With the vision to making Taiwan an informationisland, the government has not only initiated severalbroadband infrastructure objectives, such as “e -Taiwan” plan, “Challenge 2008 - Broadband Connectionto Six Million Homes”, and “3G Mobile Communication”,but has also worked on making and mending futuretelecommunication related laws sequentially in thee ffort to advance Taiwan into the information era. Asthe Internet has developed swiftly in the past fewyears, we have just tasted a few of our sumptuousachievements in year 2003.

In 2003, TWNIC continued to provide qualitydomain name registration service, and to develop thenext generation IPv6 infrastructures. By the 4th quarterof 2003, Taiwan Internet outbound bandwidth reached44,923Mbps, an 81% growth rate comparing to lastq u a r t e r, with the increasing capacity of 20,119 Mbps.As we see continuing growth of .tw domain nameregistrations in 2003, TWNIC also launched its ChineseInternationalized Domain Name services in November,making Internet browsing accessible via Chinesedomain names accessed all around the world. LastD e c e m b e r, in addition, TWNIC also completed theimplementing of F Root DNS Mirror Server to providebetter and more efficient DNS resolution to the localc o m m u n i t y.

C u r r e n t l y, TWNIC has nine domestic registrars,including HiNet, seednet, TISNet, Net-chinese, PChome, APOL, TFN, Yahoo!, and TTN are in charge oflocal registration in Taiwan. In 2003, TWNIC teamed upwith Neulevel to promote .tw domain names to overseamarkets, and to make .tw domain names availablethrough eighteen overseas accredited registrars inEurope, America and Asia regions.

IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol with 16bit length address, can offer a great deal of IP addressto worldwide populations, and also can be used on 3Gand other applications and services. At the end of

2001, the National Information and CommunicationsInitiative Committee (NICI) of Executive Yuan set upthe “IPv6 Steering Committee”, to aggressivelypromote and accelerate the IPv6 Internet infrastructureand industry development in Taiwan, and to attractmore resources and manpower nationwide to increaseTa i w a n ’s competitiveness in the world.

The NICI IPv6 Steering Committee has alreadyestablished a “National IPv6 Deployment &Development Program” Office in order to dedicate tothe promotion of IPv6 in Taiwan. The Office focuses onfour areas of development: the research anddevelopment, application and promotion, standard andTesting, and infrastructure deployment. Each of theareas has outstanding performance. For example,many IPv6 products invented by Intel InnovationC e n t e r, Chunghwa Telecom Laboratory, Institute forInformation Industry, and many other domesticbusinesses have been granted IPv6 logos byInternational IPv6 Ready Logo Communities.Demonstrating the positive results we have achievedand further encouraging Taiwan Internet business tointegrate IPv6 standards into their product design andincrease business cooperation between local playersand the rest of the world.

In this edition of TWNIC Spring Newsletter, there

are articles introducing the progress and developmentof TWNIC’s DN and IP services, as well as diversifiedservices and events during the last season. We hopethis Newsletter will serve as an important referencematerial to be better informed on the Internetdevelopment in Ta i w a n .

At last, we look forward to seeing continuouse fforts to create a high quality e-environment in Ta i w a n ,which will further enhance the flourish of Internetrelated services providers and equipment industries tobring out Ta i w a n ’s Internet values and thus increaseour international competitiveness with various services.

Acting Executive DirectorBoard Chairman

Domain name owners and buyers

worldwide can now register desired names in

Tradition Chinese (BIG5). On Nov 17 2003,

TWNIC announced its completed IDN

registration service “IDN.tw” to the general

public. Online registration is provided via 6

TWNIC domestic registrars.

TWNIC’s technical development team

has made tremendous effort to make

IDN.tw happen. For local language-usage

purpose, the team first developed the Chinese variant table.

Such table provides a

clear guideline for

registrants to select

appropriate Chinese

Simplified/Traditional

characters in their variant

forms. TWNIC also joined

ICANN’s IDN committee

(concluded in October 2003) to identify necessary RFCs and

registration guideline in one global standard. The team then

developed necessary software and browser plug-in (namely 中

文通, Chinese Master)to create a user-friendly IDN

environment.

