Towards a More Rational Internet in Latin America

Gabriel Adonaylo

Interview with Gabriel Adonaylo

The Cabase NAP, a traffic exchange point for Internet networks in Argentina, has completed the installation of a regional name resolution site (RIRS), provided by Verisign. It will resolve 50M .com and .net domain queries per day. Gabriel Adonaylo, the NAP’s Vice-President, explains the steps have been taken to improve Internet data flows. He also speaks of the actions that are being implemented at regional level.

 

-TelcosIT: What are the advantages of the agreement between Cabase (Argentine Chamber of Databases and Online Services) and Verisign?

-Adonaylo: By installing a replica of the server, it is possible to resolve .com and .net domains (generically called – gTLD– generic Top Level Domains) at our NAP, which provides connectivity for the local Internet networks of most ISPs. This means that when a user of a member ISP wishes to access a website, e-mail or FTP, the response is no longer provided by a server located outside the country. Consequently, delays are reduced because the query no longer has to travel to the United States but is resolved at local level. This in turn means lower international broadband consumption and therefore lower costs for the local ISP. Finally, it also contributes to the global stability of the Internet, as it is more difficult for a distributed attack to operate on a large number of servers located in different countries than to attack a single server. The more critical resources that are replicated the better. The Anycast scheme used by the Internet always chooses the most convenient server to resolve a query.

-TelcosIT: How is this different from the F Root Server you installed in 2006?

-Adonaylo: The installation we made in August 2006 was carried out within the framework of a program sponsored by LACNIC (the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean) called +Raíces which seeks to improve Internet traffic within the region. There are 13 root servers, two of which are in Europe, one in Japan and the remaining in the United States. But there are 35 replicas of the F root server worldwide. LACNIC has already installed F root servers in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and most recently in Ecuador. In these cases what is resolved is the DNS (domain name system), which is the association of a name, a mnemotecnic device, to an IP address.

-TelcosIT: Are the .ar domains also resolved at the Cabase NAP?

-Adonaylo: No, regretfully they are not. This would improve traffic within the country, as we connect most ISPs.

-TelcosIT: But not all?

-Adonaylo: Not all but most. You can find the list of members at Cabase’s website. But it important to keep in mind that there are ISPs that do not appear on the list but do go through the NAP as they receive the service from another member. (Note: Of the major operators, Telecom Argentina does not appear on the list, nor does Telefónica, but Movistar, Telefónica Internacional Wholesale Services – Emergia – and Terra do. See below).

-TelcosIT: What other steps are planed in this road to improvement?

-Adonaylo: Next month we plan to install the resolution of 30 ccTLDs (Country Code Top Level Domains). These are different country codes that will be resolved at the NIC, in the same way that .com and .net domains are resolved since the agreement with Verisign.

-TelcosIT: Europe often claims that its member countries are subsidizing the Internet in the United States. Is this phenomenon also true for Latin America?

-Adonaylo: Yes it is, because this has to do with how fiber optic networks are deployed. If we look at a map we can see that if you contract Internet access in Miami you will have connectivity with the entire world. Likewise if you do it in London. But there are no fiber optics linking us to London, while there are links to the United States.

-TelcosIT: What can Cabase do to improve traffic in Latin America?

-Adonaylo: The purpose of Cabase is to improve national interconnection. Each member contracts its international service. For example, a provider such as Comsat (in addition to his position at Cabase, Adonaylo is an executive at Comsat) that has a link to Sao Paulo will offer a better service to its clients that wish to connect to that destination. In any case, Cabase participates in LACNIC and other fora such as NAPLA that promote better regional interconnection. There are countries in Latin America such as Venezuela that do not even have a national NAP and therefore its traffic must go through the United States. Argentina is connected with Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, but not with Bolivia. We the operators have yet to agree on certain practices.

. 18/08/2007 TelcosIT >

 

http://www.telcosit.com/index.php?seccion=vernot.php&id=14134

 

 

Periodic bulletin of LACNIC

Periodic bulletin of LACNIC
Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry

Year 2 / Number 5 / september 2007

Responsible Publisher: Raúl Echeberría