1. Current Topic – EPP -
TWNIC
Jeff Yeh

2. Overview EPP Introduction TWNIC EPP Implementation What is EPP Why EPP
EPP relate information
TWNIC EPP Implementation
TWNIC EPP Environment
EPP issue
Policy issue
TWNIC technical issue
today i'd like to introduce about EPP
my presentation today will divided into 3 major part
1. EPP introduction
which contains a brief intorduction of EPP, and what's the
advantage of adopting EPP
Then we will talk about the EPP implementaiton experience in TWNIC
including the TWNIC EPP environment
and the problems that TWNIC encounted

3. What is EPP
Client-Server Protocol for provisioning and management objects
Key feature
Object model
XML Based
Extensible framework
Generic object management operation
what is epp
epp is a client-server protocol for provisioning and management objects
the key feature of EPP are
object model
XML based
extensible framework
generic object management operation
as these features
ePP basically can provision for all kinds of object not only domain name
Such as insurance contract, tax …
Maybe new business opentunity for epp

4. EPP Command Session Management Commands Query Commands
Login: login to EPP server
Logout: logout from EPP server
Query Commands
Check: retrieve object availability
Info: retrieve information about an object
Transfer: retrieve status of a transfer operation
Poll: retrieve queued messages at server
Object Transform Commands
Create: create an instance of an object
Delete: delete an instance of an object
Renew: extend the validity of an object
Transfer: initiated a change in the sponsorship of an object
Update: change information associated with an object
As epp standard specified
There 3 kinds of operation command
session management command is to maintain a epp session
Such as login in and logout
Query command is used to retrieve object information
Check command is to determine if a object availe or not
info command is to retrieve the associate information with an object
transfer query command is to retrieve the transfer status of an object
and poll command is to retrieve server queued messages
And object transform commands
create command is to create an object
delete command is to delete an object
renew command is to extend the validity of an object (for domain name is the expiring date of the domain name)
transfer command is to change the sponsorship of an object (to transfer from one registrar to another registrar will use this command)
update command is to change the information of an object

5. Typical EPP command
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<epp xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0"
xmlns:xsi="
xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsd">
<command>
<info>
<obj:info xmlns:obj="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:obj"
xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:obj obj.xsd">
<obj:name>example</obj:name>
</obj:info>
</info>
<clTRID>ABC-12345</clTRID>
</command>
</epp>
Here is a typical epp command
XML header
XML namespace
EPP command
Object specific namespace
Object specific information
EPP transaction id

6. Typical EPP response
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<epp xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0"
xmlns:xsi="
xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsd">
<response>
<result code="1000">
<msg lang="en">Command completed successfully</msg>
</result>
<trID>
<clTRID>ABC-12345</clTRID>
<svTRID>54321-XYZ</svTRID>
</trID>
</response>
</epp>
Typical EPP response format
XML header
EPP namespace
EPP response
EPP resopnse code
EPP response message
EPP transaction id (client, server)

7. EPP Client (Registrar)
A Typical EPP Session
EPP Client (Registrar)
EPP Server (Registry)
connection setup
<greeting>
EPP Session Establishment
<login>
<response>
<command-1>
<response>
EPP Transactions: Object Provisioning and Queries
Here is a typical epp session
When an EPP client connect to EPP server
Server will return a greeting message to client
Then client can perform login in command with it id & pwd
After the authentication is done, a epp session is build
A epp connect can accept unlimited commands,
Client can perform their command when the epp session Is active
Finally a logout command colsedown an epp session
<command-n>
<response>
<logout>
EPP Session Closedown
<response>
connection teardown

8. EPP server state machine
Waiting for Client
Connected
Or <hello>
Prepare Greeting
Close Connection
Or Idle
Send
Greeting
End session
Timeout
Waiting for Client
Authentication
Send Response
<login>
Received
Prepare Fail Response
Send 2501
Response
Processing <login>
Auth Fail
Auth OK
Here is the full state machine of a EPP server
Timeout
Waiting for Command
Send
Response
Send x5xx
Response
Command
Received
Prepare Response
Command Processed
Processing command

9. EPP domain Function Command Domain Host Contact
Session Management
<hello>
N/A
<greeting>
<login>
<logout>
Transformation
<create> 
<update>
<delete>
<renew>
<transfer>
Query
<check>
<info>
<poll>
When EPP map to domain name registration model
It consist with 3 kinds of object, domain, host and contact.
Where domain means domain name object
Host means name server object
Contact is the contact person object
Each object type has it’s own operation.
For host and contact object, the renew command will not implemented. Because they don’t need to be renewed.
likewise host object don’t need transfer command.