On service and policy side, TWNIC’s domain name service

team created a list of reserved words

(http://idntest.twnic.net.tw/data/reserved.html), and figure out a

careful registration principle, including migrating all 8-bit

Chinese.tw names, sunrise period, etc. The work was done

prior to the launch date. However, TWNIC supported parallel

resolution until December 17 2003. Currently, all IDN.tw domain

names are PUNYCODE compatible. More than 22,000 IDN.tw

are registered and in use, we expect the number of

registrations grow steadily in 2004.

TWNIC has organized numerous marketing and educational

campaign to promote IDN.tw, The next IDN tutorial/workshop

will be held in conjunction with TWNIC Annual Seminar on

March 28th this year. Besides our continuous promotional effort

in Taiwan, we will be working with major software vendors and

TLD registries to popularize IDN.

More information are available on www.中文.tw (or directly

type the punycode address http://xn--fiq228c.tw ). 6 IDN.tw

registrars are TISNet, APOL, Hinet, Net-Chinese, PC home,

and SeedNet.

TWNIC Launched Chinese IDN DomainName Registration

TWNIC has eased .tw Domain Name registration for

oversea companies, which currently trade or plan to build up

business with Taiwan. To enhance and build up global image of

.tw domain name, on June 20, 2003, at the 28th DN committee

meeting, NeuLevel presented its proposal and won approval to

provide oversea .tw registration.

During the last ICANN conference in October 2003, TWNIC

announced to provide worldwide on-line .tw domain name

registration service. Prior to that, NeuLevel has vigorously

established registration system and invited worldwide domain

name registration organizations to enter into .tw domain name

register service. The oversea .tw registration service was

officially launched on Jan 19, 2004.

At the present time, 18 worldwide domain name registration

service providers have already joined .tw domain name

registration services to take sign-ups.

.tw Domain Name can be registered from following oversea

organizations :

North America

4007Names, Inc (United States)

4Alldomains.com (United States)

4Arcemus, LLC (United States)

4Domain Processor (United States)

4Dotster, Inc. (United States)

4eMarkmonitor, Inc. (United States)

4Encirca, Inc. (United States)

4eNom, Inc. (United States)

4iHoldings.com, Inc. (United States)

4NameScout (Canada)

4Register.com (United States)

4TierraNet, Inc. (United States)

Europe

4DomainInfo AB (Sweeden)

4EasySpace, Ltd. (United Kingdom)

4Key-Systems GmbH (Germany)

4Register.it SpA (Italy)

4Secura GmbH (Germany)

Asia/Pacific

4RGNames.com (Korea)

* Welcome to visit NeuLevel web site: http://www.neulevel.com.tw/

.Tw is available through NeuLevelregistry service

TW3TWNIC | Spring

During the exhibition of 2003 IT Month, The new

Chinese domain name registration service has formally

launched in Dec 2003.

T a i w a n N e t w o r k I n f o r m a t i o n C e n t e r

To improve the ef f ic iency of In ternet domain

name searching and enhance Ta i w a n ’s network

inf rastructure secur i ty , Taiwan Network Informat ion

Center (TWNIC) and Taiwan Internet exchange

(TWIX) jo in t ly implemented the F Root DNS Mir ror

Server in Taiwan on December 17, 2003.

Wi th the complet ion of F Root DNS Mir ror

Server in Taiwan, though faul ts in in ternat ional

access may prevent connect ion to root DNS

servers abroad, F-Root DNS Mir ror Server wi l l

ensure domest ic access by drast ica l ly reducing

disconnect ions resul ted f rom inabi l i ty to locate

domain name. I t can a lso s ign i f icant ly improve

domest ic access secur i ty . Moreover, i t wi l l receive

and respond to domain name inqui r ies f rom

Internet users a l l over the wor ld , as i t shares F-

Root DNS server ’s burden, saves prec ious In ternet

resources and contr ibutes to the g lobal In ternet

c o m m u n i t y.

TWNIC f i rs t contacted ISC ( Internet Sof tware

Consor t ium) v ia Asia Paci f ic Network In format ion

Centre (APNIC) in ear ly 2003. Answer ing to

A P N I C ’s request , APNIC and ISC engineers began

to implement F-Root DNS Mir ror Server at TWIX on

December 14, 2003. And the node has been up and

running s ince December 17. To enhance domain

name access secur i ty and speed, in Taiwan, HiNet

and Seednet are exchanging rout ing in format ion

wi th F-Root DNS Mir ror Server by peer ing through

T W I X .

