[discuss] Real world Impact of multiple roots

Mon Jan 27 11:35:25 UTC 2014

Besides that the current system does not support it by design, imagine DNS as being a phone directory, and multiple roots as multiple publishers of it (on a global scale)

The phone numbers are the same but the name entries will be different for each publisher, and nobody guarantees that you will get the same name pointing to the same number from each publishers.

Let's assume that one is the "official" directory, then some publishers may choose to include the official directory into their directory but we the disclaimer "search on the official first if you don't find the name the search on ours," this is more or less how some alternate root schemes work today.

Now think about many publishers doing the same, and in case of name conflicts among them how you resolve the uniqueness of a fully qualified domain name ?

The DNS is a hierarchical distributed database with a unique starting point (we omit the ending period on domain names when we write them, but it is there) visualize it as a tree upside down, there is a single root, branches are the sub domains, and leafs every single name on the directory.

The mechanics are quite simple you just grab your preferred directory, it has nothing to do with routers and cables.

The impact is not just economic, it is functional.

-Jorge

> On Jan 27, 2014, at 12:55 AM, Ben fuller <ben at fuller.na> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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. 
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
> Dr Ben fuller
> ben at fuller.na
> http://www.fuller.na
> 
> 
> 
> 
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