Network dominates "unprepossessing"

The

"Internet domain name and digital address distribution Agency" (ICANN) is the world's top governing body for the Internet. "Global Times" reporters in the interview with the "network" before the there was this scene in my head: The building is heavily guarded; the security is subject to retinal scans; the traffic lights are flashing on large servers; When the war happened, the staff sat in front of the giant screen, a button, a hostile country completely disappeared from the internet ... ... But when reporters found the ICANN headquarters in Los Angeles, they felt they had gone the wrong way. The entire building has no ICANN logo, but the "Washington Trust" bank logo is particularly striking. On the opposite side of the building is a marina near the Pacific Ocean, and the left is the bustling business district. Enter the building to ask the administrator, the administrator said: ICANN is on the 3 floor. "Do you want to register?" No, just go straight. ”　　





network dominates "unprepossessing"





the gap between reality and imagination was so great that it surprised reporters because ICANN, like the world's dominant network, is known as the global network hub. In the network world, the most critical is the URL information, if the URL is the same, the connection sent mail will be confusing. Therefore, the domain name and Web address must be managed uniformly. ICANN is not only responsible for assigning domain names, it also controls all root servers that manage the Internet home directory. The United States has created and invested heavily in the Internet, and most of ICANN's root servers are controlled by American companies, scientific institutions and even the military. In 2005, some 50 heads of state and 11,000 representatives from 149 countries took part in the information summit in Tunis, calling for the creation of a new body to take over ICANN's functions, thereby weakening the U.S. monopoly on the Internet.　　 Such a huge authority contrasts with what journalists have seen and heard.





ICANN's headquarters actually occupies half the floor, and the internal facilities are no different from ordinary companies. Some of the staff are chatting, some are typing in front of the computer, and everyone is very casual in their clothes. Jason, of PR, said it used to be the University of Southern California building, now more than 5 floors and still owned by the university. Much of ICANN's work is done by experts over the Internet and does not require much work space. As the reporter prepared a lot of questions, Jason constantly in and out of the conference room, please come to the department heads to do the introduction. "There is not enough international understanding of ICANN," said Paul, vice president of ICANN group operations, who welcomed the Global Times reporter. Paul says ICANN's development has "historical reasons". The Internet, formerly developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, has seen a huge demand in the civil sector, which the United States believes should be professionally managed by a private agency. ICANN was announced in 1998. It is a non-profit organization with board members from all over the world, including China. It consists of 4 Committees, 3 technical organizations and one technical liaison group.　　 ICANN is funded mainly by domain name registration fees, as well as voluntary contributions from Governments.




The
parent server is hidden deep





reporter asked a Chinese reader is very interested in the question, why is there only 13 root servers in the world? How do they work, and how safe is security? The technical expert's answer made the reporter realize that many of the previous reports were biased.





says the exact word is that there are 13 root server systems in the world. In fact, there are at least more than 1000 root servers worldwide, there are 3 in Beijing. In addition, on top of these 13 root server systems, there is a more advanced, hidden parent server. All the top-level domain names in the world are determined by this parent server. The resolution system on more than 1000 root servers worldwide is a replication of this parent server. Kim said that at present, the 13 root server system is managed by 12 organizations, distribution in more than 100 regions around the world.　　 So each number of root server system, not a machine, but there are dozens of or hundreds of servers.





13 root Server System distribution is this: a server system by the United States Verysign Company management, placed in the Virginia State B Server System by the University of Southern California Institute of Information Science Management, in Los Angeles; C Server systems are managed by the American Cogent Company, in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Virginia; D Server System administered by the University of Maryland, Maryland University District; E Server system is managed by NASA's Acme Institute, in the Mountain view of Silicon Valley; F server systems are managed by the United States ' Internet Systems Consortium, in 40 locations worldwide, including Beijing, Taipei, London, etc. The G server system is managed by the United States Department of Defense Network Information Center, the Ohio Columbus H Server System is administered by the U.S. Army Information Center, Aberdeen, Maryland, and the server system is administered by the Swedish Autonomica Corporation and the Nordic NORDUnet organization, in 29 cities, including Beijing, Helsinki, Stockholm and so on; J Server system is also managed by the United States Verysign Company, in 30 cities around the world, such as Beijing, San Francisco, etc. k Server system by the "European Network Coordination Center" management, in London, Frankfurt, Milan and other 17 cities; L Server System is managed by ICANN itself,　　 In Los Angeles; M server systems are managed by the Japanese wide project team in Tokyo.





