1. Binxing Fang Xiaohua Chen June,2015
Inter-Root: A New Self-Governed Architecture for DNS Root Zone Resolution
Binxing Fang
Xiaohua Chen
June,2015 1

2. “State Network Sovereignty”is now a consensus among the international society
20. State sovereignty and international norms and principles that flow from sovereignty apply to State conduct of ICT-related activities, and to their jurisdiction over ICT infrastructure within their territory.
In June 24, 2013，the UN published A/68/98 file: Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of ICT in the Context of International Security. 2

3. Fundamental Features of State Sovereignty
Jurisdiction： to make legal decisions and judgments by oneself
Self-defense：to defend the well-being of oneself
Equality：to be NOT subordinate to others
Independence：the existence does not depend on others 3

4. Network Sovereignty
The Internet within one country cannot exist independently due to the DNS architecture
Almost every visit to any server in the Internet needs to use directly or indirectly the root name servers to resolve the server domain name, unless the IP address of the server is known. The root name servers could be utilized to disable the Internet within a country. This power is in the hand of the owner of root name servers, which is currently the ICANN / the US government. 4

5. Current DNS Architecture
. （root)
Root servers, responsible for the root zone and TLD resolutions, are the start point of resolution and the center of structure cn
com cu
Namespace，
represented by a label tree
hieratical Distributed Database
Lots of caching
Resolution protocol
recursive resolver
Authority Server
foo 1 2 3
www
Recursive
Resolver 5

6. Root Zone Management
NTIA delegated IANA function to ICANN and VeriSign
Any change in the root zone needs to be approved by the US government
root
zone
file
TLD
operator
12 Root Server Operators
(US 9、EU 2、Japan 1)
13 logical root servers and hundreds of mirrors 6

7. “Disappearing Threat”
The ccTLD of a country could be removed from the root zone database, so that the ccTLD is erased from the namespace，and the names under the ccTLD cannot be resolved. As reported, .iq (Iraq) in 2003 and .ly (Libya) in 2004 temporarily cannot be resolved.
Independence
. （root) ly
com cn
foo 1 2 3
www
Libya
China 我 U R
Disappearing I
Recursive Resolver 7

8. “Blindness Threat” I 你 根 U R
Recursive resolvers within a country could be denied to the resolution service by the root servers, so that the users in that country cannot access the Internet. As reported, Somalia has been denied by the root servers
Independence
. （root) so
com cn
foo 1 2 3
www
Somalia I 你 根
Blindness U R
China
Recursive Resolver 8

9. “Isolation Threat” I 你 根 U R Independence
The network of a country may be completely isolated, so that any name resolution traffic via international gateways will be interrupted.
Independence
. （root) cu
com cn 1
foo 2
www 3
Cuba
China I 你 根
Isolation U R
Domestic recursive resolver
Foreign recursive resolver 9

10. Threats in the current DNS
China
Cuba
Edit the root zone file 我 U R
Disappearing
Very Easy I
China
Cuba
Edit the ACL I 你 根
Easy
Blindness U R
China
Cuba
Physically isolate the country I 你 根
Not
Easy
Isolation U R 10

11. Related Work Under 3 Threats
Difficult to counteract the disappearing threat，because root zone data still comes from IANA.
All solutions are sort of root mirrors in essence
Disappearing
Blindness
Isolation ☐  
Open root ☐  
Universal
root ☐  
Recursive
root ☐  
Fake
root ☐ ☐
Alternative
root ☐ 11

12. Idea of Decentralizing Root Zone
Principle：maintain the logic structure with a single root，construct the system structure with multiple roots
Names remain unique and human-understandable
Root zone governance and operation are decentralized 12

13. Inter-Root : A New Self-Governed Resolution Architecture for DNS Root Zone
CRS：country self-governed public root server
CRS provides root zone resolution, independent with current root server operators
CRS may use IANA root zone file；In emergency, CRS safeguards the root zone resolution for the country
1, Establish Country Root Servers (CRSes)
Inter-Root：a system of interconnected CRSes
Inter-Root is established among countries，providing the root zone information exchanges among the countries
In emergency，countries joining Inter-Root may provide resolution service for each other
2, Establish‘Inter-Root’among CRSes 13

14. Mesh Structure in Inter-Root
.CN
CRS adopts
IANA root zone file
Reciprocal resolution service
between countries
CN root
.NET
.COM
IANA
RU root
.RU
TLD info exchange
.GOV
.CU
CU root
UK root
.UK
DE root
.DE 14

15. Increments on current DNS
Replicate ccTLD info in CRS
Namespace
New CRS which coexists with current root servers
Reciprocal resolution service for emergency response system
Authority server
Add CRS info in root hint
Recursive resolver
None
Resolution protocol 15

16. Features of Inter-Root
Root zone resolution service is self-governed
Resolution service within a country is self-governed
Independence
Inter-Root is open to any country joining or withdrawing
CRS is open to all recursive resolvers
Openness
Inter-Root is about name resolution，not domain delegation
Inter-Root is transparent to resolvers not using any CRS
Compatibility
Inter-Root inherits the scalability of current DNS
The number of countries in Inter-Root is about 200 at most
Scalability 16

17. Significance of Inter-Root
Recursive resolvers freely choose either CRS, or original root servers. Using CRS gets additional protection from their own government.
Country DNS security enhanced
Inter-Root provides a strategic deterrent that if a ccTLD is erased from the IANA root zone, then those countries concerning the threats will join Inter-Root. This supports the concept of “network sovereignty”.
Strategic deterrent against 3 threats
In the first World Internet Conference, Chairman Xi Jinping said: “China is willing to work together with other countries in the world, in the spirit of mutual respect and trust. We together deepen international cooperation, respect for the sovereignty of the network, maintain network security, and build a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative network. We hope to establish a multilateral, democratic, transparent international Internet governance system".
Demonstrate Sovereignty Equality 17

18. Thanks 18