protected] or by web access at 
http://registration.fed.gov.


Sec. 101-35.704  Fee schedule.

    GSA will assess Government agencies and commercial organizations 
nominal fees to cover the cost of registration and other services as 
listed in the table below. The fees are based on anticipated costs for 
providing the services and are consistent with industry charges.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Recurring
                    Service                        Set-up      (Annual)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) Network Address Registration (GOSIP)......     $1000.00      $500.00
(b) Governmentwide Directory Operation (X.500/
 LDAP)........................................      1000.00       500.00
(c) Domain Name Registration                         250.00        50.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Note to 101-35.704. Set-up fees may be waived at the discretion 
of the GSA. When levied, set-up fees include annual fee for one 
year.


Sec. 101-35.705  Method of payment.

    GSA will invoice registrants according to the fee schedule in 
section 101-35.704. Government registrations must be paid by credit 
card (IMPACT). Commercial organizations are encouraged to pay by credit 
card. All other payments should be made to GSA Registration Services, 
1800 F Street NW, Suite G-222, Washington, DC 20405.

    Dated: July 30, 1998.
G. Martin Wagner,
Associate Administrator for Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 98-31828 Filed 11-30-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-34-P