Venezuela installs the region’s 15th root server copy

30/03/2015

Within the framework of the +Raices project –a project promoted by LACNIC, the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean– Venezuela has installed a copy of the L-Root Server.

This server will improve direct Internet connections for Venezuelan end users and Internet service providers, increase perceived Internet speed, allow greater autonomy in managing domains, and result in savings in terms of international bandwidth.

Gregorio Manzano, Head of Telecommunications at Venezuela’s Academic Network (REACCIUN), said that, for Venezuela, installing the L server copy helps strengthen the “domain name resolution ( DNS) service at national and even regional level.”

Manzano told LACNIC News that this joint effort by the Venezuelan Government, ICANN and LACNIC seeks to use technology in favor of development and raise the standard of living.

The L-root server is one of the 13 original Internet servers installed worldwide (ten of them in the United States, two in Europe and one in Japan). A technical limitation makes it impossible to increase the number of original servers to more than 13; for this reason, a technology known as anycast was developed that allows creating clones (mirror copies) which, once in operation, are indistinguishable from the original servers.

The Venezuelan official stressed that the country’s Internet users will benefit from increased availability of the DNS service and shorter response times to requests for domain name translation, “which will result in a better user experience and the improvement of perceived Internet performance.” Manzano also emphasized that the server copy “will allow Internet service providers to save on international bandwidth and improve the quality of Internet access and other value added services offered to their users.”

Manzano noted that Venezuela already had a copy of  the F-root server, which was installed in 2006 as part of the +Raices project and which will be maintained “to provide the community with greater DNS service redundancy, as having both services ensures more opportunities for local responses to DNS translation requests.”

The Head of Telecommunications at Venezuela’s Academic Network highlighted the role of LACNIC and the +Raices project in the installation of this server. “LACNIC’s contribution ranged from establishing the initial communication between CENIT-CNTI and ICANN, attaining the project and its execution, to the signing of the agreement,” Manzano said.

The +Raices project was created by LACNIC in 2004 and has since been helping install root server copies in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to improve Internet access throughout the continent and contribute to regional and global Internet stability.

To date, +Raices has allowed installing a total of 14 root server copies in the region. These copies are located in Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Panama (2), Ecuador (3), Haiti, Curaçao and St. Maarten.