[dns-wg] IANA TLD delegation issue

Here is a copy of the mail that has just been sent to IANA in followup 
to the discussion during last week's RIPE meeting. My thanks to those 
who have helped draft this message so promptly. I will keep the WG 
informed of developments.

Dear Colleagues,

This note follows a discussion at the DNS Working Group during last
week's RIPE meeting. Doug was unable to take part in this discussion
because he was called away early. Therefore we have sent you this
message so that we can clear up any possible misunderstandings and
hopefully avoid invoking more formal mechanisms.

The RIPE DNS Working Group is concerned about some aspects of the
current practice regarding IANA TLD operations. In particular the
problems encountered by AFNIC last month are unsettling.

It is our understanding that IANA has recently stopped accepting
certain updates to the DNS root zone. The current practice now appears
to require each particular network address used in glue address RRs to
have one unique DNS name. This requirement is new: multiple names
already exist in the root zone for some name server addresses. There
is no technical reason in the DNS protocols preventing this practice.

Important technical and operational goals can require TLD operators to
use different names for the same address. The most obvious of these is
more efficient name compression to make room for additional data in
responses. Multiple names for the same address can reduce the amount
of co-ordination required in case of name server address changes.

We do not understand why this requirement has been introduced or the
process by which it was agreed. The RIPE DNS Working Group is
disappointed that this change appears to have been carried out by IANA
without prior consultation or discussion. We would like to know
rationale for this policy and the mechanism which led to its
introduction. We'd appreciate any clarifications from you before Friday,
May 20th.

Regards

.....
chairs RIPE DNS WG