RSSAC028 - Technical Analysis of the Naming Scheme Used For Individual Root Servers

Joe Abley
John Bond
Brian Dickson
Paul Hoffman
Suresh Krishnaswamy
Matt Larson
Declan Ma
Bill Manning
Jim Martin
Robert Martin-Legene
Daniel Migault
Shinta Sato
Arturo Servin
Davey Song
William Sotomayor
Paul Vixie
Wesley Wang
Suzanne Woolf
ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) Reports and Advisories (2017)

Abstract

The Domain Name System (DNS) is supported by root servers that serve the root zone.
Individual root servers were named under the “root-servers.net” domain in 1995. The
root-servers.net zone is delegated to the root servers.
This naming scheme has worked well for root servers and the Internet community at large
for over two decades. However, given today’s Internet environment, the RSSAC has
studied the naming scheme used for individual root servers and considered the
consequences of making changes.
The study documents a risk analysis of different alternative naming schemes.

This analysis includes:

Where the names reside in the DNS hierarchy
Who administers the zone in which the names reside
How different naming schemes affect DNSSEC validation of priming responses
The size of priming responses


From the risk analysis, the document aims at providing:

Recommendation to root server operators, root zone management partners, and
ICANN on whether changes should be made, and what those changes should be
Recommendations on signing the addresses associated with the root servers
Recommendation on the naming scheme for the root servers