In the Asia Paci f ic reg ion, F-Root DNS Mir ror

Taiwan Network Information Center presented two topics

of “Taiwan IPv6 infrastructure Development and

Establishment”’ and “Chinese (Big5). tw Domain Name

P r o m o t i o n ”

specifically to

show Ta i w a n

I n t e r n e t

d e v e l o p m e n t

progress in 2003

IT Month.

Taiwan IPv6

infrastructure Development and Establishment

To tie in Executive Yu a n ’s 6-year National Development

Plans, TWNIC work together with “NICI IPv6 Steering

Committee” and “IPv6 Forum Taiwan” to promote IPv6 to

fasten the completion process of Taiwan IPv6 Internet

environment.

One of TWNIC’s exhibition focuses of 2003 IT Month is

about IPv6 related achievements, such as R&D ,

infrastructure development, standard and testing, and

application promotion. These four items are collaborated

and designed to build an IPv6 Show Room to facilitate

domestic business to play key supplier roles in the

international IPv6 related industries.

With the demonstrations of

IPv6 products and applications,

it is also expected that

domestic public can be

educated and have profound

understanding about IPv6,

resulting the object of IPv6

application popularity in daily

life.

Chinese.tw Domain Name Promotion

With the other part of TWNIC’s exhibition of 2003 IT

Month, it is expected the Internet users to experience and

have profound understanding about the second-generation

“IDN.tw” Chinese (BIG5) domain name registration

experimental system, that TWNIC adheres to the standard

of Chinese Internationalized Domain Name announced in

March 2003.

TWNIC Partic ipates 2003 ITMonth with Focus on IPv6 andChinese Domain Name

F Root DNS Mirror ServerImplementation Advanced Taiwan’sInternet Security and Efficiency

TW5TWNIC | Spring

IPv6 Appl i -Contest 2003, Japan’s f i rs t IPv6

appl icat ion contest was organized by IPv6

Promot ion Counci l o f Japan and sponsored by such

internat ional businesses as NTT, DoCoMo and

Nokia. Held f rom February to Ju ly 2003, the

contest a ims to develop sof tware appl icat ions as

wel l as promote and create appl icat ions and

technology for IPv6 network by inv i t ing top

academic and industr ia l groups to the compet i t ion.

The other goal o f th is contest is to showcase

the next-generat ion Internet concepts or

technology to the wor ld. An Award of Excel lence

( Implementat ion Award category) was g iven to

Professor Yeal i S. Sun of the Nat ional Ta i w a n

Univers i ty and Dr. Meng-Chang Chen of the

Inst i tu te of In format ion Science, Academia Sin ica

as wel l the i r s tudents Chun-Chun Huang, Fan-Yi

L iu and Chen-Wei L i for the i r Hierarch ica l Mobi le

IPv6 work.

There were more than 50 teams f rom 9 nat ions

– inc luding US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan –

par t ic ipated in the contest . They came f rom large

enterpr ises (such as Microsof t and Cisco) ,

research inst i tu t ions and univers i t ies. One Grand

Pr ix Award, Six Awards of Excel lence and severa l

Specia l Judges Awards were g iven to winners of

the Implementat ion Award category. As the resul t

o f compet ing wi th other teams f rom al l over the

wor ld, Professor Sun’s team proved Ta i w a n ’s IT

prowess by winning the Award for Excel lence wi th

thei r creat ive Hierarchica l Mobi le IPv6 work.

IPv6 Appl i -Contest 2003 websi te:

h t t p : / / w w w. v 6 p c . j p / a p c / e n / c o n c e p t . h t m l

Professor Yeali S. Sun’s HierarchicalMobile IPv6 Receives Award forExcellence at IPv6 Appli-Contest 2003

TWNIC New Address ResourceManagement System (RMS)

With 7 months of development – inc luding

analys is , des ign, creat ion and test – , TWNIC

Address Resource Management System (RMS)

passed the test on Ju ly 2003. The system is

designed to centra l ize management of IP and ASN

appl icat ion, reg is t ra t ion, rev iew and inqui ry among

other processes, which inc luded WHOIS query.

