Yeti DNS Testbed

Abstract

The Internet's Domain Name System is designed and built on a single root, known as the Root Server System. Yeti DNS is an experimental, non-production root server testbed that provides an environment where technical and operational experiments can safely be performed without risk to production root server infrastructure. Yeti DNS is an independently-coordinated project and is not affiliated with the IETF, ICANN, IANA, or any Root Server Operator. The objectives of the Yeti Project were set by the participants in the project based on experiments that they considered would provide valuable information, and with the aim of developing a non-production testbed that would be open for use by anyone from the technical community to propose or run experiments. The Yeti DNS testbed implementation includes various novel and experimental components. These differences from the Root Server System have operational consequences; by deploying such a system globally but outside the production DNS system, the Yeti DNS project provides an opportunity to gain insight into those consequences without threatening the stability of the DNS. This document neither addresses the relevant policies under which the Root Server System is operated nor makes any proposal for changing any aspect of its implementation or operation. This document aims solely to document the technical and operational experience of deploying a system which is similar to but different from the Root Server System.