Re: Cogent-TATA peering dispute?

[William Herrin <bill () herrin us>]

On Fri, May 17, 2024 at 4:28 PM John Levine <johnl () iecc com> wrote:
> It appears that William Herrin <bill () herrin us> said:
> > I don't understand why Cogent is allowed to operate one of the root
> > servers. Doesn't ICANN do any kind of technical background check on
> > companies when letting the contract?
>
> There is no contract for running root servers
> and never has been.

I stand corrected. https://www.netnod.se/dns/dns-root-server-faq

Some of them have MoU's with ICANN  (a contract with loosely defined
requirements) but apparently not all and it wasn't at ICANN's
discretion.

That said, ICANN generates the root zone including the servers
declared authoritative for the zone. So they do have an ability to
say: nope, you've crossed the line to any of the root operators.

So Cogent operates a root server because they bought PSI who ran a
root server and ICANN has never chosen to throw down the gauntlet.
Which is a fair answer to why they're allowed to operate one of the
roots.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
bill () herrin us
https://bill.herrin.us/