Re: [ga-roots] Operational Stability of the Internet

[Craig Simon <cls@rkey.com>]

I'll give it a shot.

First we define stability for this case: Let's say it means providing
strong guarantees that a TLD, once made accessible to the Internet-using
public via the legacy DNS, will not become inaccessible.

This definition says nothing (yet) about guaranteeing the TLD registry's
treatment of SLDs within the TLD, or guaranteeing that web content and
email addresses made available via subordinate SLDs and 3LDs, etc. must
remain accessible over time.

Therefore, to say we have a bare minimum of stability in the DNS, a TLD
once published in the root must stay published in the root (barring
exceptional circumstances like .NATO, perhaps), and the TLD operator must
meet some minimum bandwidth and uptime performance requirements to answer
valid DNS queries.

So, adding one or several new TLDs to the root shouldn't be much of a
problem. In fact dozens of ccTLDs were added each year during the 90's up
till about '97. But nightmare scenarios do pop up when opening the TLD
floodgates an an FCFS basis is contemplated.  No one disputes that the root
can handle tens of thousands of new TLDs from a technical standpoint, but
vetting them would turn out to be a significant administrative burden for
the designated gatekeeper.

My initial presuppositon is that TLD integrity has to be held to a higher
standard than SLD integrity. If you want to challenge that prevailing
design choice, and say "Let them sink or swim without vetting," then
opening the floodgates means that: 1) new technologies would have to be
constructed for automating entries, modifications, etc. in the root (bumpy
on the fly perhaps, but do-able); 2) we may to our dismay discover that the
root has an upper size limit after all, and; 3) all the TM, cybersquatting,
whois/privacy and other disputes that have plagued this community at the
SLD level will be replicated at the TLD level.

In other words, one by itself isn't the problem. The first drop of a flood
is.

Craig Simon

"Tim Langdell, PhD" wrote:
> 
> "Stability of the Internet"
> 
> Can anyone out there tell me what is meant when someone talks of new domain
> names (and let's say that this means new TLDs for the sake of argument)
> affecting the "stability" of the Internet? Can anyone give me even one
> example of how the introduction of a new TLD could affect such "stability"
> in the slightest way?
> 
> Tim

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