ICANN, IANA Functions, Internet DNS Root, Root Server Operators

In what countries are Internet DNS Root Servers hosted? Many, including nations on every continent excepting Antarctica which once hosted a root server as explained in the video above. Speaker is Matt Larson, then VP (2010) of VeriSign, the Internet DNS Root Zone Maintainer under a contract with the US government. Matt also explains anycast in this 2010 video.

Screenshot of Internet DNS Root Servers Map from root-servers.org

2. Mutual Recognition 2.1. Recognition of ‘F Root Operator’: ICANN recognizes ‘F Root Operator’ as the manager and sponsoring organization of the “F Root Name Server”, and the entity responsible for operating the “F Root Name Server” as a stable and interoperable part of the global domain name system for the Internet. 2.2. Recognition of ICANN: ‘F Root Operator’ acknowledges that ICANN, through its IANA functions, is the entity responsible for maintaining and keeping the root of the Internet DNS stable and globally interoperable in a manner that is consistent with ICANN's Mission and Core Values as reflected in its bylaws. (Excerpt: Root F Operator agreement, infra, emphasis added)

Root Servers: The authoritative name servers that serve the DNS root zone, commonly known as the “root servers”, are a network of hundreds of servers in many countries around the world. They are configured in the DNS root zone as 13 named authorities, see below.

List of Root Servers
Hostname and IP Addresses -- Manager:
a.root-servers.net 198.41.0.4, 2001:503:ba3e::2:30 -- VeriSign, Inc.
b.root-servers.net 192.228.79.201, 2001:500:84::b -- University of Southern California (ISI)
c.root-servers.net 192.33.4.12, 2001:500:2::c -- Cogent Communications
d.root-servers.net 199.7.91.13, 2001:500:2d::d -- University of Maryland
e.root-servers.net 192.203.230.10 -- NASA (Ames Research Center)
f.root-servers.net 192.5.5.241, 2001:500:2f::f  -- Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
g.root-servers.net 192.112.36.4 -- US Department of Defense (NIC)
h.root-servers.net 128.63.2.53, 2001:500:1::803f:235 -- US Army (Research Lab)
i.root-servers.net 192.36.148.17, 2001:7fe::53 -- Netnod
j.root-servers.net 192.58.128.30, 2001:503:c27::2:30 -- VeriSign, Inc.
k.root-servers.net 193.0.14.129, 2001:7fd::1 -- RIPE NCC
l.root-servers.net 199.7.83.42, 2001:500:3::42 -- ICANN
m.root-servers.net 202.12.27.33, 2001:dc3::35 -- WIDE Project

ICANN and Root Server Operators: The Internet's Root Server System consists of twelve organizations that operate the world's thirteen DNS root name servers. ICANN is the root server operator for L-root. Over the years, some root server operators have affirmed their role in cooperation with ICANN. These relationships are outlined in the documents listed below.

Root - Root Server Operator - Document - Date
F  - ISC -  Mutual Responsibilities Agreement [PDF, 20 KB] - January 2008
I   - Netnod - Letters (Netnod [PDF, 45 KB]) - May 2009
K   - RIPE - NCC - Letters (RIPE NCC [PDF, 307 KB]) - June 2009
M   - WIDE Project - Letters (WIDE [PDF, 372 KB]) - May 2009

Further information:

• root-servers.org Root Server Technical Operations Association
• iana.org The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)--responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. 
• What Is The US Government's Claim to the Internet Root?
• The Day Jon Postel Freed The Internet Root From US Government Control
• ICANN, IANA functions, Ultimate Mechanism of Accountability, A New Root

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The Day Jon Postel Freed The Internet Root From US Government Control

Jon Postel in 1994, with hand-drawn map of Internet top-level domains. Photo By Irene Fertik, USC News Service. © 1994, USC. [used with permission]

This post is about Jon Postel a/k/a the "god of the internet," the U.S. Government and its claim on the Internet Root, as well as IANA, ICANN, the Root Zone Maintainer Verisign, successor to Network Solutions (NSI), and the IANA Stewardship Transition. [UPDATE: Part 2 of this post is now What Is The US Government's Claim to the Internet Root?]

