Re: The internet architecture

Andrew Sullivan wrote:
>    we need to
> ask ourselves why, in spite of the built-in resilience of DNS, relying
> on DNS often makes an application less resilient.  If the explanation
> turns out to be exclusively things like the layer 8 and 9 issues
> you're talking about, then let's work on fixing them (or come up with
> a tech fix to route around that damage).  I suspect, however, that
> we'll find ambiguities in the specifications that make certain kinds
> of implementations hard.  We should fix that, too (and dnsext is
> trying).

Andrew,

An easy reaction to your note is "yes, of course you are correct", but it might 
be worth a small amount of additional consideration:  This is an infrastructure 
service that has demonstrated a long history of utility and a long history of 
problems.  Some of the problems have more impact than others. I'm not sure there 
is any consensus about which ones, but trying to do a rough rand-ordering could 
focus effort to be more efficient (and more useful.)
What we have been missing is any sort of systematic consideration of those 
problems. Which are major and which are minor (for some definitions of major and 
minor)?  Where should community effort be put, to make substantial improvements 
in DNS utility?  There is the usual danger of fragmented effort, with 
uncoordinated, local optimizations that ultimately do not have the desired benefit.
I take your note as highlighting the potential disparity between the DNS reality 
seen by experts, versus the DNS reality seen in the larger and less expert wild.
Besides motivating analysis of what is wrong, we need to apply that perspective 
at a systemic level to the effort at making improvements, so that fixes by 
experts result in real, systems-level improvements.
In all likelihood, the biggest impact on DNS reliability will turn out to come 
from relatively straightforward changes in administration and operation.  But 
there does not seem to be all that much effort in this direction and it seems 
likely that a well-placed and well-touted BCP -- and perhaps some tools to test 
for conformance to it -- could help more than a protocol improvement...
d/
--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net

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