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IETF RFC 7720
Last modified on Thursday, December 10th, 2015
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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Blanchet
Request for Comments: 7720 Viagenie
BCP: 40 L-J. Liman
Obsoletes: 2870 Netnod
Category: Best Current Practice December 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721
DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment Requirements
 Abstract
The 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.
Status of This Memo
This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 7720.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Blanchet & Liman Best Current Practice PAGE 1 
RFC 7720 Root Name Service Requirements December 2015
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Relationship to RFC 2870 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Protocol Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Deployment Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
[RFC 2870] discusses protocol and operational requirements for root
name servers for the Internet's domain name system (DNS) protocol
[RFC 1035]. Since its publication, both protocol and operational
requirements have evolved. It makes more sense now to separate the
two sets of requirements into two separate documents. This document
only defines the protocol requirements and some deployment
requirements. The operational requirements that were defined in RFC
2870 have been removed. Operational requirements are now defined by
the Root Server System Advisory Committee of ICANN and are documented
in [RSSAC-001].
The root servers are authoritative servers of the unique [RFC 2826]
root zone (".") [ROOTZONE]. They currently also serve the root-
servers.net zone. Some also serve the zone for the .arpa top-level
domain [ARPAZONE] [RFC 3172]. This document describes the external
interface of the root name servers from a protocol viewpoint of the
service. It specifies basic requirements for the Internet that DNS
clients meet when interacting with a root name service over the
public Internet.
The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD,
SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, when they appear in this
document, are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, [RFC 2119].
1.1. Relationship to RFC 2870
This document obsoletes [RFC 2870].
This document and [RSSAC-001] together functionally replace
[RFC 2870].
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RFC 7720 Root Name Service Requirements December 2015
2. Protocol Requirements
This section describes the minimum high-level protocol requirements.
Operative details are documented in [RSSAC-001].
The root name service:
o MUST implement core DNS [RFC 1035] and clarifications to the DNS
[RFC 2181].
o MUST support IPv4 [RFC 791] and IPv6 [RFC 2460] transport of DNS
queries and responses.
o MUST support UDP [RFC 768] and TCP [RFC 793] transport of DNS
queries and responses.
o MUST generate checksums when sending UDP datagrams and MUST verify
checksums when receiving UDP datagrams containing a non-zero
checksum.
o MUST implement DNSSEC [RFC 4035] as an authoritative name service.
o MUST implement extension mechanisms for DNS (EDNS(0)) [RFC 6891].
3. Deployment Requirements
The root name service:
o MUST answer queries from any entity conforming to [RFC 1122] with a
valid IP address.
o MUST serve the unique [RFC 2826] root zone [ROOTZONE].
4. Security Considerations
This document does not specify a new protocol. However, the root
name service is a key component of the Internet architecture and play
a key role into the overall security of the Internet [RFC 2826].
Specific security considerations on the DNS protocols are discussed
in their respective specifications. The security considerations on
the operational side of the root name servers are discussed in
[RSSAC-001].
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RFC 7720 Root Name Service Requirements December 2015
5. Informative References
[ARPAZONE] IANA, ".ARPA Zone Management",
<http://www.iana.org/domains/arpa>.
[RFC 768] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 768, August 1980,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 768>.
[RFC 791] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 791, September 1981,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 791>.
[RFC 793] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
RFC 793, DOI 10.17487/RFC 793, September 1981,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 793>.
[RFC 1035] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, DOI 10.17487/RFC 1035,
November 1987, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 1035>.
[RFC 1122] Braden, R., Ed., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 1122, October 1989,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 1122>.
[RFC 2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 2119, March 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2119>.
[RFC 2181] Elz, R. and R. Bush, "Clarifications to the DNS
Specification", RFC 2181, DOI 10.17487/RFC 2181, July
1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2181>.
[RFC 2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
(IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC 2460,
December 1998, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2460>.
[RFC 2826] Internet Architecture Board, "IAB Technical Comment on
the Unique DNS Root", RFC 2826, DOI 10.17487/RFC 2826, May
2000, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2826>.
[RFC 2870] Bush, R., Karrenberg, D., Kosters, M., and R. Plzak,
"Root Name Server Operational Requirements", BCP 40,
RFC 2870, DOI 10.17487/RFC 2870, June 2000,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2870>.
Blanchet & Liman Best Current Practice PAGE 4
RFC 7720 Root Name Service Requirements December 2015
[RFC 3172] Huston, G., Ed., "Management Guidelines & Operational
Requirements for the Address and Routing Parameter Area
Domain ("arpa")", BCP 52, RFC 3172, DOI 10.17487/RFC 3172,
September 2001, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 3172>.
[RFC 4035] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security
Extensions", RFC 4035, DOI 10.17487/RFC 4035, March 2005,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 4035>.
[RFC 6891] Damas, J., Graff, M., and P. Vixie, "Extension Mechanisms
for DNS (EDNS(0))", STD 75, RFC 6891,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 6891, April 2013,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6891>.
[ROOTZONE] "Root Zone", <ftp://rs.internic.net/domain/root.zone>.
[RSSAC-001] Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC), "Service
Expectations of Root Servers", November 2014,
<https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/
rssac-001-root-service-expectations-04dec15-en.pdf>.
Acknowledgements
Some text was taken from [RFC 2870]. The editors of this document
would like to sincerely thank the following individuals for valuable
contributions to the text: Andrew Sullivan, Simon Perreault,
Jean-Philippe Dionne, Dave Thaler, Russ Housley, Alissa Cooper, Joe
Abley, Joao Damas, Daniel Karrenberg, Jacques Latour, Eliot Lear,
Bill Manning, David Conrad, Paul Hoffman, Terry Manderson, Jari
Arkko, and Mark Andrews.
Blanchet & Liman Best Current Practice PAGE 5
RFC 7720 Root Name Service Requirements December 2015
Authors' Addresses
Marc Blanchet
Viagenie
246 Aberdeen
Quebec, QC G1R 2E1
Canada
Email: Marc.Blanchet@viagenie.ca
URI: http://viagenie.ca
Lars-Johan Liman
Netnod Internet Exchange
Box 30194
SE-104 25 Stockholm
Sweden
Email: liman@netnod.se
URI: http://www.netnod.se/
Blanchet & Liman Best Current Practice PAGE 6
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 10552 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Thursday, December 10th, 2015
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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