DNS root zone
The Nationaw Tewecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of de United States Department of Commerce has exercised uwtimate audority over de DNS root zone of de Internet since it was transitioned into private hands in 1997. In March 2014, de NTIA announced dat it wiww cede dis audority to an organization whose nature has yet to be specified. Through de NTIA, de root zone is managed by de Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), acting as de Internet Assigned Numbers Audority (IANA), whiwe de root zone maintainer is Verisign. It is not known wheder Verisign wiww continue in dis rowe fowwowing de end of NTIA invowvement.
A combination of wimits in de DNS definition and in certain protocows, namewy de practicaw size of unfragmented User Datagram Protocow (UDP) packets, resuwted in a wimited number of root name server addresses dat can be accommodated in DNS name qwery responses. This wimit has determined de number of name server instawwations as dirteen cwusters, serving de needs of de entire Internet.
Initiawization of DNS service
The DNS root zone is served by dirteen root server cwusters which are audoritative for qweries to de top-wevew domains of de Internet. Thus, every name resowution eider starts wif a qwery to a root server, or, uses information dat was once obtained from a root server.
The root servers have de officiaw names a.root-servers.net to m.root-servers.net. To resowve dese names into addresses, a DNS resowver must first find an audoritative server for de net zone. To avoid dis circuwar dependency, de address of at weast one root server must be known for bootstrapping access to de DNS. For dis purpose operating systems or DNS server or resowver software packages typicawwy incwude a fiwe wif aww addresses of de DNS root servers. Even if de IP addresses of some root servers change over de years, at weast one is needed to retrieve de current wist of aww name servers. This address fiwe is cawwed named.cache in de BIND name server reference impwementation, uh-hah-hah-hah. The current officiaw version is distributed by ICANN's InterNIC.
Wif de address of a singwe functioning root server, aww oder DNS information may be discovered recursivewy, and information about any domain name may be found.
Redundancy and diversity
The root DNS servers are essentiaw to de function of de Internet, as most Internet services, such as de Worwd Wide Web and ewectronic-maiw, are based on domain names. The DNS servers are potentiaw points of faiwure for de entire Internet. For dis reason, muwtipwe root servers are distributed worwdwide across de Internet. The number has been wimited to dirteen addresses in DNS responses because DNS was wimited to 512-byte packets untiw protocow extensions (EDNS) wifted dis restriction, uh-hah-hah-hah. Whiwe it is possibwe to fit more entries into a packet of dis size when using wabew compression, dirteen was chosen as a rewiabwe wimit. Since de introduction of IPv6, de successor Internet Protocow to IPv4, previous practices are being modified and extra space is fiwwed wif IPv6 name servers.
The root name servers are hosted in muwtipwe secure sites wif high-bandwidf access to accommodate de traffic woad. At first, aww of dese instawwations were wocated in de United States; however, de distribution has shifted and dis is no wonger de case. Usuawwy each DNS server instawwation at a given site is a cwuster of computers wif woad-bawancing routers. A comprehensive wist of servers, deir wocations and properties is avaiwabwe at http://root-servers.org. As of January 2016, dere were 517 root servers worwdwide.
The modern trend is to use anycast addressing and routing to provide resiwience and woad bawancing across a wide geographic area. For exampwe, de j.root-servers.net server, maintained by VeriSign, is represented by 104 (as of January 2016[update]) individuaw server systems wocated around de worwd, which can be qweried using anycast addressing.
The content of de Internet root zone fiwe is coordinated by de Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates as de Internet Assigned Numbers Audority (IANA). Changes awso must be audorized by de Nationaw Tewecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of de U.S. Department of Commerce. VeriSign generates and distributes de zone fiwe to de various root server operators.
Since 1997, when de Internet was transferred from U.S. government controw to private hands, NTIA has exercised stewardship over de root zone. A 1998 Commerce Department document stated de agency was "committed to a transition dat wiww awwow de private sector to take weadership for DNS management" by de year 2000, however, no steps to make de transition happen were taken, uh-hah-hah-hah. In March 2014, NTIA announced it wiww transition its stewardship to a "gwobaw stakehowder community".
According to Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, Lawrence E. Strickwing, March 2014 was de right time to start a transition of de rowe to de gwobaw Internet community. The move came after pressure in de fawwout of revewations dat de United States and its awwies had engaged in surveiwwance. The chairman of de board of ICANN denied de two were connected, however, and said de transition process had been ongoing for a wong time. ICANN president Fadi Chehadé cawwed de move historic and said dat ICANN wiww move toward muwti-stakeshowder controw. Various prominent figures in Internet history, not affiwiated wif ICANN, awso appwauded de move.
ICANN's renewed contract to perform de IANA function expires on September 30, 2016. Its rowe wiww not be affected immediatewy by de NTIA announcement. On March 11, 2016 NTIA announced dat it had received a proposed pwan to transition its stewardship rowe over de root zone, and wouwd review it in de next 90 days.
Signing of de root zone
Since Juwy 2010, de root zone has been signed wif a DNSSEC signature, providing a singwe trust anchor for de Domain Name System dat can in turn be used to provide a trust anchor for oder pubwic key infrastructure (PKI). The root zone is re-signed periodicawwy wif de root zone key signing key performed in a verifiabwe manner in front of witnesses in a key signing ceremony.
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- Farivar, Cyrus (14 March 2014). "In sudden announcement, US to give up controw of DNS root zone". Ars Technica. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- "Root Servers". IANA. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
- "named.cache". InterNIC. 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
- "SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room". SANS. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
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- "An Update on de IANA Transition". Nationaw Tewecommunications and Information Administration, uh-hah-hah-hah. 2015-08-17. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
- Strickwing, Lawrence. "Reviewing de IANA Transition Proposaw". Nationaw Tewecommunications and Information Administration. United States Department of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- "Root DNSSEC: Information about DNSSEC for de Root Zone". Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
- "First KSK Ceremony". Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers. 2010-04-18. Archived from de originaw on 2015-04-14. Retrieved 2014-10-19.
- "Root KSK Ceremonies". Internet Assigned Numbers Audority. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
- RFC 2870 – Root Name Server Operationaw Reqwirements
- RFC 2826 – IAB Technicaw Comment on de Uniqwe DNS Root
- "NTIA announces intent to transition key internet domain name functions". Office of Pubwic Affairs. Nationaw Tewecommunications and Information Administration. 14 March 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
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