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RSSAC Approves Advisories on Service Expectations of Root Servers and Measurements of the Root Server System

9 December 2014

In addition to the U.N. six languages, this content is also available in

At its regular meeting on 20 November 2014, the RSSAC approved RSSAC001 and RSSAC002, the first two formal advisories produced by the RSSAC under its reorganized structure.

In RSSAC001, the RSSAC describes the best practice service to be provided by root servers, and defines the operational expectations that users might reasonably anticipate of both that service and the root server operators. This document highlights that a diversity of approach is desirable in the root server system, and replaces, together with an upcoming Request For Comments from the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) (see below), an earlier direction (RFC 2010, RFC2870) on implementation with a set of protocol and service expectations that root server operators must satisfy.

In RSSAC002, the RSSAC identifies and recommends an initial set of parameters that would be useful to monitor for establishing a baseline and trends for the root server system. The implementation of these measurements (and future refinements to them) by root server operators will form an early warning system that will assist in detecting and mitigating any effects (or the absence of such effects) associated with growing size of the root zone.  A common set of expectations for data collection will help identify any changes that might challenge the normal performance of the DNS root server system associated with growth of the root zone or other evolutionary changes in the DNS and the Internet.

RSSAC002 is published on the RSSAC publications webpage. RSSAC001 will be held for publication in tandem with a complementary RFC by the IAB, specifying the DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment Requirements (current draft is available here).

These documents are general advice to the technical community, particularly the root server operators. In accordance with its charter, RSSAC is working with the root server operator organizations on deployment of the recommendations and plans a status report to the community.

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