A new service designed to improve on the traditional WHOIS

LACNIC announces it is launching a new service – the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), a system for querying the Internet registry database developed by the organization's engineering department to address the shortcomings of the traditional WHOIS.

The new service standardizes both how queries are submitted as well as the format in which responses are provided. It also addresses issues such as internationalization (for example, it allows the use of accented characters in Spanish and Portuguese) and allows queries containing special characters.

"RDAP is a new way to query the registry database. The new system includes functions similar to the ones available through the traditional WHOIS and also features improvements and incorporates modern technology," said Gerardo Rada, software and development engineer and part of LACNIC's technical team.

The service was developed by LACNIC experts to provide the regional community with unified responses when seeking data for given number resources (IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses and AS numbers) assigned by LACNIC and LACNIC member organizations on our WHOIS. RIPE-NCC provided their invaluable support to this task.

The RDAP service is based on protocols developed within the framework of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to which LACNIC technicians also contributed.

Rada noted that RDAP has major advantages over the traditional WHOIS: it provides a standard, unified response; it's easier to use and integrate with other systems; and it allows performing queries in languages other than English.

In addition, LACNIC will introduce the use of API Keys, access tokens that will allow users to receive differentiated services once they've signed an agreement to ensure proper use of the information. "Differentiated service means that some users will be able to perform a larger number of queries. RDAP has been designed to provide different organizations with the possibility of increasing the number of queries by using customized or differentiated services," noted Rada.

The new service is available on LACNIC's home page.