The Domain Name System

(DNS)

Raj Jain
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
Jain@CIS.Ohio-State.Edu
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~jain/

The Ohio State University Raj Jain

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 Overview

❑ Naming hierarchy
❑ Server hierarchy
❑ Name resolution
❑ Other information in name servers

The Ohio State University Raj Jain

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 Why Names?
❑ Computers use addresses
❑ Humans cannot remember IP addresses
⇒ Need names
Example, Liberia for 164.107.51.28
❑ Simplest Solution: Each computer has a unique name
and has a built in table of name to address translation
❑ Problem: Not scalable
❑ Solution: DNS (Adopted in 1983)
❑ Hierarchical Names: Liberia.cis.ohio-state.edu

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 Name Hierarchy
Unnamed root

com edu gov au ... us

dec ohio-state nsf co va

cis netlab ee reston

cnri
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 Name Hierarchy
❑ Unique domain suffix is assigned by Internet
Authority
❑ The domain administrator has complete control over
the domain
❑ No limit on number of subdomains or number of
levels
❑ computer.site.division.company.com
❑ computer.site.subdivision.division.company.com
❑ Domains within an organization do not have to be
uniform in number of subdomains or levels
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 Name Hierarchy (Cont)
❑ Name space is not related to physical interconnection,
e.g., math.ohio-state and cis.ohio-state could be on the
same floor or in different cities
❑ Geographical hierarchy is also allowed, e.g.,
cnri.reston.va.us
❑ A name could be a subdomain or an individual object

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 Top Level Domains

Domain Name Assignment

com Commercial
edu Educational
gov Government
mil Military
net Network
org Other organizations
arpa Advanced Research Project Agency
country code au, uk, ca

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 Server Hierarchy
com com

foobar foobar

soap soap

candy candy

peanut almond walnut peanut almond walnut

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 Server Hierarchy (Cont)
❑ Servers are organized in a hierarchy
❑ Each server has an authority over a part of the naming
hierarchy
❑ The server does not need to keep all names.
❑ It needs to know other servers who are responsible for
other subdomains
❑ Contiguous space ⇒ A single node in the naming tree
cannot be split
❑ A given level of hierarchy can be partitioned into
multiple servers
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 Server Hierarchy (Cont)
❑ Authority ⇒ has the name to address translation table
❑ Responsible ⇒ Either has the name to address
translation table or knows the server who has
❑ A single server can serve multiple domains, e.g.,
purdue.edu and laf.in.us
❑ Root server knows about servers for top-level
domains, e.g., com
❑ Each server knows the root server

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 Server Hierarchy: Example
Root
Server

Server Server Server Server Server

for com for edu for gov for au for us

Server for Server Server for server for Server for

dec.com for osu.edu nsf.gov co.au va.us

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 Server Hierarchy: Better
Root
Server

Server for Server Server for server for Server for

dec.com for osu.edu nsf.gov co.au va.us

❑ Fewer servers

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 Name Resolution
Cache Cache
Query
Name Name
Data- Server Response Server Data-

Response
base base

Query
Query Query
Name Name
User
Response Resolver Response Server
Data-
Cache Cache base
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 Name Resolution (Cont)
Cache Cache

Name Name
Data- Server Query Server Data-
base base

Referral
Query
Response

Query Query
Name Name
User
Response Resolver Response Server
Data-
Cache Cache base
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 Name Resolution (Cont)
❑ Each computer has a name resolver routine, e.g.,
gethostbyname in UNIX
❑ Each resolver knows the name of a local DNS server
❑ Resolver sends a DNS request to the server
❑ DNS server either gives the answer, forwards the
request to another server, or gives a referral
❑ Referral = Next server to whom request should be sent

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 Name Resolution (Cont)
❑ Resolvers use UDP (single name)
or TCP (whole group of names)
❑ Knowing the address of the root server is sufficient
❑ Recursive Query:
Give me an answer (Don't give me a referral)
❑ Iterative Query:
Give me an answer or a referral to the next server
❑ Resolvers use recursive query.
❑ Servers use iterative query.

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 DNS Optimization
❑ Spatial Locality: Local computers referenced more
often than remote
❑ Temporal Locality: Same set of domains referenced
repeatedly ⇒ Caching
❑ Each entry has a time to live (TTL)
❑ Replication: Multiple servers. Multiple roots.
Ask the geographically closest server.

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 Abbreviations
❑ Servers respond to a full name only
❑ However, humans may specify only a partial name
❑ Resolvers may fill in the rest of the suffix, e.g.,
Liberia.cis = Liberia.cis.ohio-state.edu
❑ Each resolver has a list of suffixes to try

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 DNS Message Format
Identification Parameter
Number of Questions Number of Answers
Number of Authority Number of Additional
Question Section
...
Answer Section
...
Authority Section
...
Additional Information Section
...
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 Format (Cont)
❑ Format of the query section entries:
Query Domain Name
...
Query Type Query Class
❑ Format of other section entries:

Resource Domain Name

Type Class
Time to live Resource Data Length
Resource Data
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 DNS Message Format
❑ Length = 0 ⇒ End of names. Length < 64
Two msbs (most significant bits) = 11 ⇒ Pointer
❑ Resource data contains serial (version) number of the
zone, refresh interval, retry interval, expiry interval,
mailbox of the responsible person, etc.

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 DNS Message Format (Cont)
Bit Meaning
0 Operation: 0=Query, 1=Response
1-4 Query type: 0=Standard, 1=Inverse, 2,3
obsolete
5 Set if answer authoritative
6 Set if message truncated
7 Set if recursion desired
8 Set if recursion available
9-11 Reserved
12-15 Response type: 0=No error, 1=Format error,
2=Server Failure, 3=Name does not exist
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 Inverse Mapping
❑ Given an address, what is the name?
❑ nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn.in-addr.arpa

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 Types of DNS Entries
❑ DNS is used not just for name to address resolution
❑ But also for finding mail server, pop server,
responsible person, etc for a computer
❑ DNS database has multiple types
❑ Record type A ⇒ Address of X
❑ Record type MX ⇒ Mail exchanger of X
❑ CNAME entry = Alias name (like a file link), "see
name"
❑ www.foobar.com = hobbes.foobar.com

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 Resource Record Types
Type Meaning
A Host Address
CNAME Canonical Name (alias)
HINFO CPU and O/S
MINFO Mailbox Info
MX Mail Exchanger
NS Authoritative name server for a domain
PTR Pointer to a domain name (link)
RP Responsible person
SOA Start of zone authority (Which part of
naming hierarchy implemented)
TXT Arbitrary Text
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 Summary

❑ DNS: Maps names to addresses

❑ Names are hierarchical. Administration is also
hierarchical.
❑ No standard for number of levels
❑ Replication and caching is used for performance
optimization.
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