MONTEVIDEO – 10 August 2020 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), today announced the successful installation of an ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) instance in Monterrey, Mexico.
Increasing the number of instances improves the overall fault tolerance of the Domain Name System (DNS), bolsters the resilience against certain types of cyber threats, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and can reduce the response time that local Internet users experience during DNS queries.
The installation of the third instance in Mexico is a joint effort between ICANN and Transtelco. The instance was installed on 21 July. Transtelco supplied the equipment necessary for the installations and the bandwidth needed to support it.
“We appreciate Transtelco’s efforts to host this IMRS instance. This commitment improves root zone Domain Name System service and augments the technical stability and resiliency of the Domain Name System in the region,” said David Conrad, ICANN Chief Technology Officer.
“The new IMRS instance will advance the quality of experience for every Internet user in Mexico,” said Max Velazquez, engineer manager at Transtelco. “Transtelco is proud to collaborate with ICANN to make it happen.”
ICANN manages more than 166 IMRS instances around the world, most of which are hosted by third parties. There are now 35 IMRS instances installed in Latin America, located in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
ABOUT ICANN
ICANN’s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique, so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world.
ABOUT TRANSTELCO
Headquartered in El Paso, Texas, Transtelco offers innovative, customer-driven communication solutions for telecom carriers and blue-chip enterprise customers throughout the Americas.
Overlaid with an award-winning, proprietary Software Defined Network (“SDN”) backbone, Transtelco’s state-of-the-art fiber network spans from the Southwestern United States to the East Coast, into Mexico and throughout all of LATAM by leveraging its use of multiple sub-sea cable systems and terrestrial fiber rings, linking international markets to operate contiguously.
Transtelco’s market-leading portfolio of customer solutions includes Dedicated Internet Access, Long-Haul & Metro Transport, Cloud Connectivity, Managed SD-WAN, IP VPNs, Data Center Colocation, Telephony and other professional services.
With the acquisition of Neutrona, an innovative SDN provider, Transtelco continues to extend its network coverage and provide its customers with superior customer experience, reliability, network intelligence and process automation.
For more information, visit www.transtelco.net
FACT SHEET
What is a root server?
A root server is a name server for the Domain Name System (DNS) root zone. Root servers respond to DNS lookup requests made by DNS resolvers generally operated by Internet service providers. When the request is a query about the root zone itself, the root server will respond authoritatively with the answer. For all other queries, the root server will respond with either a referral to the appropriate top-level domain (TLD) name server or an error response (e.g., to indicate a non-existent TLD). Each root server is made up of a number of machines at multiple locations. These machines are known as instances.
What is a root server instance?
An instance makes use of an Internet traffic routing technique known as “anycast” that allows all the root server’s instances to have the same two IP addresses (an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address) and to serve the same DNS content, including information about the name servers for TLDs.
Benefits of root server instances
Increasing the number of instances improves the overall fault tolerance of the DNS, bolsters the resilience against certain types of cyber threats such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and can reduce the response time that local Internet users experience during DNS queries.
Contrary to common misconception, root servers do not control the Internet. The operation of an instance also does not provide any mechanism to alter content of the DNS. Any modification of root zone content will be mitigated by a part of the DNS protocol known as the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and if an instance fails to respond to a query, resolvers will ask the same question to another instance or root server.
Regardless of which root server the resolvers are sending queries to, spreading more instances geographically leads to a more resilient, dispersed system that reduces the risk of Internet users being taken offline by a problem or attack. The increased distribution of instances also ensures that the turnaround time of a DNS query and response is as fast as possible, resulting in better experiences for Internet users.
Historically, there were 13 individual machines that provided root service, with each one of those machines having one of 13 unique IPv4 addresses. However, today, there are 26 unique IP addresses – 13 IPv4 and 13 IPv6, that are used to provide root service via over 1000 individual machines. The equipment, hardware, and connectivity for the machines that use those 26 addresses are administered by 12 organizations known as “root server operators.” ICANN, which administers the ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS), is one of those 12 organizations.
Each of the root server operators manages their constellation of instances independently of the others, although they do coordinate with one another when needs arise. While the service provided by each root server operator may differ in how the service is offered, they are identical in the answers to DNS questions they receive. No root server operator is unique – all 12 root server operators obtain root zone data as defined by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and make that data available via the IPv4 or IPv6 address associated with their server.
Source: ICANN NEWS