[LACNIC/Anuncios] +Raices: Agreement for the Installation of Root Server F Copy in the Caribbean

[Alexandra Dans]

Panama, May 2009.-

Continuing with the effort for the development and the stability of the 
Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean, LACNIC jointly with OCIX, 
signed today an agreement which will allow the installation in Sint 
Maarten, Netherland Antilles,  of the first anycast copy in the 
Caribbean of a F Root Server.  

This important event took place during LACNIC's annual meeting, LACNIC 
XII, which is being held at this moment at Panama, where Raul 
Echeberria, LACNIC's Executive Director and Eldert Louisa, President of 
OCIX/SMITCOMS, signed the agreement.

As five other countries have already done, within the framework of the 
+Raices project, LACNIC (Internet Address Registry for Latin America and 
the Caribbean), the ISC (Internet System Consortium), and OCIX/SMITCOMS 
formalized today their intention of installing a copy of the F Root 
Server in Sint Maarten, Netherland Antilles.

The +Raices Project is an initiative undertaken by LACNIC jointly with 
the ISC to promote the installation of F Root Server copies in Latin 
America and the Caribbean. This project has enabled the installation of 
copies in Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador which in turn 
has translated into noticeable improvements in direct network access for 
users and Internet service providers of these countries and a relevant 
contribution to the stability of the Internet both within the entire 
region as well as at global level.

This project is an example of the multistakeholder cooperation models 
promoted by the World Summit on the Information Society, one through 
which both government and private organizations can work collaboratively 
in benefit of Internet stability and growth in the region, goals to 
which LACNIC is strongly committed.

The domain name system is made up by millions of interconnected servers. 
Root servers are the ones that possess the information that initiate 
queries to this system. A technical limitation does not allow the 
existence of more than thirteen root servers, and they are identified by 
the letters A through M. Of these thirteen original root servers, ten 
were located in the United States, two in Europe and one in Japan, a 
fact that generated quite a bit of concern in view of the small number 
of servers and their geographic concentration.

In order to solve this problem, during the past few years a new 
technique known as anycast is being used. This technique allows creating 
clones (known as mirrors) of these root servers; once these mirrors are 
in operation they are indistinguishable from the original servers. This 
adds more efficiency to the system and at the same time provides greater 
security and stability. The installations of the root servers are made 
by the anycast technology in the frame of +Raices project.

As you will remember, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address 
Registry (LACNIC) is the organization, based in Montevideo, that 
administrates IP address space, Autonomous System Numbers (ASN), reverse 
resolution and other resources for the region of Latin America and the 
Caribbean (LAC), on behalf of the Internet community.