Nameservers for the Address and Routing Parameter Area ("arpa") DomainInternet Assigned Numbers AuthorityPTI/ICANN12025 Waterfront DriveLos AngelesCA90094United States of Americakim.davies@iana.orgEricsson Research02700 KauniainenFinlandjari.arkko@ericsson.comroot zoneIANAtop-level domainroot nameserversDNSARPAThis document describes revisions to operational practices to separate the function of the "arpa" top-level domain in the DNS from its historical
operation alongside the DNS root zone.Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
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Table of Contents
. Introduction
. Requirements for the "arpa" Zone
. Transition Process
. Dedicated Nameserver Hostnames
. Separation of Infrastructure
. Zone Administration
. Conclusion of Process
. IANA Considerations
. Security Considerations
. References
. Normative References
. Informative References
IAB Members at the Time of Approval
Acknowledgments
Authors' Addresses
IntroductionThe "arpa" top-level domain is designated as an
"infrastructure domain" to support techniques defined by Internet
standards. Zones under the "arpa" domain provide various mappings, such
as IP addresses to domain names and E.164 numbers to URIs. It also
contains special-use names such as "home", which is a nonunique name
used in residential networks.Historically, the "arpa" zone has been hosted on almost all of the
root nameservers (NSs), and envisages the "arpa" domain to be
"sufficiently critical that the operational requirements for the root
servers apply to the operational requirements of the "arpa" servers". To
date, this has been implemented by serving the "arpa" domain directly on
a subset of the root server infrastructure.This bundling of root nameserver and "arpa" nameserver operations has entwined
management of the zones' contents and their infrastructures. As a result,
some proposals under consideration by the IETF involving the "arpa" zone
have been discarded due to the risk of conflict with operations associated
with managing the content of the root zone or administering the root
nameservers.The separation described in this document resolves the operational impacts
of synchronizing edits to the root zone and the "arpa" zone by
eliminating the current dependency and allowing more tailored operations
based on the unique requirements of each zone.Requirements for the "arpa" ZoneThe "arpa" domain continues to play a role in critical Internet
operations, and this change does not propose weakening operational
requirements described in for the domain. Future operational
requirements for the "arpa" domain are encouraged to follow strong
baseline requirements such as those documented in .Changes to the administration of the "arpa" zone do not alter the
management practices of other zones delegated within the "arpa"
namespace. For example, "ip6.arpa" would continue to be managed in
accordance with .Transition ProcessThe process will dedicate new hostnames to the servers that are authoritative for
the "arpa" zone, but it will initially serve the "arpa" zone from the same
hosts.Once completed, subsequent transitional phases could include using
new hosts to replace or augment the existing root nameserver hosts and
separating the editing and distribution of the "arpa" zone from
necessarily being connected to the root zone. Any future management
considerations regarding how such changes may be performed are beyond
the scope of this document.Dedicated Nameserver HostnamesConsistent with the use of the "arpa" namespace itself to host nameservers for other delegations in the "arpa" zone , this
document specifies a new namespace of "ns.arpa", with the
nameserver set for the "arpa" zone to be initially labeled as follows:
a.ns.arpa
b.ns.arpa
c.ns.arpa
...
Dedicated hostnames eliminate a logical dependency that requires the
coordinated editing of the nameservers for the "arpa" zone and the root
zone. This component of this transition does not require that the underlying
hosts that provide "arpa" name service (that is, the root nameservers) be
altered. The "arpa" zone will initially map the new hostnames to the
same IP addresses that already provide service under the respective
hostnames within "root-servers.net".Because these nameservers are completely within the "arpa" zone, they
will require glue records in the root zone. This is consistent with
current practice and requires no operational changes to the root zone.Separation of InfrastructureAfter initially migrating the "arpa" zone to use hostnames that are not shared
with the root zone, the underlying name service is expected to evolve such that
it no longer directly aligns with a subset of root nameserver instances. With no
shared infrastructure between the root nameservers and the "arpa" nameservers, future
novel applications for the "arpa" zone may be possible.Any subsequent change to the parties providing name service for the
zone is considered a normal management responsibility and would be
performed in accordance with .Zone AdministrationPublication of the "arpa" zone file to the authoritative "arpa" nameservers is currently undertaken alongside the root zone maintenance functions.
Upon the separation of the "arpa" infrastructure from the root nameserver
infrastructure, publication of the "arpa" zone no longer necessarily needs
to be technically linked or interrelated to the root zone publication
mechanisms.Conclusion of ProcessFull technical separation of operations of the "arpa" zone and root zone
minimally requires the following to be satisfied:
The "arpa" zone no longer shares any hostnames in its nameserver set with the root
zone.
The hosts that provide authoritative name service are not the same hosts
as the root nameservers, do not share any IPv4 or IPv6 addresses with the
root servers, and are sufficiently provisioned separately such
that any unique "arpa" zone requirements can be deployed without affecting
how root zone service is provided.
The editorial and publication process for the "arpa" zone removes any common dependencies with the root zone process so that the "arpa" zone
can be managed, edited, and provisioned wholly independently of the
root zone.
Such separation is ultimately sought to allow for novel uses of
the "arpa" zone without the risk of inadvertently impacting root zone and root
server operations. It is recognized that achieving this state requires a
deliberative process involving significant coordination to ensure impacts
are minimized.IANA ConsiderationsIANA shall coordinate the creation of the "ns.arpa" namespace and
populate it with address records that reflect the IP addresses of the
contemporary root servers documented within "root-servers.net" as its
initial state. The namespace may be provisioned either directly within
the "arpa" zone (as an empty nonterminal) or through establishing
a dedicated "ns.arpa" zone, according to operational requirements.IANA will initially migrate the 12 NS records for the "arpa" zone
to point to their respective new entries in the "ns.arpa" domain.When these actions are complete, the IAB and IANA will consult
and coordinate with all relevant parties on activity to reduce
or eliminate reliance upon the root zone and root server
infrastructure serving the "arpa" zone. Such
changes will be performed in compliance with and shall be
conducted with all due care and deliberation to mitigate potential
impacts on critical infrastructure.Security ConsiderationsThe security of the "arpa" zone is not necessarily impacted by any
aspects of these changes. Robust practices associated with administering
the content of the zone (including signing the zone with DNSSEC) as well
as its distribution will continue to be necessary.ReferencesNormative ReferencesManagement Guidelines & Operational Requirements for the Address and Routing Parameter Area Domain ("arpa")This memo describes the management and operational requirements for the address and routing parameter area ("arpa") domain. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.Informative ReferencesNameservers for IPv4 and IPv6 Reverse ZonesThis document specifies a stable naming scheme for the nameservers that serve the zones IN-ADDR.ARPA and IP6.ARPA in the DNS. These zones contain data that facilitate reverse mapping (address to name). This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment RequirementsThe DNS root name service is a critical part of the Internet architecture. The protocol and deployment requirements for the DNS root name service are defined in this document. Operational requirements are out of scope.IAB Members at the Time of ApprovalInternet Architecture Board members at the time this document was
approved for publication were:
AcknowledgmentsThank you , , , ,
, , , , , and for providing review and feedback.Authors' AddressesInternet Assigned Numbers AuthorityPTI/ICANN12025 Waterfront DriveLos AngelesCA90094United States of Americakim.davies@iana.orgEricsson Research02700 KauniainenFinlandjari.arkko@ericsson.com