RMS also prov ides systemat ic handl ing and

stat is t ics gather ing for the appl icat ion process.

This enables TWNIC to ef fect ive contro l every IP

and ASN

a p p l i c a t i o n

process and

m a i n t a i n

paperwork f i led

by appl icants,

which of f e r s

c o m p l e t e d

i n f o r m a t i o n

required by

a d d r e s s

resource management.

The system compr ises user end and system

adminis t rator end. The user end serves TWNIC

members and non-members wi th secure,

convenient and st ra ight forward user in ter face,

which enables appl icants to access the appl icat ion

progress and address resource in format ion. The

system adminis t rator end prov ides system

adminis t rators wi th real - t ime IP and ASN

appl icat ion management and rev iew. I ts s tat is t ics

and annual fee payment inqui ry features le t user

access in format ion in real t ime. Moreover ,

automated system backup and remote s torage

among other system moni tor and maintenance

mechanisms enhance serv ice qual i ty wi th an

e ff ic ient reg is t rat ion management system for

sophis t icated IP management serv ice.

Web address for the new RMS is

h t t p : / / r m s . t w n i c . n e t . t w. The system has been

avai lab le s ince Oct 1 , 2003. Login account is the

same as the one at whois. twnic.net . tw.

Server are avai lab le in Hong Kong, China, South

Korea and Taiwan. To enhance Internet resources

and ut i l izat ion in the region, APNIC and ISC p lan

to insta l l the node in Singapore next .

T a i w a n N e t w o r k I n f o r m a t i o n C e n t e r

National IPv6 Deployment & Development Program,

part of the e-Taiwan Project was carried out very

successful in Q4, 2003. The IPv6 products developed by

Intel Innovation Center, Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories

and Institute for Information Industry (III) received IPv6

Ready Logo from the IPv6 Ready Logo Program

Committee in December 2003. Taiwan supplied 4 of the

23 certified products, highlighting the success of IPv6

certification efforts by Taiwan vendors.

Chunghwa Telecom Laborator ies ’ 6SG, one of

the f i rs t IPv6- ready products , wi l l prov ide Ta i w a n

ISPs and businesses wi th technology to implement

IPv4/ IPv6 dual -protocol t rans i t ion p lat form. I I I

developed TCP/IP Protocol Stack for Host and For

Router are sof tware programs that suppor t IPv6

protocol , that wi l l he lp vendors develop IPv6-based

products and appl icat ions.

In te l Innovat ion Center

developed Inte l IXDP425

Development Plat form is an

IPv6-compabi le development

p lat form for ch ip-based hardware and sof tware

developers, which can be the core component in

Ta i w a n ’s SOHO Router and Wire less Access Point

among other IPv6-enabled products . These IPv6

o ffer ings wi l l lead Taiwan into the next-generat ion

IPv6 network wor ld by adding s ign i f icant va lue to

Ta i w a n ’s network products and dr iv ing IPv6-

enabled network terminal sa les.

Related websites are as follows.

4 IPv6 Ready Logo Program Committee website:

h t t p : / / w w w. i p v 6 r e a d y. o r g /

4 Certified Appliance Search website:

http://www.ipv6ready.org/logo_db/logo_search.php

4 National IPv6 Deployment & Development Program

w e b s i t e :

h t t p : / / w w w. p r o j . i p v 6 . o r g . t w /

4 Interoperability Group, National IPv6 Deployment &

Development Program website:

h t t p : / / i n t e r o p . i p v 6 . o r g . t w

Intel Taiwan, Chunghwa TelecomLaboratories, III IPv6 Products Firstto Obtain IPv6 Ready Stamp

Vendor

Chunghwa Telecom

Laboratories

Network

Communication

Laboratory, III

Network

Communication

Laboratory, III

Intel Innovation Center

Product Name

6SG

TCP/IP Protocol

Stack (for Host)

TCP/IP Protocol

Stack (for Router)

Intel IXDP425

Development

Platform

Product Description

The CHTTL 6SG is a Service Gateway for

next generation IPv4/IPv6 services

transition platform.

The III TTF TCP/IP Protocol Stack (for Host)

software is a portable implementation of the

host specific Features of the next generation

Internet Protocol version 6.

The III TTF TCP/IP Protocol Stack (for

Router) software is a portable

implementation of the router specific

Features of the next generation Internet

Protocol version 6.

