Conducts laboratory tests to determine the readiness of the root zone file; design of the test will be available for public scrutiny in November.

ICANN, yesterday announced a roadmap for the introduction of Internationalised Domain Names based on progress so far and future work.

ICANN is currently conducting laboratory tests to determine the readiness of the root zone file and its associated root servers and resolvers to house or work with IDNs. This process, including the results will be made public on ICANN's website. The design of the test is anticipated to be available for public scrutiny in November, and the live root zone tests will be conducted and ready for analysis by December 2006, says ICANN.

"ICANN has a clear process for the introduction of IDNs. There is much intense work being done by ICANN committees and the Internet Engineering Task Force. That includes IETF standards, testing and rules discussions. A substantial amount of this work is now coming to fruition," said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

"Depending on the results of laboratory testing, ICANN will then perform live root zone tests. At this time application providers such as browser developers can also participate in the test," added Dr Twomey.