RFC 3467 (rfc3467) - Page 2 of 31

Role of the Domain Name System (DNS)

RFC 3467          Role of the Domain Name System (DNS)     February 2003


      4.8 Intra-DNS Approaches for "Multilingual Names" ............. 23
   5.  Search-based Systems: The Key Controversies .................. 23
   6.  Security Considerations ...................................... 24
   7.  References ................................................... 25
      7.1 Normative References ...................................... 25
      7.2 Explanatory and Informative References .................... 25
   8.  Acknowledgements ............................................. 30
   9.  Author's Address ............................................. 30
   10. Full Copyright Statement ..................................... 31

1. Introduction and History

   The DNS was designed as a replacement for the older "host table"
   system.  Both were intended to provide names for network resources at
   a more abstract level than network (IP) addresses (see, e.g.,
   [RFC 625], [RFC 811], [RFC 819], [RFC 830], [RFC 882]).  In recent years,
   the DNS has become a database of convenience for the Internet, with
   many proposals to add new features.  Only some of these proposals
   have been successful.  Often the main (or only) motivation for using
   the DNS is because it exists and is widely deployed, not because its
   existing structure, facilities, and content are appropriate for the
   particular application of data involved.  This document reviews the
   history of the DNS, including examination of some of those newer
   applications.  It then argues that the overloading process is often
   inappropriate.  Instead, it suggests that the DNS should be
   supplemented by systems better matched to the intended applications
   and outlines a framework and rationale for one such system.

   Several of the comments that follow are somewhat revisionist.  Good
   design and engineering often requires a level of intuition by the
   designers about things that will be necessary in the future; the
   reasons for some of these design decisions are not made explicit at
   the time because no one is able to articulate them.  The discussion
   below reconstructs some of the decisions about the Internet's primary
   namespace (the "Class=IN" DNS) in the light of subsequent development
   and experience.  In addition, the historical reasons for particular
   decisions about the Internet were often severely underdocumented
   contemporaneously and, not surprisingly, different participants have
   different recollections about what happened and what was considered
   important.  Consequently, the quasi-historical story below is just
   one story.  There may be (indeed, almost certainly are) other stories
   about how the DNS evolved to its present state, but those variants do
   not invalidate the inferences and conclusions.

   This document presumes a general understanding of the terminology of
   RFC 1034 [RFC 1034] or of any good DNS tutorial (see, e.g., [Albitz]).





Klensin                      Informational