B-Root Statement of Operational Principles

The purpose of this statement is to articulate certain general principles embraced by USC/ISI with the primary goal of promoting public understanding and the continued sound operation of the root name server system. This statement is necessarily general and is not intended to prescribe new operating practices or binding expectations; rather, it is descriptive and reflects certain generally accepted understandings and practices. USC/ISI is one of the operators which publish the root zone for the common good of the Internet community and strive to operate the root name service in the community’s best interest.

USC/ISI recognizes IANA as the authoritative source of the root zone data published on the general Internet root name servers and acknowledge that the integrity of this data is essential to the sound operation of the root name server system.

In our capacity as root name server operators, we neither possess nor exert any editorial control over the content of the root zone. Instead, our limited role is to publish the root zone without modification unless otherwise directed by appropriate authority.

USC/ISI, as the operator of the root nameserver “B”, recognizes the following organizations as current root nameserver operators and endeavors to coordinate operational service with them.

• VeriSign
• USC-ISI
• Cogent
• UMD
• NASA-ARC
• ISC
• DOD-NIC
• ARL
• Autonomica
• RIPE
• ICANN
• WIDE

Elaborating on this statement, USC/ISI upholds RSSAC055 “Principles Guiding the Operation of the Public Root Server System” and implements RSSAC001 “Service Expectations of Root Servers”.