The WIDE Project (Representative: Professor Dr. Jun Murai of Keio University, Principal Investigator: Associate Professor Dr. Akira Kato of The University of Tokyo) started M-Root DNS server operation in Paris, France effective on September 1st.
The WIDE Project has been operating an M-Root DNS server in Tokyo, Japan since August 1997, which is one of the 13 Root DNS servers. The server in Paris is the second anycast server of the M-Root DNS server in Tokyo, Japan. Organizations especially Telehouse Europe, Renater, and France Telecom have contributed to the installation of the M-Root DNS server in Paris.
The WIDE Project, which stands for Widely Integrated Distributed Environment, is a research consortium based in Japan working for the networking and distributed technologies since 1988.
Renater operates SFINX and France Telecom operates PARIX. Both are major Internet exchange points in Europe. Most of the major ISPs in France have access to either IX or both. Large international ISPs also have access to them. This means that the M-Root server is able to serve not only the French Internet community but also a wider Internet community especially in Europe.
The server operating in Paris employs anycast technology defined in RFC3258. A single service address is advertised from multiple locations and the Internet routing system chooses one server which is considered to be the nearest. F-Root server (hosted by Renater and Telehouse Europe, too) has been operational in Paris since last December.
In the beginning, the M-Root DNS server answers only IPv4 requests but will perform IPv6 resolution soon. The M-Root DNS server in conjunction with F-Root contributes to the stability, availability, and reliability of DNS resolution process in France and in Europe.
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