10. Why EPP IETF Standard Extensible UTF8 Security
Well-defined atomic operation
Automation
Then whey EPP
Because it’s IETF Standard, that means easy to bridge registrar-registry
And it’s Extensible to fit policy difference
UTF8 is able to deal with all characters in different languages
Security: EPP should build upon a SSL/TSL connection and need id/pwd authentication and authoritication
And its well-defined atomic operation, easy to maintain and management
Full automatic registration
The major benefit of adopting EPP is registry only need to develop a single system to connect with all the registrars
And the registrars also need only one system to connect with all registries.
Reduce the overhead of develop new system

11. EPP current status RFC Standard (RFC-EDITOR) Standard Port 700 (3121)
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-09.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-contact-07.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-domain-07.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-host-07.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-tcp-06.txt
Standard Port 700 (3121)
TLDs adopting EPP
gTLDs: .biz, .info, .name, .coop
ccTLDs: .us, .au, .cn, .tw, .at, .pl,...
EPP currently is not a RFC standard yet, but you can already found it on the RFC database
And it’s status is RFC-EDITOR, and will get RFC numbers very soon.
The latest version of epp is ……
And the standard port of EPP will use 700, where the old draft using 3121 as EPP server port.
And there are already a lot of TLDs adopting EPP
Such as .biz, .info, .name on gTLD
And .us, .au, .cn, .tw …on ccTLD

12. EPP related information
Provreg WG website:
Mail Archive:
And here are some epp related informations
If you have interesting on ePP, you may have a look on these link above

13. TWNIC environment draft-ietf-provreg-epp-04.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-contact-02.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-domain-02.txt
draft-ietf-provreg-epp-host-02.txt
And then I’d like to introduce TWNIC EPP environment and share some experience
TWNIC use epp draft 0402
Where the Major difference between latest version is the Privacy issue
And some XML schema different
But the object defination and procedure are almost the same

14. TWNIC environment EPP Server OS: Linux 2.4.18
Develop Language: Perl 5.8.0
Database Server OS: SunOS 5.8
Database Server: Oracle 8.0.5
TWNIC EPP server environment is linux
And develop with perl 5.8 (some people ask why use perl rather than java, our thought is perl can run on various platform such as java and the performace issue on java is bad also, the most important is …. We don’t have java experience…
And the backend database is oracle on sun 5.8

15. TWNIC EPP Structure registrars registry EPP Server 1 Registry Database
client
EPP
Server 1
registrar2
EPP
client
Registry
Database
registrar3
EPP
client
This slide shows the TWNIC EPP structure
To overcome the Perl performance problem, we use 2 server in the front to accept epp connections
Current chart…response time 1500ms
registrar4
EPP
client
EPP
Server 2
registrar5
EPP
client
registrar6
EPP
client

16. TWNIC EPP status Launch on Jan 20th, 2004
Connect with 18 registrars (via NeuLevel)
More than 300 domain name registered on the first day
New registration growth 35%
Launch on jan 20
And connect with 18 registrars (via neulevel epp gateway
More than 300 domain name registered on the first launch day
The new registration amount per month growth about > %

17. EPP developing reminder
Linked Status
Roid
Poll message
Extension for each registry
Schema validation (*.xsd)
Here are some reminders when developing epp system
Linked status means a object is in use (such as a contact object is link to a domain object contact person)
In this case, the contact object can not being removed
Theoritically is simple but is important when developing
Roid is just a unique identifier of a object, thought it not really used in EPP but it necessary
Bascially poll message is a comunciation channel within registry/registrar, you can put message on poll to let registrar know
Basically epp is standard, but due to the policy different, every registry may have their different requirement, so the extension is used to solve this problem
Enable the schema validation can reduce the debug time on the XML schema errors

18. TWNIC Policy issue Transfer procedure Rename Grace Period
Special Field
Here I’ll talk about some TWNIc policy issues that related EPP
The first is transfer procedure, the original transfer procedure in TWNIC is to transfer out on the old registrar, then go to the new registrar to setup a transfer in job.
But in EPP standard, a transfer operation is initialed by new registrar, then after the old registrar approved the transfer, the transfer operation can be done.
In TWNIC Guidelines for Administration of Domain Name Registration, it defines TWNIC have domain name rename service
However, EPP don’t have rename operation,
In TWNIC registration policy, we have 7 days grace period, but EPP don’t have this kind of function
Currently we just active the domain name, then if user regret within 7 days, he havn’t to pay any fee.
The last one is the special field restriction, in Taiwan you must have a company tax id code to register .com.tw, but for foreign firms , they don’t have this informations.

19. TWNIC technical issue Database code type Database layout
BIG5->UTF8
Database layout
Front end user interface problem
API & EPP parallel run

20. IDN over EPP
UTF8
No standard until now