]> ICANN

paul.hoffman@icann.org

This document describes the roles of resolvers and servers in the upcoming DELEG protocol. It might be useful to the DELEG WG in working on the protocol. This document will not become an RFC, but the words or ideas might be used in documents from the DELEG WG.

Introduction This document describes the roles of resolvers and servers in the upcoming DELEG protocol. It might be useful to the DELEG WG in working on the protocol. This document will not become an RFC, but the words or ideas might be used in documents from the DELEG WG.

Targets for DELEG Information DNS resolvers will be the primary users of DELEG information. Other parties such as researchers and automated DNS loggers might also use DELEG information, but they do so in order to see how resolvers would act.

Who Will Publish DELEG Information Three models have been described for who might publish DELEG information that resolvers will use. Those three are abbreviated as "direct", "indirect", and "mixed". These three models are mutually exclusive. The DELEG WG must choose one of models when it chooses a protocol.

Direct: Parent delegates In this model, there are DELEG records in responses from the parent, but never in responses from the child. A DELEG-aware resolver uses the DELEG records from the parent and treats any DELEG records seen in responses from the child to be ignorable/reportable errors.

Indirect: Parent hints to child's delegation In this model, there are hint records in responses from the parent that point to the child. The child has DELEG records. A DELEG-aware resolver follows the hints from the parent to find the child, then uses the DELEG records from the child. A DELEG-aware resolver treats any non-hint DELEG records seen in responses from the parent to be ignorable/reportable errors.

Mixed: Delegation information is found at both the parent and child In this model, the parent might contain DELEG records, hint records, or both; the child might also have DELEG records. A DELEG-aware resolver that sees hint records uses those hints to get DELEG records from the child. A DELEG-aware resolver mixes any DELEG records it has seen from the parent or the child according to the resolver's configuration.