I-Root Name Server Replica at Milan Internet eXchange

 

In an effort to provide a better DNS service to the general Internet community, Autonomica AB, who operates one of the 13 root name servers for the domain name system (DNS), has just installed a new copy of the i-root.servers.net in Milan in cooperation with the MIX S.r.L..

The domain name system is the most important navigation tool on Internet. The DNS is a hierarchical database that contains host names and addresses of computers, such as mail and web servers. The 13 root name servers comprise the entry point of the database system, where clients can gain information about other DNS location and as such, these entry points play a crucial role for all Internet users.

The copy of the i.root-servers.net is provided using Internet's "anycast technology" to make this improvement totally transparent to the users. The addition of the new istance in Milan (Italy), adds to the total capacity of DNS root name service, a service that has been limited to 13 server sites in the world until recently.

Lars-Johan Liman, responsible for root name server in Autonomica AB, and Kurt-Erik Lindqvist, Netnod managing director, say: "This is another step in our plans to place multiple copies of its service at various well connected points all over the Internet, where the goal is to put the service closer to the consumers, instead of, as before, provide the service from Stockholm, Sweden".

Valeria Rossi, MIX managing director, says: "The installation of the root name server is an essential service to the whole Internet community and represents an added value to the institutional peering service between ISPs that the MIX provides. Thanks to the high concentration of ISPs connected to the MIX and the neutrality that MIX has been keeping toward all the Internet operators, we have been able to reach the agreement with Netnod and Autonomica, in order to cooperate with the Internet key players for improving reliability of Internet services".

Autonomica AB is wholly owned by Netnod Internet Exchange I Sverige AB, who owns and runs the major Internet exchange points in Sweden. Autonomica is responsible for the operation of i.root-servers.net, traditionally based in Stockholm and the first root name server to be installed outside United States of America, in 1991.

The Milan Internet eXchange, the primary Internet exchange point in Italy is managed by MIX S.r.L. since the year 2000. With more than 60 ISPs peering on its LAN and exchanging more than 5.5 Gigabit per second of traffic, represents a key player in the Italian Internet topology.