DNS Resolvers and Nameservers in New Zealand#

Geoff Huston (APNIC)

• Why: Rigorous measurement of how resolvers actually pick and re-evaluate authoritative servers, and whether popular domains' NS provisioning matches that behavior — directly useful for anyone reasoning about DNS performance, anycast placement, or NS-set design in production.
• What: An extension of prior resolver-behavior and RIPE-Atlas studies using APNIC's distributed ad system to observe the authoritative-server selection process from millions of real end-users worldwide, then checking how two name sets — the root-zone TLDs and the .nz domains in the Tranco top 1M — are provisioned against observed resolver behavior. (from abstract only)
• How: Recruits end-users via APNIC's ad-based measurement network (much larger vantage point base than Atlas probes), instruments their resolvers' selection process for a controlled domain set, and compares the observed selection dynamics against the NS configuration of high-traffic zones.
• Where applicable: General measurement results, applicable to any operator thinking about authoritative DNS placement; the .nz/Tranco slice gives it a local angle.