Interesting People mailing list archives
more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 04:57:17 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-0406 () bobf frankston com> Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:51:31 -0500 To: <dave () farber net>, 'Ip' <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: RE: [IP] more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark The reason for wanting to put numbers under ENUM is for bridging between the PSTN and the Internet. Otherwise, as Skype has shown, why bother with any of this numeric dialing. ENUM represents a simple collision between worlds and cultures. It's also a reminder of the bad idea of splitting area codes instead of overlaying because of the misguided notion that a split is "simpler" when, in reality, it is very disruptive because it changes the meaning of half the phone numbers in an arbitrary manner. While the ITU can make some arguments about the need to maintain control and ownership that's not a justification for not creating an unregulated branch of the ENUM space -- after all, it's just the DNS and we can simply delegate subzones to any party that wants one even if it means dialing a long prefix like +87810 (which is supposed to map into the Free World Dialup numbers) (011-87810 for American phones without a + capability). It might seem strange to your neighbor but it should work. Since I can forward my own 800# to Australia for an additional penny a minute, I can simply give out an 800 number that maps into such an ENUM and avoid the confusion. This would allow me to manage a zone file for my numbers. Sure I can make a mistake with the entries but any system must deal with errors anyway so that's not a problem. The real problem is that it forces the ITU world to face up to a "learn by doing world" and the distance insensitive pricing of the Internet. Having 87810 also means creating a complex, albeit artificial, pricing structure for the new virtual countries, AKA zone files. Mapping the artificial complexities of the existing numbers into ENUM is difficult because without reality as an anchor it's all arbitrary. The numbers do have meaning both geographic and emotional. And they also have to authoritative in some sense. A compromise would be to allow people to simply forward their PSTN to the experimental ENUM space if they choose. But I don't expect that to happen since it would make it too easy to simply bypass a PSTN billing engine. -----Original Message----- From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com] On Behalf Of David Farber Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 16:04 To: Ip Subject: [IP] more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark ------ Forwarded Message From: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com> Reply-To: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:51:41 -0800 (PST) To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: Re: [IP] more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, David Farber wrote:
------ Forwarded Message From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker () bbiw net> Subject: Re: [IP] ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark
The problem, here, is thinking that a top-level domain is necessary. The right-hand portion of the domain name merely needs to be a constant. ANY initial domain name will suffice, as long as there is agreement to use it.
I often disagree with Dave Crocker, but on this point we are in absolute agreement. The push for any particular top level domain is rarely necessary on technical grounds. Rather the applicant is usually more concerned with the marketing cachet that comes from having a "dedicated" top level domain. We do, however, want enough top level domains so that there is a nice fan-out of DNS queries and servers at all levels of the DNS hierarchy. The current situation has so few top level domains that the amount of root-to-top level domain information is so small that we could actually replace it with a widespread P2P distribution of compressed root zone files of about 15K bytes, i.e. smaller than the typical web page icon. Unfortunately ICANN has created a regime in which ICANN controls entry into the domain name marketplace based on incumbent-protective examination of business plans of applicants. Entry into the marketplace should only require that the applicant adhere to internet standards, refrain from using its position to violate the end-to-end principle, and to practice business record preservation practices so that a sucessor could pick up the pieces of a business failure and resume operations. As for ENUM - it's an interesting and highly flexible technology. But I have concerns about what happens when typical system administrators get the ability to put regular expressions into DNS records. Regular expressions are sufficiently complex that there are entire books dedicated to them. And even experts get 'em wrong. I see no reason for a single ENUM root. In fact it's my feeling that the better use of ENUM is for local VOIP operators to establish their own Enum roots for call processing and call routing. That way the operators, or an innovator, might be able to offer customized, SLA controlled bypass networks for their VOIP calls. As for DNS in general - There are a lot of things that are trending to greatly increase the load on the existing DNS hierarchy. One is the continuing attacks on DNS servers and the growth of spam. But there is also the fact that with the introduction of new information into DNS the number of packet exchanges needed can grow, often explosively. For example, I ran a simple test and discovered that a query that used to take 4 packets now required 46 packets (the difference was due to the fact that the resolver I was watching went forth and obtained IPv6 AAAA *and* A4 records of name servers even though that resolver had no IPv6 connectivity beyond its local LAN.) There is no evidence to indate that ICANN is actually monitoring the increasing load on DNS and the causes. --karl-- ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as BobIP () Bobf Frankston com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark David Farber (Jan 12)
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- more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark David Farber (Jan 12)
- more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark David Farber (Jan 13)