[discuss] Real world Impact of multiple roots

[S Moonesamy]

Hi Ben,
At 22:55 26-01-2014, Ben fuller wrote:
>Does anyone out there know of studies on the 
>economic impact that having two or more root 
>zones. I’ve been wondering what might happen to 
>Namibia where we have mining, tourism,
>  financial and fishing sectors — all of which 
> are very important to our economy — if the 
> country were to switch over to another Internet 
> with another route. When I think about it I can 
> only come up with very bad scenarios and it 
> would be nice to see if I am missing something.

In the above (see quoted text), "another Internet 
with another route" is mentioned.  I am not sure what it means.

The .na ccTLD is currently DNSSEC-signed.  The 
other (DNS) root zone would require another trust 
anchor.  You and I would not be sharing a common 
namespace and I would not be able to communicate as easily with you.

I don't recall seeing any studies about having 
two or more root zones.  The economic impact on 
the mining, tourism and financial sectors would 
depend on how important the existing system is to 
those sectors.  A few days ago there was a DNS 
issue in a country [1].  It may be possible to use that as a case study.

>Also, what are the mechanics of switching to 
>another root? I’m thinking of questions like; 
>How do you program routers? Can undersea cables 
>carry both types of traffic? Could BIND handle two roots? Etc.

It does not require any change to 
routing.  Undersea cables will carry that 
traffic.  It is not a matter of whether BIND can 
handle two root zones.  The relevant people will 
have to reconfigure their DNS resolvers.  It is 
logistically difficult to get everyone nation-wide to do that.

1. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8520161.html