The domain name system (DNS) was developed when the Internet first came into existence to allow for the use of people-friendly computer names instead of numbers-based Internet protocol (IP) addresses (DNS servers translate the computer names into IP addresses). The Internet now plays a significant role in how business is conducted worldwide and DNS, initially just “nice to have,” is now critical to its successful operation.

DNS is ubiquitous: a collection of servers, autonomously managed but connected in a controlled hierarchy. The responsiveness of these servers can have a significant impact on the operation of Internet applications. This paper describes a quantitative assessment of the response times of DNS servers. The authors have done a reasonable job of sizing the study. Measurements are taken of the performance of lookups for 10,000 hosts through some 50 commercial Internet service providers (ISPs), along with a number of specialist providers of DNS services from more than 60 vantage points across 28 countries.

The authors briefly introduce DNS, and then they present an overview of the results and details of how the measurements were taken and analyzed. The results and conclusions are interesting and are discussed and presented clearly in a graphical format. This one study does not make it possible to make definitive statements about the behavior of DNS across the Internet. The results simply whet the appetite for additional investigations using a larger number of vantage points, something that the authors indicate is likely. The paper touches on an issue that will be of interest to any organization that uses the Internet for business purposes.