New Instance of RIPE NCC Operated K-root Server Deployed in Milan, Italy

12 August 2004 - The RIPE NCC (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre) in partnership with the Milan Internet eXchange (MIX) S.r.L. has reached an agreement for the hosting of a new mirror instance of the K-root Internet root name server in Milan.

The K-root server is one of the 13 Internet root name servers that resolve lookups for domain names all over the world and form a critical part of the global Internet infrastructure. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a service used to translate between host names and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses by virtually all Internetworking software, including e-mail and web browsers.

This new instance of the K-root server is one of a set of distributed mirror instances implemented by the RIPE NCC using an IP anycast technique to provide high availability of the K-root service and improve resilience to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks while remaining transparent to the end user.

The RIPE NCC has operated the K-root server since 1997 when the first server was installed at the London Internet Exchange (LINX) in London, UK. Since early 2003, RIPE NCC technicians have deployed mirror instances of the K-root server in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Athens and Doha. There are plans to have up to ten instances of the K-root server deployed by the end of 2004.

“Our strategy is to deploy servers at multiple locations where there is a lot of Internet connectivity. We do that in close co-operation with ISPs who are also our members,” said Andrei Robachevsky, Chief Technical Officer at the RIPE NCC. “However, by taking full operational responsibility for the servers themselves, the RIPE NCC can build a very strong service that is resilient to disasters and attack.”

Valeria Rossi, MIX managing director, says: “Considering the crucial service represented by a root name server for the whole Internet community, MIX has agreed to host the mirror of k-root.servers.net in addition to the mirror of i-root.servers.net (already up and running at MIX since year 2003) with the aim to provide a full redundancy for the root name server replicas service provided at MIX to its members. This agreement is another step in the cooperation with RIPE NCC, one of the key player of the European Internet community with which we have already made in the past efforts for improving the Internet central services provided to the European ISPs community.”

Information about this node and the general requirements and guidelines for expressions of interest for hosting a mirror instance of K-root can be found on the K-root website