[discuss] rootservers

Mon Feb 24 16:13:44 UTC 2014

On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Suzanne Woolf <suzworldwide at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Feb 24, 2014, at 8:05 AM, Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On a lighter note, isn't this obvious proof that more effort and
> attention needs to be focused on Africa (developing nation)  ;)
>
>
> No surprise but there are (at least) two dimensions here, technical (or
> operational) and political.
>
> On the operational dimension...Several of the root nameserver operators I
> know, including ICANN (L-root), Netnod (I-root), and ISC (f-root) have
> worked extensively with a wide variety of partners to bring new root server
> instances to new locations. The key, as with so much infrastructure, often
> turns out to involve "leverage"-- there's no demand for a root server where
> there's no traffic and no users, but as the most basic activity starts to
> ramp up, demand begins to grow, and in turn improvements to the
> infrastructure like IXPs and root server instances can promote more
> internet activity and more demand. As the internet "works better," people
> use it more and rely on it more.
>

I think "no demand for root servers" is not necessarily equal to "no
traffic". Using my region as an example(Africa), we all know that it will
be an understatement to say Internet users is growing as they are actually
more like exploding ;). While i agree that more exchange points are
required in the region i also think major mobile/ISP companies can be
leveraged upon and root server copies can be planted there.

> Many ccTLD operations organizations, the RIRs in Africa and Latin America,
> and groups like the Internet Society have encouraged deployment of such
> infrastructure as part of the cycle of promoting access by leveraging
> whatever access is in place to support demand for more. I'm a casual
> observer and not familiar with the specifics, but the cycle seems to be
> accelerating in Africa with growth in availability of fiber and other
> facilities.
>

Yes thats correct and we pray more grease on them to do more ;)

> On the political dimension...As we've discussed here before, there's a
> belief in many places that having a root server in a particular
> geographical territory equates to some control over the contents of the
> root zone available within that territory, or some other measure of
> geographically-based autonomy and control over the use of the internet. By
> itself, a root server instance does no such thing; in specific ways it may
> increase the operational reliability of DNS resolution as part of internet
> infrastructure, but otherwise it makes very little sense to talk about root
> name servers separately from several other infrastructure components like
> availability of fiber and the business environment for access providers.
>

You are right about that, while its technically correct that roots don't
function this way. I did say on the political side a balance needs to be
struck. A country that gets 1 root server commissioned could generate a big
event which can inturn challenge internet users, govts, businesses etc in
the economy to act-up and become active in the naming world. So my summary
is, it feels good when you think you own something ;).
The more root dots that shows on the 'dotless' section on the world map,
the better a common internet user sees ICANN as being global

Regards

>
> best,
> Suzanne

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Seun Ojedeji,Federal University Oye-Ekitiweb:      http://www.fuoye.edu.ng
<http://www.fuoye.edu.ng> Mobile: +2348035233535**alt email:
<http://goog_1872880453>seun.ojedeji at fuoye.edu.ng
<seun.ojedeji at fuoye.edu.ng>*
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