ENUM GLOSSARY (Abridged)
Authentication
The process of verifying that a party (e.g., the ENUM Applicant) is who they claim to be. (See Verification.)
Authorization
The process of verifying that an authenticated party is entitled to perform some action (i.e., that an Applicant is the assignee of a number, and thus entitled to register it in ENUM, or that an ENUM Registrar is entitled to access the Tier 1 Registry to add/modify registrations).
ENUM
Refers to a protocol (RFC 3761) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) whereby the DNS can be used for identifying available services associated with one E.164 number.
ENUM Applicant
Person/organization that is seeking to register an E.164 number into the ENUM Tier 1 Registry.
ENUM Registrant
Person/organization that has been authorized and has registered their E.164 number into the ENUM Tier 1 Registry.
ENUM Registrar
Entity that will provide ENUM registration services to ENUM Applicants.
ENUM Tier 1A Registry
Organization that registers ENUM domains corresponding to NPAs and hosts the set of their authoritative name server (NS) records.
ENUM Tier 1B Registry
Organization that registers ENUM domains corresponding to 10-digit E.164 numbers and hosts the set of pointers to their Tier 2 name servers.
Registry Data
Registration Data (including zone file data and all other information submitted by ENUM Registrars) maintained by the registry.
Telephone Number Assignee (Assignee)
The person/organization that is assigned an E.164 number.
Tier 2 Provider
Person/organization at which the Tier 1B registry points; maintains ENUM zone, including the NAPTR resource records for that number.
Verification
Certifying that the ENUM Registrant is in fact the telephone number assignee, and is thus authorized to register the telephone number. Verification must be accomplished during the provisioning process, while the initial and ongoing verification of telephone number assignment is the responsibility of the ENUM Registrar.
