Re: [Fwd: [wg-c] straw poll -- reminder]

["pg@name-space.com" <pg@name-space.com>]

Many people have made statements similar to the following:

"I would chose Option 1, as this seems to be an *operationally safer* way to
start."

(emphasis added)

Many, if not most of the people who make this statement are doing so
because they don't know the facts first-hand, not because they have the
day to day experience of operating a DNS service or otherwise have
the experience and operational knowledge needed to make such
determinations based on knowledge.

I present this information to this working group in order to help them
make a more informed choice with regards to adding new TLDs to the root:

THERE IS NO TECHNICAL OR STABILITY ISSUE
IN ADDING NEW TLDS TO THE ROOT.

The number of domains, be they TLDs or SLDs added to a given zone
in any period of time does not in itself effect "operational safety" or
"stability" of the DNS.  Any perception of such is a MYTH.

In a given day, there are somewhere between 3 to 8 MILLION second-
level domains (SLDs) added to the TLD zone for "COM."

Structurally, every zone file in the DNS is identical, from the ROOT.ZONE
on down the tree.  DNS is HIGHLY SCALABLE, as evidenced by the
daily growth of "COM."

Adding ANY NUMBER of TLDs to the root WILL NOT adversely effect
operations of the DNS any more than the addition of MILLIONS of SLDs
in "COM.", a daily occurrance, effects operational stability of the DNS.

If there are 1000 new TLDs added to the root at once, and not increased
for a year's time, the impact would still be less than ONE DAY'S GROWTH
IN "COM."

The servers which currently operate the ROOT.ZONE, also carry the
TLD zones for "COM."  "ORG." "NET." "EDU." "ARPA." "MIL." "GOV."
as well as the "ROOT.ZONE" and the DNS functions reliably,
although this is not a "technically pure" implementation of the
DNS hierarchy (see below).

Each day, the growth of the SLDs in the "COM." zone is in the MILLIONS
with NO ADVERSE OPERATIONAL EFFECTS ON THE DNS.

The load on the ROOT-SERVERS, even with ONE MILLION TLDS
would be LESS than the load when those same servers run the
"COM." TLD, if the TLD-SERVERS were *properly* delegated and
separated from the ROOT-SERVERS. It is possible, however,
that the current systems can likely operate a "MILLION-TLD-ROOT"
in addition to running the "COM."  "ORG." "NET." "EDU." "ARPA." "MIL."
and "GOV." TLD zones with todays resources.

BOTTOM LINE:  Adding large numbers of TLDs to the ROOT will not
adversely effect the operations or stability of the DNS.

[Note:  In a telephone conversation last August with Dr. Paul Mockapetris,
 the computer scientist who INVENTED DNS, I discussed the above scenario.
 Dr. Mockapetris agreed that every zone in the DNS is EQUALLY SCALABLE,
 FROM THE ROOT ON DOWN.

 He also stated that the practice of running the TLD zones mentioned above
 on the ROOT-SERVERS is not a technically pure implementation of the
 hierarchical DNS structure.  The TLD zones should run on servers other
 than the ROOT, and the ROOT-SERVERS should run ONLY THE ROOT.ZONE
 file, with the TLD zones delegated to separate machines. This not only
 reduces the load on the ROOT-SERVERS, but it also allows plenty of
 resources for the TLD NAMESPACE to GROW.]

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Garrin
Founder/CEO
Name.Space, Inc.
http://name-space.com