66 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
# meshname
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Special-use naming system for self-organized IPv6 mesh networks.
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## Motivation
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Having a naming system is a common requirement for deploying preexisting
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decentralized applications. Protocols like e-mail, XMPP and ActivityPub require
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domain names for server to server communications.
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Self-organized and trustless networks like CJDNS and Yggdrasil Network are
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using public-key cryptography for IP address allocation. Every network node owns
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a globally unique IPv6 address. Binary form of that address can be encoded with
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base32 notation for deriving a globally unique name space managed by that node.
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Since there is no need for a global authority or consensus, such a naming system
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will reliably work in any network split scenarios.
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".mesh.arpa" is ment to be used by machines, not by humans. A human-readable
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naming system would require a lot more engineering effort.
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## How .mesh.arpa domains work
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Each mesh node can manage its own unique name space in "mesh.arpa." zone.
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The name space is derived from its IPv6 address as follows:
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1) IPv6 address is converted to its binary form of 16 bytes:
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IPv6Address('200:6fc8:9220:f400:5cc2:305a:4ac6:967e')
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b'\x02\x00o\xc8\x92 \xf4\x00\\\xc20ZJ\xc6\x96~'
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2) The binary value is encoded to base32:
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AIAG7SESED2AAXGCGBNEVRUWPY======
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3) Padding symbols "======" are removed from the end of the string.
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The resulting name space managed by '200:6fc8:9220:f400:5cc2:305a:4ac6:967e'
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is "aiag7sesed2aaxgcgbnevruwpy.mesh.arpa."
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In order to resolve a domain in "xxx.mesh.arpa." space, the client derives IPv6
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address from the third level domain "xxx" and use it as authoritative DNS server
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for that zone.
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"xxx.mesh.arpa" name is itself managed by the DNS server derived from "xxx" and
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can point to any other IPv6 address.
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## Why not .ip6.arpa
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There is a special domain for reverse DNS lookups, but it takes 72 characters to
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store a single value. The same value in .mesh.arpa takes 36 characters.
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"e.7.6.9.6.c.a.4.a.5.0.3.2.c.c.5.0.0.4.f.0.2.2.9.8.c.f.6.0.0.2.0.ip6.arpa"
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versus "aiag7sesed2aaxgcgbnevruwpy.mesh.arpa."
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This saves twice amount of bandwidth and storage space. It is also arguably more
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aesthetically appealing, even though that's not a goal.
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## Why .arpa
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".arpa" is a special domain reserved for Internet infrastructure. There is a
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similar special-use domain for home networks ".home.arpa" specified in RFC 8375.
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If ".mesh.arpa" will become widely used it could also be standardized, otherwise
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it won't break much.
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