Domain Name System

Without the IETF, there is no Domain Name System. The value of the Internet is that we’re connected world wide. The value of the IETF is to make that possible, to come up with the standards of interoperability.
—Roy Arends, principal research scientist at ICANN

The global DNS is a core part of the Internet experience for billions of people around the world, handling more than one million queries per second every second of every day. The IETF’s freely-available standards, and the processes by which they are developed, ensure the DNS is open, globally interoperable, reliable, and secure. Anyone can implement IETF standards because they are freely available. Major innovations and expansions developed in the IETF during the past three decades have made the DNS more responsive, secure, and straightforward to extend, and have given it the ability to accommodate domain names in languages used around the world.

Constant protocol maintenance, improvement, and evolution

DNS scalability and the capacity to add features have remained top of mind in the IETF. Participants have discussed proposals for future functionality at every IETF meeting, and multiple DNS-related working groups are active at any given time. Recent and current work includes: 

DNS Operations (DNSOP) – Chartered in 1999, this is the main IETF DNS working group that has published over 70 RFCs. 

DNS Delegation (DELEG) – This working group aims to enhance the basic signal of a domain delegation in the DNS by providing a richer set of information about how to contact the delegated zone’s nameservers.

DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) – Published in 2023, RFC 9364 gathers in one place all the DNS Security Extensions specified in previous RFCs and identifies DNSSEC as the best current practice for origin authentication of DNS data.

DNS PRIVate Exchange (DPRIVE) – The DPRIVE working group, which develops mechanisms to provide confidentiality to DNS transactions, recently laid out steps DNS servers can take unilaterally to defend DNS query privacy against a passive network monitor.

Extensions for Scalable DNS Service Discovery (DNSSD) – In an effort to find a solution for extended, scalable DNS-SD, this working group is considering the tradeoffs between reusing or extending existing protocols and developing new ones. 

Adaptive DNS Discovery (ADD) – The ADD working group is focusing on how DNS clients in a variety of networking environments can select a DNS recursive resolver that meets their needs or constraints. 

Registration Protocols Extensions (REGEXT) – A group that coordinates efforts for standards track Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) extensions, REGEXT is working on, among other things, a standard describing best practices for deletion of domain and host objects in the EPP.

Beyond working groups, work on DNS technologies takes place in venues such as IETF Hackathons, where developers and subject matter experts collaborate and develop utilities, ideas, sample code and solutions that show practical implementations of IETF standards.

The foundation of an industry

“DNS is an IETF protocol. In a very real and historically specific sense, the entire domain name industry is a spinoff from the IETF."
—Suzanne Woolf, senior director of technical community engagement for Public Interest Registry

The DNS industry has grown into a market worth billions of dollars and comprised of thousands of companies. The reason the IETF’s collaborative, bottom-up model for creating standards works is because the DNS industry participates. Individuals volunteer their time, employers often fund individuals’ participation in in-person meetings, and organizations sponsor the IETF’s efforts.

In return for active participation and support, the DNS industry reaps the benefits of a stable, reliable, always-improving DNS. Being involved in the IETF’s DNS-related work keeps individuals and organizations in touch with changing technologies – and gives them a hand in developing those technologies. Support for the IETF helps ensure a global community and open processes that produce technically excellent standards.

IETF and DNS by the Numbers

• 1983 – The first DNS RFC is published
• 26 – Number of RFCs that define the DNS protocol
• 1999 – DNS Operations (DNSOP) working group established
• 70 – Number of RFCs created by DNSOP 
• 10.9 million – Number of registered .org domain names (as of July 2024)
• 157.6 million – Number of registered .com domain names (as of July 2024)
• 362.4 million – Number of domain name registrations across all top-level domains (as of July 2024)