[rssac-caucus] Opening RSSAC-002 for revision

[Wessels, Duane]

Dear RSSAC Caucus,

RSSAC has decided to open the RSSAC-002 "Measurements of the Root Server System"
document for revision and is asking the Caucus to produce an update.  Based on
implementation experience, three minor problems have been identified in the current
document.

It is my belief that these problems and remedies are simple enough that a work
party is not warranted.  

I'd like to ask the Caucus to consider my descriptions of the problems and
proposed remedies below as a starting point for this discussion.  If we can
come to a consensus by RSSAC's December 3 meeting then it is likely the revised
document can be approved and published shortly after that.

Duane W.


#1 YAML Indentation
===================

Problem:

 In sections 4.3 (traffic-volume) and 4.6 (unique-sources) the
 example YAML shows some lines indented when they should not be.
 In these YAML documents none of the lines should be indented.  If
 they are indented as given in the example, a YAML parser generates
 an error and fails to load the document.

Proposed Remedy:

 Remove indentation from the example YAML documents in sections 4.3 and 4.6.

#2 TCP Response Size
====================

Problem:

 Section 2.4 describes the query and response size distributions.
 The description does not specifically mention the two-octet prefix
 for TCP messages, which leads to ambiguity.  While the difference
 is not especially significant (i.e. two octets out of 50-500),
 the ambiguity should be removed.  The text currently says:

   DNS query sizes are determined by the length of the entire DNS
   message. Thus, in practical terms, the transport headers
   (Ethernet, IP, and TCP or UDP etc) are removed leaving the DNS
   payload to measure. The DNS query message sizes should be
   recorded for both TCP and UDP.

Proposed Remedy:

 Amend the paragraph above to read:

   DNS query sizes are determined by the length of the entire DNS
   message. Thus, in practical terms, the transport headers
   (Ethernet, IP, and TCP or UDP etc) are removed leaving the DNS
   payload to measure. The DNS query message sizes should be
   recorded for both TCP and UDP.  For TCP the DNS payload also
   includes a two-octet size prefix.  Implementations should include
   these two octets in the calculation of message size.


#3 Zone Size Metric
===================

Problem:

 Section 2.2 describes how to calculate the zone size as a wire-format
 AXFR response.  Since AXFR happens only over TCP, those DNS messages
 also have a two-octet length prefix.  The description is unclear whether
 or not to include the two-octet length prefix in the reported value.

Proposed Remedy:

 Amend the paragraph in section 2.2 to read:

   The size of the compiled root zone is measured in wire-format
   AXFR response encoded as if to be transmitted in the smallest
   number of messages with the names in the zone and the resource
   records in each RRset sorted into DNSSEC order, and using
   compression pointers wherever possible.  Note that since AXFR
   occurs over TCP, this measurement must also include the two-octet
   size prefix for each message transmitted.