aero- more than just a domain name

Back in the year 2000, when .aero came around, it was considered by some a futuristic but others a totally and utterly crazy idea, to suggest that aircraft engines, seats, spare parts or individual passenger bags could have their own IP addresses or perhaps even a domain name, and, .aero initiative would be the “glue” where the aviation industry rules meets Internet. Now was it so crazy?

Business applications and ID technologies
We already know that that Airbus’s brand new A-380 passenger aircraft will have passive RFID chips on removable parts such as passenger

seats, life vests, and brakes. But how will the mechanic in a remote hangar know what part is tagged and when to replace it? This is where the Internet comes to play, the Internet of Things that is. The Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) allows for the tracking of things other than Internet addresses and became key element of the Internet of things. In practice, that means that RFID or any other ID technology, that providers for accurate tracking and tracing of things such as spare parts, inventory, goods shipments , could be effectively teamed with the .aero TLD to benefit from industry agreed standards and conventions while creating a secure and reliable system for the aviation business community.

And what does this mean for the aviation community and .aero?
The world will move forward with or without .aero and .aero is making no claims to “own” the world. That much is clear. The .aero initiative was created as a place where the air transport policy and internet policy can meet. Aviation business applications require a communications platform that’s both more intelligent and more secure than business sectors such as consumer retailing, because of the potential complex nature and sensitivity of the data exchanges and security regulations.

As a dedicated aviation community resource it can and does develop its own policies on using the .aero TLD, with the involvement of industry, by ensuring that relevant standards are in place to operate industry specific domain naming structures and underlying networks, and work to create a low-cost infrastructure for further exploitation of ID technologies such as RFID in aviation business. This dedicated community resource represents an excellent platform on which to base secure, simple and low-cost new RFID applications, and is actively fostering development of .aero as a key resource for new community-wide information systems. Hans-Peter Oswald