New I-Root Server Supports Internet in New Zealand

New I-Root Server Supports Internet in New Zealand

CityLink has today announced that a second Internet Root Server Mirror has been established in New Zealand. This morning, an anycast mirror of the I-Root server went live at the Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX). This follows on from the introduction of an F-Root mirror at the Auckland Peering Exchange (APE) last year.

This ensures that those organisations peering at APE or WIX have a distinct advantage of network speed, bandwidth optimisation and cost savings whenever Internet Root Server access is required. The 13 Internet Root Servers now are mirrored in almost 90 locations around the world, increasing the geographic diversity of the Internet, and assisting greatly in reducing the impact of denial of service (DoS) attacks, optimising bandwidth, along with other network advantages.

CityLink have received significant assistance from both Packet Clearing House and Autonomica in establishing the I-Root mirror. Autonomica/NORDUnet operate the I-Root Server in Stockholm, and now have I-Root mirrors operating in Helsinki, Milan, London, Geneva, Amsterdam, Oslo, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Brussels, Frankfurt, Ankara, Bucharest, Chicago, Washington, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and now Wellington. Packet Clearing House is a not-for profit research institute that supports Internet peering internationally, and global network development.

InternetNZ have commissioned CityLink to provide the I-Root mirror service at WIX for the next three years. President Keith Davidson stated he is delighted that InternetNZ could provide assistance to the establishment of the mirror.

Mr Davidson congratulated Citylink on its commitment to neutral peering in New Zealand, and believed the addition of the I-Root mirror at WIX strengthened Citylink's commitment. "As our organisation has an overarching philosophy of an open and uncaptureable Internet in NZ, we naturally support organisations like Citylink, and the organisations who choose to enter into neutral peering arrangements" Mr Davidson stated.

Mr Davidson, who attended the premier Asia Pacific Internet Conference, APRICOT, held last week in Kyoto, Japan noted that many attendees were shocked that New Zealand has major ISPs withdrawing from peering, which will result in increased costs and also downgrade performance for New Zealanders. "It seems remarkable that despite the simple fact of offering their users faster and cheaper local access to Internet Root Servers by peering in New Zealand, some organisations would elect to de-peer" Mr Davidson said.

The root server system is a system of 13 file servers that are distributed around the globe and contain authoritative databases that form a master list of all top level domain names (TLDs), including Country Code TLD's (ccTLD's) like .nz. The function of the root servers, the highest-level authoritative databases of the domain-name system (DNS), is to direct queries to the authoritative nameservers for the top-level domain names. Root servers do not route traffic and they do not even resolve traffic, but they hold the addresses of servers on which ultimate resolution of all 60 million domain names relies.

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