P-DONAS: A P2P-Based Domain Name System in Access Networks

The domain name system (DNS) includes infrastructures deployed by Internet service providers (ISPs) and third-party suppliers to ensure high responsiveness, resilience, and load sharing. This equipment implies high effort and energy for 24/7 operation. To facilitate cost reductions in this regard, P-DONAS—a peer-to-peer (P2P)-based DNS—organizes access nodes (ANs) of an ISP’s access network, which possess available resources, into a decentralized, self-organizing distributed hash table--based P2P network. Each AN acts as traditional DNS server and solely stores a piece of DNS data. DNS requests issued to an AN are resolved via P2P lookups while maintaining full compatibility with traditional DNS. The article discusses the application of P-DONAS as both a complement and an alternative to traditional DNS. Results from both simulations and a practical test arrangement prove P-DONAS’ high scalability and its performance comparable to that of a commercial DNS name server relieving this name server by 53% to 75% of DNS traffic.