Re: Global Directory System Backbones

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <Harald.Alvestrand@maxware.no>]

Alan,
(reading old mail)
your proposal of multiple cooperating root DSAs seems very similar to
what was proposed in the earliest X.500 documents.
It is also very similar to the Root Server Cluster proposal being flouted
by a few well-known flamers on the IETF list; this may not be a
recommendation.

The Big Question seems to me to be who makes the decision on which country
(or non-country) root zone entry to regard as "authoritative".
There are really only 2 alternatives:

- Someone decides, and the problem reduces to designating the "someone",
  and how that decision gets published (an X.500 DSA seems a quite reasonable
  means of publication)
- Each "root" server decides on its own, based on what it thinks is the
  Right Decision (for business, political or other kinds of reason).

The question in the latter case is whether the content of the "roots"
will eventually grow close enough to give the users an impression of a
coordinating service, or whether commercial/political positioning will
keep them different "forever", to such a degree that the users' ability
to use the system effectively is impaired.

So far, it's not clear to me that there will be convergence.

                    Harald A

-- 
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Maxware, Norway
Harald.Alvestrand@maxware.no