Computer Communications

& Networks
CSNC-2413

Lec: 10
• Domain Name System (DNS) Computer
Networking: A Top
Down Approach
6th edition
Jim Kurose, Keith Ross
Addison-Wesley
March 2012
Chapter 2: outline
2.1 Principles of network applications
2.2 Web and HTTP
2.3 FTP
2.4 Electronic mail
 SMTP, POP3
2.5 DNS
2.6 P2P applications
2.7 Socket programming with UDP and TCP

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DNS: domain name system
 Internet hosts, routers: Domain Name System:
 IP address (32 bit),  distributed database:
used for addressing in implemented in hierarchy of
datagrams many name servers
 hard to remember  application-layer protocol:
 “name”, allows hosts to query name
e.g, www.yahoo.com, servers to resolve names
used by humans (address/name translation)
Q: how to map between IP
Note
address and name, and
vice versa ? DNS protocol : UDP port 53
Used by applications e.g HTTP,
FTP,
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DNS: resolving hostname
Example: When browser on a host requests a URL, the host
obtains IP address of destination using DNS:-
host runs client side of DNS application
browser gets hostname from URL and passes to DNS client
DNS client sends DNS Query for hostname to DNS Server
DNS client eventually receives DNS Reply, containing IP address
for the hostname
browser can now initiate TCP connection to HTTP server

On Unix, applications call gethostbyname()

to invoke DNS
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 DNS services
DNS services why not centralize DNS?
 Hostname to IP address translation  single point of failure
 Host aliasing:
 traffic volume
simple alias names for difficult
 distant centralized database
canonical (real) hostnames  updation
www.ibm.com is an alias for
servereast.backup2.ibm.com A: doesn’t scale!
 Mail Server aliasing:
keeps email addresses simple
hotmail.com is an alias for relay1.west-coast.hotmail.com
 Load distribution:
replicated Web servers: many IP addresses correspond to one name
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The DNS Name Space
 Hostnames assigned to machines from a Name Space
 Internet Domain Name Space is hierarchical
 each name comprises parts – (domains, sub-domains)
 names stored on DNS servers
 A portion of the Internet Domain Name Space…

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Domain & Hostname
Hostname for a machine
named “challenger”
connected to domains
as shown

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Distributed, Hierarchical Database

 DNS uses a large number of servers

 organized hierarchically & distributed around the world

 Mappings distributed across DNS servers…

 Root, Top Level Domain (TLD) & Authoritative DNS servers

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Distributed, Hierarchical Database

Example: IP address needed for www.amazon.com

 Root server queried to find TLD server for com Domain
 TLD server for com domain queried to find Authoritative server for
amazon.com
 Authoritative server for amazon.com queried to get IP address for
host www.amazon.com
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 Root name servers
 contacted by Local name server that can not resolve name
 Root name server:
 contacts TLD name server if name mapping not known
 gets mapping
 returns mapping to Local name server

c. Cogent, Herndon, VA (5 other sites)

d. U Maryland College Park, MD k. RIPE London (17 other sites)
h. ARL Aberdeen, MD
j. Verisign, Dulles VA (69 other sites ) i. Netnod, Stockholm (37 other sites)

m. WIDE Tokyo
e. NASA Mt View, CA (5 other sites)
f. Internet Software C.
Palo Alto, CA (and 48 other sites)

a. Verisign, Los Angeles CA

13 root name
(5 other sites)
b. USC-ISI Marina del Rey, CA “servers”
l. ICANN Los Angeles, CA
(41 other sites) worldwide
g. US DoD Columbus,
OH (5 other sites)

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TLD, Authoritative servers
Top-level domain (TLD) servers:
 responsible for top-level domains, e.g, com, org, net, edu, gov;
and all country top-level domains, e.g, uk, fr, ca, jp
 Network Solutions maintains TLD servers for com TLD
 Educause for edu TLD

Authoritative DNS servers:

 organization’s DNS server(s), provide authoritative hostname to
IP mappings for organization’s named hosts
 can be maintained by organization or service provider
 primary & secondary Authoritative DNS servers

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Local DNS name server
 Does not strictly belong to DNS hierarchy; lies closest to host
 Each ISP (residential ISP, company, university) has one
 ISP provides host with IP address of local DNS server;
(typically thru DHCP)
 also called “ default name server”
 DNS query from host, sent to Local DNS server
 has local cache of recent name-to-address translation pairs
(but may be out of date..!)
 acts as proxy, forwards query into DNS hierarchy
 provides DNS reply

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DNS name root DNS server
resolution example
2 3
 host at cis.poly.edu 7
6
wants IP address for TLD DNS
gaia.cs.umass.edu server

Recursive Query: local DNS server

dns.poly.edu 5 4
 puts burden of name 1 8
resolution on contacted
name server authoritative DNS server
dns.cs.umass.edu
 heavy load at upper requesting host
levels of hierarchy..? cis.poly.edu

gaia.cs.umass.edu

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DNS name root DNS server
resolution example
2
3
Iterated Query:
4
TLD DNS
 contacted server replies server
5
with name of server to
contact local DNS server
dns.poly.edu
 “I don’t know this name, 7 6
but ask this server” 1 8

authoritative DNS server

dns.cs.umass.edu
requesting host
cis.poly.edu

Are all queries shown Iterated..? gaia.cs.umass.edu

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DNS: caching, updating records
 Once (any) name server learns mapping, it is cached
 TLD servers typically cached in local name servers
 thus Root name servers not often visited
 cache entries timeout after some time (often 2 days)
 DNS server having a cached entry can reply DNS query
 even if not Authoritative for the hostname
 Cached entries may be out-of-date...!
 Update/notify mechanisms proposed in IETF standard
 RFC 2136

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DNS records
 DNS servers store resource records (RR)
 Each DNS Reply carries one/more RRs

RR format: (name, value, type, ttl)

Type=A Type=CNAME
 name is hostname  name is alias name for some
 value is IP address “ canonical” name
 www.ibm.com is really
Type=NS servereast.backup2.ibm.com
 name is domain (e.g.,  value is canonical name
foo.com)
 value is hostname of Type=MX
Authoritative name server for  value is name of mailserver
this domain associated with name
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DNS protocol, messages
 Query & Reply messages, both with same message format
2 bytes 2 bytes

Msg header
identification flags
 Identification:
# questions # answer RRs
16 bit # for query,
reply to query uses same # # authority RRs # additional RRs

 1 bit flags: questions (variable # of questions)

 query or reply
answers (variable # of RRs)
 reply is Authoritative
 recursion desired authority (variable # of RRs)
 recursion available
additional info (variable # of RRs)

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DNS protocol, messages
2 bytes 2 bytes

identification flags
Data Sections
# questions # answer RRs

# authority RRs # additional RRs

name, type fields

questions (variable # of questions)
for a query
RRs in response answers (variable # of RRs)
to query
records for authority (variable # of RRs)
authoritative servers
additional “ helpful” additional info (variable # of RRs)
info that may be used

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Inserting records into DNS
 Example: new startup “ Network Utopia”
 Register domain name networkutopia.com at DNS Registrar
(e.g., Network Solutions)
 provide names, IP addresses of Authoritative name server
(primary and secondary)
 Registrar inserts two RRs into com TLD server:
(networkutopia.com, dns1.networkutopia.com, NS)
(dns1.networkutopia.com, 212.212.212.1, A)
 Create following RRs in your Authoritative DNS servers
 type A for web server, www.networkutopia.com
 type MX for mail server, mail.networkutopia.com

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