Intel IXP4xx Development Platform for H/W

and S/W developers.

IPv6 Ready Logo ID

01-000122

01-000128

01-000129

01-000130

Certification Date

20031121

20031202

20031202

20031205

TW7TWNIC | Spring

To communicate the state of ISP connect iv i ty

bandwidth to the publ ic , every quar ter , TWNIC

publ ishes the Taiwan Internet Connect iv i ty

Bandwidth Research that inc lud ing the domest ic

and in ternat ional In ternet in teract ions as wel l as

the most immediate, deta i led bandwidth data and

trend of domest ic ISPs. By the 4th quar ter o f 2003,

created by the TWNIC, the research shows

Ta i w a n ’s in ternat ional connect iv i ty bandwidth

tota led 44,923 Mbps as of the end of December

2003. (Table 1) The f igure s igni f ies 81% increase

over last season’s 20,119 Mbps.

Given that ISPs renewed in ternat ional access

bandwidth agreement in Q4 and current bandwidth

cost was lower than last year ’s , Ta i w a n ’s

in ternat ional connect iv i ty bandwidth to ta led 44,923

Mbps (Table 1) as of the end of December 2003.

I t ’ s 81% more than last season’s 20,119 Mbps. The

internat ional connect iv i ty bandwidth between US

and Ta i w a n ’s is 27,082 Mbps, fo l lowed by Japan

TWNIC Published 2003 Q4 InternetConnectivity Bandwidth Research

(7 ,856 Mbps) , Hong Kong (5,413 Mbps) and China

( 3 , 119 Mbps). Bandwidths between Taiwan and 15

countr ies/ ter r i tor ies (except Singapore) are on the

increase. The US cont inues to be Ta i w a n ’s most

connected country (60.29%), fo l lowed by Asia

Paci f ic countr ies. Hinet , TWGATE and Seednet

cont inue to be the top 3 suppl iers of Ta i w a n ’s

external connect ion.

Table I. Taiwan International Access Bandwidth (Mbps) Jan. 2004

Item Connected Country 2003/03 2003/06 2003/09 2003/12 Percentage Quarterly Growth

1 US 11322 11785 12162 27082 60.29% 122.68%

2 Japan 4139 4813 5167 7856 17.49% 52.03%

3 Hong Kong 2029 3721 3823 5413 12.05% 41.58%

4 China 1742 1939 2352 3119 6.94% 32.63%

5 Korea 455 455 611 767 1.71% 25.45%

6 Singapore 276 321 321 319 0.71% -0.64%

7 UK 156 200 200 200 0.45% 0.00%

8 Australia 57 57 51 51 0.11% 0.00%

9 Malaysia 51 51 51 51 0.11% 0.00%

10 Philippines 2 47 47 47 0.10% 0.00%

11 Macau 10 10 10 10 0.02% 0.00%

12 Thailand 4 4 4 4 0.01% 0.00%

13 Saudi Arabia 2 2 2 2 0.00% 0.00%

14 Indonesia 2 2 2 2 0.00% 0.00%

15 France 0.256 0.256 0.256 0.256 0.00% 0.00%

Total 20,250 23,407 24,803 44,923 100.00% 81.12%

TW9TWNIC | Spring

VPN IP Assignment Recommendations, presented by

S e e d N e t ’s Chien-Jung Chen, NCIC’s Mars Wei and

S e e d N e t ’s Hung–Hsiung Lai

r e s p e c t i v e l y. Discussions centered

on the deficiencies of TWNIC’s

traditional IP address/Subscriber

assignment ratio (1:1) and called for relaxation of the

ratio in response to actual demands.

Database SIG

There were 2 presentations prepared at the

Database SIG session. They were WHOIS Inquiry

Architecture Revision – A Recommendation as well as

Legitimacy and Accuracy of WHOIS Information

Disclosure, both presented by TTN’s J. J. Li. Proposal

One: Suggested one user to first inquire WHOIS’s client

and WHOIS’s server end in DNS server. This would

enable inquiry with back-end database through server,

and make database update easier. The presenter will

provide open-source copy of the client-end and server-

end inquiry software for further evaluation of the

f e a s i b i l i t y.

