IANA

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management for the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol related assignments. It is operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN.

Prior to the establishment of ICANN for this purpose, IANA was administered primarily by Jon Postel at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, under a contract USC/ISI had with the United States Department of Defense, until ICANN was created to assume the responsibility under a United States Department of Commerce contract.