from the above distribution can be seen, the root servers placed in Beijing are F, I and J. Kim does not agree that these servers in Beijing are "mirrored", saying that all the root servers in the world may use different operating systems, but the domain name data used is the same, and there is no difference between "primary server" or "mirror". Kim then talked about the parent server. "13 root server systems you can know where, where is the parent server? It's a secret. "Kim is the administrator of the parent server, and Jason and Kim are cautious when referring to the parent server." But Kim also introduced its workflow. He said that when the top-level domain changes, he will modify the content of the program to send to the parent server, the process of the U.S. government will review. After the review, the parent server accepts the modification. 13 root server system will be scheduled every day of the server "call", in time from the parent server to obtain the latest domain name resolution files. All root servers in the world are consistent with the parent server for a very short period of time.　　 In order to ensure the safety of the mother server, the authorities have taken stringent measures, the public from the Internet is unable to access the parent server.





The reporter offered to visit the root server. He said he would not be able to arrange for security reasons, "I have not seen the root servers that ICANN manages." He added that the root servers in Beijing were not accessible to the people of the Chinese Internet Association because the root servers were managed by specialized agencies. The reporter noted that the data showed that the server system for number B was located on the main street of the ICANN building, but when asked if it was inside the building, Jason said "No such speculation". Kim said the root server is critical, although the general location is transparent to the public, but the exact location is confidential.　　 Because the root server is attacked by the Internet and can be repaired, it will cause disaster if it is physically attacked or destroyed.





denies being able to "delete" the country on the Internet





reporter asked, the previous information shows that the United States firmly grasp the control of the Internet core, so once the United States war with other countries, is it possible to shut down the domain name resolution to make the country disappear from the Internet? At this point, the vice President of ICANN group operations, Paul, appears to be thrilled. He stressed that ICANN does not involve politics, nor is it a civil agency in the United States, but an international agency that is responsible for coordinating the management of technical elements so that all Internet users can find a valid address. Jason explained that Paul meant that ICANN acted in accordance with its own rules and the laws of the United States, and that it did not engage in irrational behaviour because of political factors. As long as this is done, the whole world will know. It is technically impossible, he adds. Because there are too many root servers in the world, involving complex interests, it is no use to shut down domain resolution by only one or two institutions.　　 The intelligent recovery function of the root server works even if it is turned off.




The
root server is the core of the Internet, and it is often attacked by hackers. This February, the global root server system was hit two times in 7.5 hours. Jason told reporters the "Root server Attack" report that February 6 world standard Time, the Asia-Pacific region, many computers at the same time to attack the root server system, attempted to paralyse. They deliver up to 1Gb of data per second, the equivalent of 750,000 emails per minute to the server. As a result, at least 6 root server systems were affected and two were severely damaged. Some analysts believe the attack came from South Korea, but ICANN does not think the hacker must be Korean, he can be any person in any location, but is only manipulating the Korean computer. In theory, the report says, as long as one of the root servers is working properly, the Internet will run unimpeded.　　 Such as 2002 years of hacker attacks even caused 9 root server system paralysis, but did not affect the normal work of the Internet.





China participates in second generation Internet research and development





Reporter is chatting with Kim, international Domain name network project group Tina came in. She is working with a team of scientists to test IPv6 and multilingual top-level domain names. such as Chinese domain name, the successful development of netizens can enter the address bar directly in Chinese. Chinese scientists are actively involved in this area, she said. From the outset, China, Japan and South Korea have been involved in research and testing. It is understood that the current widely used internet is the first generation of the Internet, using the Internet Protocol version number 4, that is, IPv4. The United States is the first generation of internet founder, occupy Network core resources, in absolute monopoly position. With the development of the Internet, the demand for IP address is also increasing rapidly, the address that IPV4 can provide will soon be finished. The second generation of Internet is based on the protocol IPv6. It can provide an unlimited number of IP addresses. As IPV6 has not yet formed, various countries are working hard to develop, to participate in the next generation of Internet rules, master the "right to speak", to maintain their own network security.