"In the Domain Name System (DNS) naming of computers there is a hierarchy of names. The root of system is unnamed. There are a set of what are called "top-level domain names" (TLDs). These are the generic TLDs (EDU, COM, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT), and the two letter country codes from ISO-3166. It is extremely unlikely that any other TLDs will be created."--Jon Postel, March 1994, RFC 1591

On January 28, 1998, Jon Postel emailed eight of the [then] twelve operators of the Internet's regional root nameservers, instructing them to change the authoritative Internet root zone server from Network Solutions NSI's A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET (198.41.0.4) to DNSROOT.IANA.ORG (198.32.1.98). The operators complied with Postel's instructions, thus dividing control of the Internet between 8 non-government operators and the 4 remaining U.S. Government roots at NASA, DoD, and BRL with NSI. Though usage of the Internet was not interrupted, Postel soon heard from senior US government officials who threatened him to undo this change--

"According to news reports at the time, Postel made the switch without approval from anyone. Some said it was merely a “test” meant to show that the internet’s directory infrastructure could be repositioned as needed. But others said that Postel was making a statement — that he was trying to show the White House that it couldn’t wrest control of the internet from the widespread community of researchers who had built and maintained the network over the previous three decades. The White House was just days away from revealing a plan to reorganize the way the internet’s directory system was governed."--Remembering Jon Postel — And the Day He Hijacked the Internet | WIRED

Washington Post - Saturday, January 31, 1998 - Page H01:   "... Internet community leaders affiliated with Postel spent the week embroiled in tense negotiations with the Clinton administration over the government's  future role in controlling some of the network's key operating functions ... Some computer user groups, including those affiliated with Postel, had urged the government to end its oversight of the network sooner. "It's very hard to believe the timing was entirely coincidental," said one senior government official familiar with the incident. Postel did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday, but in a statement he said the reconfiguration would result in "no change to the data" in the directory-information computers, called "root servers." He said that "once this test is completed, [the servers] will revert to the previous arrangements."... One of the reconfigured servers is located at the University of Maryland at College Park ... Gerry Sneeringer, the assistant director for networking for the university's Academic Information Technologies Service, said he received an e-mail message last week from Postel asking that the change be made. "If Jon asks us to point somewhere else, we'll do it," Sneeringer said. "He is the authority here." Akira Kato, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who runs another root server, said in a telephone interview that he, too, reconfigured his server after getting an e-mail from Postel. J. Beckwith Burr, a [U.S. government] Commerce Department official who co-authored the administration's report, said the incident "caused a lot of concern ... We have asked that the system be returned to the situation it was in before and that no such tests are to be undertaken without consultation again." (emphasis added)

Within a week, the US NTIA issued a proposal to "improve" technical management of Internet names and addresses, including changes to authority over the Internet DNS root zone, which ultimately, and controversially, increased U.S. control over the Internet. On October 16, 1998, Postel died of heart problems in Los Angeles, nine months after the DNS Root Authority incident. 
All of which would be an interesting footnote in the history of the Internet, but for the US Government's Department of Commerce, NTIA, March, 2014, announced "intent to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community," including NTIA's procedural role of administering changes to the authoritative [Internet] root zone file; its historic stewardship of the DNS--the Internet Domain Name System, including its roles in the IANA functions and the Internet root zone management functions--see: NTIA Q&A, March 2014.

Part 2 of this post is now here: What Is The US Government's Claim to the Internet Root?
further info:
root-servers.org
ICANN | NSI-NSF Cooperative Agreement | 1 January 1993
Verisign Cooperative Agreement | NTIA
IANA Functions and Related Root Zone Management Transition Questions and Answers | NTIA
USC/ISI's Postel Center
http://www.postel.org/pr.htm

From Domain Mondo: Steve Crocker's Remembrance of Jon Postel Was The Best Thing That Happened at ICANN 51


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ICANN New gTLD Domains: Chaos, Confusion, Contentions, FUBAR?

