North American Network Operators Group

Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical

re: NTIA will control the root name servers?

  • From: Frank Coluccio
  • Date: Fri Jul 01 18:56:45 2005

I received the following from a fellow forum member who happens to be living in
Germany after I posted the same story, elsewhere:

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=21469219

ORSN (European Open Root Server Network)
http://www.orsn.net/

The Open Root Server Network (ORSN) is working on the task of guaranteeing the
internet supply in form of an additional DNS server network with a legacy root
zone for ISP networks in Europe.

The network coordinated by the ICANN, consisting of 13 root servers distributed
among almost the entire world, is as far as we are concerned a high-quality and
sure solution. However, the locations of the separate Root server systems are (on
the basis of the development history of the Internet) very dependent on the
U.S.A. Thus, everybody living in Europe depends on the fact that the connections
to the Root servers are available and reachable for the name resolution.

The failure of one or more systems in the U.S.A already shows problems with the
name resolution: DNS inquiries are substantially delayed and the still attainable
Root servers have to process these inquiries as well. The operators (ISC) of
f.root-servers.net describe on their web page the servers load with the following
words: F answers more than 272 million DNS queries per day, making it one of the
busiest DNS servers in the world.

A complete blackout of this network is virtually impossible but completely
different problems appear as well: for example in the case of political conflicts
in the Near East or in Europe. The U.S.A (under the current or any future
administration) are theoretically and practically able to control "our" access to
contents of the Internet and are also able to limit them. A manipulation of the
Root zone could cause that the whole name space .DE is not attainable any more
for the remaining world - outside from Germany.

We are convinced that such a power is not acceptable in any way even if there has
not been such a case (at least not officially). This project does not represent
an isolation from the "American" Internet, however, it is supposed to limit the
influence and control of the U.S.A substantially. Further a weight distribution
on the ORSN network would have positive effects (speed) for everyone in the Internet.

Right now the ORSN root servers are attainable in the German Internet area and
therefore localized closer to the common Internet user in Germany and Europe than
a DNS inquiry to the U.S.A or Japan etc.

http://european.de.orsn.net/about.php

Network
http://european.de.orsn.net/network.php
Operators
http://european.de.orsn.net/members.php

------

Frank


---------Deepak wrote:

Is this operational or dross?

Basically it sounds like the U.S. Gov't (NTIA)/U.S. Dept of Commerce
will take back control of the root name servers from ICANN at some
point. I suppose they might just contract operation of them to ICANN,
but its unclear to me.

I'm hesitant to post because if this were a huge deal I would have
expected someone to beat me to the punch. But then again, its a holiday
weekend in the U.S.

Deepak




Frank A. Coluccio
DTI Consulting Inc.
212-587-8150 Office
347-526-6788 Mobile