Dear RSSAC Caucus,

The RSSAC wishes to investigate best practices to optimize the distribution of root server instances in order to maximize root service resiliency, and to reduce the Round-Trip Time (RTT) between recursive servers and root servers.  It requests Kaveh Ranjbar to lead a Caucus work party to produce a report, with adherence to RSSAC Caucus procedures.

The work party is asked to consider a number of issues related to the distribution of anycast instances of the root name service, including:

• Given the state of current internet technology, what is the maximum latency a relying party should experience when transacting with the DNS root service as opposed to with a single “root server?”
• Will adding more instances in more topologically diverse locations make the system more resilient to Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks?
• If root operators were to coordinate their deployments of anycast instances, what considerations should be contemplated?
• Are there any regional or global technological risks (or benefits) if only a subset of operators (versus all or the majority of root operators) deploy anycast instances?

  If you are interested in this topic and would like to join this work party, please email Kathy Schnitt kathy.schnitt@icann.org by close of business 19 October 2016.

Best

Steve