Routing SIG

There was 1 presentation at the Routing SIG

session. It was Open Routing Detection by HiNet’s

Jonathan Y.C. Chu. The proposal pointed out the lack of

Looking Glass between ISPs in Taiwan, which prevented

the detection of inter-network faults. Chu suggested

ISPs to create an open yet simple routing detection

system to provide maintenance personnel with ef f e c t i v e

routing information, which will reduce fault detection

time.

To provide Taiwan Internet users with a forum for

IP/ASN policy-making in Asia Pacific, TWNIC organized

its first Open IP

Policy Meeting &

R e s o u r c e

M a n a g e m e n t

Conference on

October 3, 2003.

The conference

represented a

milestone for

T W N I C ’s effort to promote open IP policy-making and

marked a new chapter in Ta i w a n ’s Internet history. The

conference was a roaring success with 80 participants.

The conference was scheduled as two-day events.

The first day (Dec. 2) of the conference comprised the

APNIC Training – Efficient Resource Management in

Asia Pacific Region session. Led by APNIC instructors,

the event shared with domestic ISPs ways to ef f e c t i v e l y

manage Internet resources.

The major keynote speeches were prepared by

JPNIC VP and two Taiwan Internet pioneers – Kuo-We i

Wu and Kenny S. Huang – opened the second day of the

event. The speeches analyzed the current state and

future trends of Japan and international Internet

connections, which led to unveiling of Ta i w a n ’s future

direction.

Starting on the second day afternoon, SIGs

(Special Interest Group) discussion were the emphasis

of the event. A total number of three events were

scheduled: Address Policy SIG, Database SIG and

Routing SIG.

Address Policy SIG

There were 3 presentations at the session of

Address Policy SIG. They were Discussion on Personal

ADSL IP Assignment, Second Opinion Request for Sub-

allocation Process Review and Suggestion and Inter-

TWNIC 1st Open IP Policy Meeting & ResourceManagement Conference

TW11TWNIC | Spring

TWNIC Helping Children to Access the Internet

For three consecutive years, Taiwan Network Information

Center (TWNIC) has been devoted to charity events

helping children in Taiwan to get access to the internet.

TWNIC and United Way Taiwan, a highly esteemed

charity organization, have been working together for

three years on the “Domain Name, Taiwan Love” charity

event to raise funds for children in far-off area. In 2003,

more than 820 hundred NT dollars were raised, showing

a 7% growth from 2002’s event. Additionally, TWNIC

initiated a new project called “Open up the World with

Children”, and donated computers to assist under-

privileged children of public/private children homes in

north Taiwan to connect to the world via the Internet.

D r. Vincent Chen, former Executive Director of TWNIC,

said, “In facing the strong competitiveness in this

information era, e-learning is the most “in” way of getting

educated. It is also the best channel for students to

expand their knowledge” With the objective to help

bridging the digital divide among the under-privileged

children, and thus promote the use of Internet, TWNIC

had been committed to charity events to offer resources

to children in far-off area or under-privileged

environment in order for them to enjoy learning on the

Internet.

“Domain Name, Taiwan Love” is a charity event co-held

by TWNIC and its nine local accredited registrars:

TisNet, APOL, Hinet, Net-Chinese, PC home, SeedNet,

anet, Yahoo!Kimo, and TTN. For a period of three

months, from October to December 2003, when one .tw

domain name is registered or renewed, TWNIC and the

registrar will each donate 5% of the registration fee to

United Way Taiwan as charity fund. The fund raised

through “Domain Name, Taiwan Love” is specified to

help building a better digital learning environment for

domestic far-off area children. In 2003, the fund raised

through registering or renew .tw domain names amounts

to 820 hundred NT dollars, almost tripled since 2001

when this project was first initiated.

Beginning in 2003, TWNIC has expanded its charity

scope and worked with International Community Radio

Taipei (ICRT), Hinet (ISP), and Ti s N e t

(TWNIC registrar) in conducting the

“Open up the World with Children” e-

learning project. For selected

public/private homes, three sets of

computers provided with ADSL

Internet connectivity are provided as

well as 16 hours of computer tutorial

courses helping more than 200

children in north Taiwan to get

access to the Internet. The goal is to

provide these under-privileged children opportunities to

have access to the resources from the cyber space so

they can enjoy learning on the Internet as the

metropolitan youngsters.