Adapting DNS to dynamic ad hoc networks

The limitations in the domain naming service (DNS), such as vulnerability to denial of service attacks, configuration errors, and loss of root, home or peer name servers, have lead to proposals for more robust, secure, flexible, and dynamic alternatives. The ad hoc bandwidth constrained nature of future military networks, such as FCS and WIN-T, together with the secure overlay networks created by HAIPE IPsec tunnels, exacerbates the limitations in DNS. This paper proposes architectural guidelines and a new autoconfiguration protocol to fix some key limitations in applying current DNS to future military networks. This approach requires no change to standard domain name space, and no changes to existing DNS client or name server software. The most radical change is to replace the static DNS roles and linkages with automatically configured ones. Moreover, the configurations will be dynamically modified based on the current network environment and mission needs. In addition to the obvious benefits of removing crippling configuration errors, we show that good dynamic DNS configurations can greatly improve robustness and efficiency after loss of nodes or changing link bandwidths