ICANN diagram of the "Contention Set On Hold" for .WEB and .WEBS

ICANN New gTLD Contention Set Status: "WEB / WEBS" - 9 applicants - Set Status "On Hold" --

ICANN: "This page reflects the current string contention sets as of the most recent update (14 March 2015) to this page. String contention sets will be updated from time to time to reflect any changes. Please note that the current status of string contention sets could change due to changes to application status as a result of withdrawals, evaluation results, dispute resolution proceedings, contention resolution processes, or the potential impact of ICANN accountability mechanisms. Except for the application statuses "Withdrawn" and "Delegated", application statuses are not final. A change in application status or update to a contention set is intended to inform the applicants and the community of an application's current status. A change or update is not a definite indication that an application may proceed to another phase of the program. For more information including definitions of application statuses see the applicant advisory."

Note the diagram above: 9 applicants x $185,000 each = $1,665,000

ICANN's New gTLD domains program--Chaos, confusion, contentions, FUBAR--a giant cl*sterf*ck--and it is obvious that ICANN forgot about, or just ignored, its own multistakeholder-developed policy, and the whole Policy Development Process including comments made during that process, as well as foundational principles that were to guide the introduction of any and all new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs)--

Final Report - Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains | Generic Names Supporting Organization: "... [principle A] (A): New generic top-level domains must be introduced in an orderly, timely and predictable way. Network operators and ISPs must ensure their customers do not encounter problems in addressing their emails, and in their web searching and access activities, since this can cause customer dissatisfaction and overload help-desk complaints. Hence this principle is a vital component of any addition sequence to the gTLD namespace." (emphasis added)

For follow-up references on how ICANN just ignored all of the above in its dash "to grab the money," see:

• ICANN Insiders On New gTLDs: Mistakes, Fiascos, Horrible Implementation
• Why New gTLD Domain Names Fail To Work Across the Internet
• ICANN 52, Universal Acceptance, New gTLD Domain Names "break stuff"
• ICANN, New gTLD Domain Name Renewal Fees, Price Gouging
• ICANN Process for New gTLDs Dysfunctional -- from the beginning

Bottom Line: ICANN absolutely blew it in adding new gTLDs (new generic top-level domains) to the DNS. ICANN violated, or just ignored, its own policies and principles (see above). Users, registrants, registrars, registry operators, and registry applicants, as well as the stability and security of the Internet DNS, have all been adversely affected by ICANN's inept implementation of the new gTLDs program. And now the Obama administration, in the form of Lawrence E. Strickling, wants the global multistakeholder community to just turn everything over to ICANN!


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IANA Transition a Waste of Time, Decision Has Already Been Made

Dear (name withheld):

I just read your email and attachment dated July 23, 2014. Unfortunately the goal of NETmundial (which you refer to) that the transition of the IANA stewardship “take place through an open process with the participation of all stakeholders extending beyond the ICANN community” has already been subverted. This is now a closed ICANN-centric process essentially comprised of just 3 groups of "insiders" who will ultimately come up with a plan to transition everything to ICANN--in fact Vint Cerf and Google have already started a big PR campaign with video wherein Vint states "NTIA has presented a plan to end this contractual oversight and hand that responsibility over to ICANN" and Larry Strickling of NTIA has now "moved the goalposts" in his speech 3 days ago when he said "Now that ICANN has demonstrated its ability to perform these functions with the support of the community, there is no longer a need for the United States to designate ICANN to perform these functions and we are not obligated to maintain a contract when it is no longer needed."

In other words, Strickling is saying the role performed by the US government is no longer needed--no oversight, no accountability, no verification--nothing, nada--needed! 

Which begs the question, then WHY have an ICG process at all???

Is it all for show? To make everyone "feel good" that the "multistakeholder" or "internet community" agreed to this (when in reality it was decided by the US government, ICANN insiders, and special interests). As I said at the conclusion of Strickling's AEI speech: "Multistakeholderism" means that ICANN insiders, the US government, and special interests control the Internet DNS--now and in the future.

So [name withheld], if you (or anyone else) truly want something different than where this process is now headed, you might be wiser to invest your time elsewhere. Parlez-vous français?

Best regards,

John Poole
Domain Mondo

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