ISC and Canada's National Research Council deploy first Root server in Canada

Redwood City, CA -- ISC (ISC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announce deployment of a new F-root server in Ottawa, Canada. NRC's contribution of equipment and network services combined with ISC's installation and operational expertise enabled the successful installation of the first root server in Canada. This server was installed as part of ISC's ongoing effort to increase the global footprint of its F-root server and thus increase the reliability of the DNS system worldwide.

Currently most of Canada depends on a relatively small number of large carriers to reach root nameservers located outside the country. The new root nameserver in Ottawa provides direct, high-speed access to the DNS root for smaller, regional networks using direction interconnects and the Ottawa Internet Exchange (OttIX). The server will provide enhanced communication performance for the Canadian Federal Gigapop which interconnects most Canadian governmental networks, as well as improved service for the CA*Net 4, the high-speed experimental network infrastructure that connects Universities across Canada.

"NRC has a rich tradition in creating technological advances in high-performance networking," stated Ross Ogilvie, Director Technology Services at NRC's Information Management Services Branch, "right from the early development of the national research network that emerged as Canada's first high-speed backbone, CA*net. We are very pleased to collaborate with ISC on this unique opportunity to help strengthen the underlying DNS matrix for the Internet, to benefit both research and commercial networks in Canada."

Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, added, "As we continue to deploy F-root servers around the globe we strengthen the Internet's resistance to attacks on its infrastructure. We are also able to collect more data helping us to identify and recognize the characteristics of future attacks on the DNS system. Each time we increase the survivability of the network in the event of future disruptive incidents."

William F. Maton, Director of the Ottawa Internet Exchange (OttIX) commented, "OttIX welcomes the presence of an anycasted F-root server hosted in the nation's capitol. The important work ISC is doing towards this in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada will serve to strengthen the Internet infrastructure not only in Ottawa but potentially in Canada."

About ISC

ISC was founded in 1993 to develop and publish high quality reference implementations of core Internet protocols including DNS and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). ISC operates one of the 13 root DNS servers as a public service to the Internet. ISC has operated F.root-servers.net for IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) since 1993. F answers more than 272 million DNS queries per day, making it one of the busiest DNS servers in the world. With this installation, ISC has deployed 11 mirrors of the F-root server around the world.

F is a virtual server made up of multiple systems and runs ISC BIND 9 as its DNS server. ISC's DNS implementation, called BIND, was originally developed at UC Berkeley as part of the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) system, and has subsequently been completely rewritten at ISC. Most DNS servers on the Internet run BIND or BIND-derived software. For more information visit www.isc.org

About NRC

Recognized globally for research and innovation, Canada's National Research Council (NRC) is a leader in the development of an innovative, knowledge-based economy for Canada through science and technology. NRC is an agency of the Government of Canada, and has been active for more than 80 years.

NRC's Information Management Services Branch (NRC-IMSB), which houses the server, provides leadership in the development of a world-class IT infrastructure and in the development of sound information management practices at NRC.

Contacts:

Carol Nash, ISC, +1 408.859.4537 carol_nash@isc.org
Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, Joao_Damas@isc.org

Ross Ogilvie, IMSB Director, Technology Services, National Research Council Canada 613-990-0430 or ross.ogilive@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca