Recent Developments in the Domain Name System

Abstract

The Domain Name System (DNS) makes it possible to access information from host computers and to send and receive messages anywhere on the Internet. It is a distributed set of databases residing in computers around the world that contain IP address mapped to corresponding domain names. Currently, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages DNS and designs policies for its operations. Recently, DNS has witnessed phenomenal developments in terms of technical, operational, and managerial decisions which have made significant impact on Internet-related policy issues such as intellectual property, privacy, e-commerce, and cyber-security. This paper surveys remarkable developments that Domain Name System has undergone in recent times. The advancements particularly advancements in the areas of international domain names, managerial decision of expanding generic top-level domain space, deployment of DNSSEC protocol at the root servers, approval of Triple X top-level domain, domain resolution policy, present status of contractual compliance programs and privacy of domain name holders have been presented in detail.