A Four Point Plan for DNS Management

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming@unety.net>]

Mr. Don Heath
President
Internet Society



Dear Don:

I have read with great interest the Internet Society's comments
to the U.S. Government's Department of Commerce:

	http://www.isoc.org/whatsnew/NTIAcomments.html#B1

Many of the points you make are understandable considering
the ISOC has had a limited amount of experience with the DNS
and has yet to deploy any Registries or Root Name Servers.

Your comments (noted below [1]) about rolling in .COM are
especially interesting. Having read your comments and almost
everything else published on this subject for the past few years
I respectfully submit the following Four Point Plan for your
consideration. In my opinion, it will help to solve many of the
problems caused by the mismanagement of the National Science
Foundation and will allow the Internet Society, Network Solutions, Inc.
and the up and coming new registries ALL to have a place at
the world Round Table of Root Name Server Confederations.


======= A Four Point Plan for DNS Management ======

1. The Internet Society (ISOC/IANA) should be appointed by
the NSF to be the steward for the .COM, .NET and .ORG
Top Level Domains as a replacement for the IS contractor
on the InterNIC Cooperative Agreement. This will allow the
ISOC to work with AT&T and NSI to evolve the InterNIC away
from the U.S. Government and the NSF. ALL three companies
should share in the revenue stream per the original InterNIC
Cooperative Agreement with an IS, DS, and RS contractor.

2. The IAHC plan should FIRST be tested on the .COM, .NET
and .ORG Top Level Domains. The ISOC, Network Solutions and
AT&T can work together to make that happen. The 7 domains
selected by the IAHC should be dropped until the InterNIC
can prove that the IAHC plan works. The "premium" ISP partners
(like MCI) that the InterNIC has already recruited can be used
to test the shared registry model on THREE names that are
operational as opposed to 7 new names.

3. The NEW InterNIC (free of the NSF) should agree to
operate a robust Root Name Server Confederation and to
ACTIVELY work with the other Root Name Server Confederations
to establish a world Round Table of RSCs that work together to
handle the evolution of the Domain Name System. This should
include the sharing and cooperation of software to "synch"
the various Root Name Servers to maintain operational
integrity around the world. This should also include a well
defined process for the the NEW InterNIC (ISOC+AT&T+NSI)
to allow new Top Level Domains to be recognized in the Root
Name Servers it operates.

4. The Internet Intellectual Infrastructure Fund which currently
has over $30,000,000 should be turned over to the NEW InterNIC
(ISOC+AT&T+NSI) to manage for the good of the Internet.
One would hope that some of that money would be used to
educate people, to create MORE InterNICs, and to create
MORE Root Name Server Confederations around the world.
<http://rs.internic.net/announcements/iif-update.html>

============================================

This Four Point Plan addresses the following concerns:

	1. The .COM, .NET and .ORG Top Level Domains
	remain in their InterNIC home and not under the exclusive
	control of the NSF or NSI.
	
	2. The ISOC gets to test its IAHC plan in an operational
	system at the InterNIC as opposed to a fresh start. This
	gives it a chance and does not put new Top Level Domains
	at risk.

	3. Revenue from domain names is used to benefit
	the InterNIC and not just NSI and the InterNIC lives
	on past the NSF contract dates which mean very
	little considering the NSF is not managing the InterNIC.

	4. The U.S. Government (and the NSF) are rapidly
	removed from the picture with a simple replacement
	of the ISOC as the IS contractor as opposed to a
	restructuring of the entire InterNIC and a massive
	shift of .COM owners to NSI, whom they may not
	have selected as a registrar in a free market.

	5. The Root Name Server Confederations and the
	new registries can proceed with their plans and continuing
	deployments with confidence that they will no longer
	be censored by the U.S. Government's Root Name Servers
	and the mismanagement of the NSF.

	6. SAIC and/or NSI are still free to launch other NEW
	TLDs using their registry experience but not to capitalize
	on the .COM, .NET and .ORG TLDs which they did not
	start and which rightfully deserve long-term ISOC
	stewardship.
	
	7. Last but not least, the IANA gets folded into the ISOC
	and becomes part of the InterNIC and subject to the
	management decisions of the THREE companies that
	would actively make up the InterNIC, (ISOC+AT&T+NSI).

==================

[1] @@@@ http://www.isoc.org/whatsnew/NTIAcomments.html#B1

"8.How should the transition to any new systems be accomplished? 

There must be an appropriate period of technical testing of any
new system, but the administrative structure proposed by the
gTLD-MoU is designed with enough flexibility to allow a smooth
transition to a broader base of control. When a stable operational
base for the shared gTLDs is demonstrated, it will be appropriate
to begin incorporation of the existing gTLDs, .com, .net, and .org.
The Internet Society recommends a three-phase approach: 

.First, debug operational, technical, and structural problems on
the proposed seven new domains. Making these available for
use provides users an alternative to the current gTLD monopoly,
and provides valuable operational experience in a smaller testbed. 

.Second, after several months of successful operation, transition
the smaller existing gTLDs (.org and .net) so that they are handled
in the new registration system. 

.Third, roll in .com after both the "teething" problems of the new
system, and any problems with moving domains from the Network
Solutions system to the new system, have been resolved. 

There is no issue with adding TLDs to the root domain servers;
National TLDs have been added every few months without operational
problems. National TLDs look the same to the root domain servers
as gTLDs; the software makes no distinction."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation