On 15 November 1999, Kent Crispin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>What mechanism do you propose to 1) keep it a small number, and 2)
>ensure that they are mutually-exclusive?
Well, as I understand it, the current implementation effectively limits
the number of roots to 13. Regardless of the number of participants
who'd like to have a root, there's always going to be an effective
limit on the number of roots. eDNS extends this somewhat, if I recall
correctly. So, there is a "natural" limit, both now and in the future.
There's another "natural" limit inherent in the market model for
competing roots; if you open up the field to multiple roots, the
use of the roots will be based on demand for and desire for the TLDs
they have delegation responsibility for. So there's a marketplace
culling that would occur as well.
Ensuring they're mutually exclusive is the hard part. This is a
policy, and not a technical, issue the way I see it, and would have
to be hammered out in contracts, with stiff penalties for anyone caught
infringing on another's delegation.
But the reason I phrased the question in that manner is because those
two issues (size, exclusivity) are the only real barriers other than
acceptance that I see to multiple roots.
As a footnote, to answer Richard's "Huh?" question, I meant that,
instead of having the current roots delegating .com, .net., and .org,
what technical issues exist that prevent three mutually exclusive,
meta-roots (or whatever you want to call them) each delegating
.com, .net, and .org?
...actually, I think I just came up with one myself: the in-addr.arpa
delegations. Or would that propose a problem?
footnote #2: I'm not bringing this up to start an argument, I really
am unaware of legitimate technical issues preventing the existence of
multiple, competing roots. If there are genuine technical reasons
why it can't be done, I would like to know. If it's an issue with
resolver, it might be interesting to see if it can be recoded to
deal with it.
--
Mark C. Langston
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems Admin
San Jose, CA
