RFC 3258 (rfc3258) - Page 1 of 11

Distributing Authoritative Name Servers via Shared Unicast Addresses

Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Next >
Network Working Group                                          T. Hardie
Request for Comments: 3258                                 Nominum, Inc.
Category: Informational                                       April 2002


  Distributing Authoritative Name Servers via Shared Unicast Addresses

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo describes a set of practices intended to enable an
   authoritative name server operator to provide access to a single
   named server in multiple locations.  The primary motivation for the
   development and deployment of these practices is to increase the
   distribution of Domain Name System (DNS) servers to previously
   under-served areas of the network topology and to reduce the latency
   for DNS  query responses in those areas.

1.  Introduction

   This memo describes a set of practices intended to enable an
   authoritative name server operator to provide access to a single
   named server in multiple locations.  The primary motivation for the
   development and deployment of these practices is to increase the
   distribution of DNS servers to previously under-served areas of the
   network topology and to reduce the latency for DNS query responses in
   those areas.  This document presumes a one-to-one mapping between
   named authoritative servers and administrative entities (operators).
   This document contains no guidelines or recommendations for caching
   name servers.  The shared unicast system described here is specific
   to IPv4; applicability to IPv6 is an area for further study.  It
   should also be noted that the system described here is related to
   that described in [ANYCAST], but it does not require dedicated
   address space, routing changes, or the other elements of a full
   anycast infrastructure which that document describes.







Hardie                       Informational
Next >