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Adaptive DNS Discovery
charter-ietf-add-00-05

The information below is for an older proposed charter
Document Proposed charter Adaptive DNS Discovery WG (add) Snapshot
Title Adaptive DNS Discovery
Last updated 2020-02-20
State External Review (Message to Community, Selected by Secretariat) Rechartering
WG State Proposed
IESG Responsible AD Éric Vyncke
Charter edit AD Barry Leiba
Send notices to add@ietf.org

charter-ietf-add-00-05

Sending DNS messages over encrypted transports, as defined in DNS over
TLS (DoT) [RFC 7858] and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) [RFC 8484], provides
benefits to the security and privacy of DNS data. Clients, such as
applications and host operating systems, have started adopting these
protocols to provide these user benefits.

This working group will focus on discovery and selection of DNS resolvers
by DNS clients in a variety of networking environments, including public
networks, private networks, and VPNs, supporting both encrypted and
unencrypted resolvers. It is chartered solely to develop technical
mechanisms. Making any recommendations about specific policies for clients
or servers is out of scope.

Clients adopting encrypted DNS protocols need to determine which DNS
servers support those protocols, and which server to use for specific
queries if multiple servers are available. These decisions can vary based
on the network environment, and also based on the content and purpose of
the client queries.

Network operators that start offering DNS encryption on their servers also
need a way to indicate this support to clients. Communicating information
about resolver configuration and behavior allows clients to make more
informed decisions about which DNS servers to use. For example, a resolver
may be able to resolve private or local names as a split DNS server.

The Adaptive DNS Discovery (ADD) working group will work on the following
deliverables:

  • Define a mechanism that allows clients to discover DNS resolvers
    that support encryption and that are available to the client
    either on the public Internet or on private or local networks.

  • Define a mechanism that allows communication of DNS resolver
    information to clients for use in selection decisions. This could be
    part of the mechanism used for discovery, above.

  • Develop an informational document that describes mechanisms for
    clients to detect specific network environments (such as captive portal
    and split horizon) and to use that information to inform their DNS
    configuration.

This working group will coordinate with dnsop, doh, and dprive for any
changes required in DNS protocols and will make sure that those
groups are included in major document reviews at appropriate times.
It will also work with capport to ensure that solutions are applicable
to captive networks.