CENTR R&D and TECH Meeting in Frankfurt

EventsTechDENIC

DENIC-RedaktionSep 27, 2024 3 min read

DENIC hosts the 25th R&D and the 51st Tech Workshop of the European Top Level Domain Registries on 8 and 9 October 2024 in Frankfurt.

Several times a year, the researchers and members of the technical staff of the European ccTLD registries meet under the roof of CENTR, the umbrella organisation of the European Top Level Domains. Their joint autumn meeting takes place in the German city of Frankfurt this year.

The CENTR R&D und TECH Working Groups

The CENTR Research & Development and the Technical Working Group are two bodies of specialised experts within the organisation of CENTR, each of which has a different focus. Nevertheless, they pursue the common goal to ensure the technical evolution and stability of the Domain Name System (DNS) and secure domain registration.

The R&D Working Group deals with forward-looking technologies and innovations in the field of domain administration. Experts from the registries exchange their experience and findings related to new technological trends, products and services. "We focus on developing and evaluating new concepts to improve the internet infrastructure and the DNS", explains Christian Simmen, who will be one of the representatives of DENIC eG at the meeting. "The members of the group cooperate closely to work out solutions for long-term challenges and to test new approaches. This often involves the input from other working groups of CENTR. Thus, the various fields can benefit from each other, and we facilitate a holistic approach."

The Technical Working Group, in contrast, concentrates on operative and technical aspects of domain registration and DNS provision. In this forum with a practical focus, technical experts discuss topics such as network security, technical standards and best practices that are crucial for the operation and security of the DNS. "We discuss concrete technical requirements and implementations that are used in the ccTLD registries in general. But we also deal with special projects and challenges that concern only specific registries", says Benjamin Schönbach, who represents DENIC in this group. The exchange fosters shared learning and yields solutions that are tailored to the operative requirements of the registries.

Both groups render a decisive contribution to the further development and safety of the DNS and domain registration by promoting the exchange of expert knowledge between the European registries in a confidential environment and by working together at solutions to face technical and strategic challenges.

Topics at the CENTR R&D and TECH Meeting in Frankfurt

The meeting in Frankfurt will comprise a range of presentations but also a BarCamp with various working sessions. The topics of the sessions will thus be selected by the participants on site.

DENIC eG will hold three presentations. Dr. Benjamin Schönbach will give a presentation that deals with the fundamental design and evaluation of DNS anycast stacks for high performance and portable nameserver locations placed on cloud, prem or mixed infrastructure. He will conclude with a short live demo during which he will set up a full multi-tenancy virtual anycast stack in less than 5 minutes.

Andreas Schwalb will explain the process and the challenges DENIC has faced when developing its high-performance crawler and the crawler's focus on security validation. He will also give reasons why DENIC launched yet another crawler, even though there already are a few in the community.

Pawel Kowalik will give an update on the initiative "RESTful provisioning Protocol (RPP)" together with the Dutch registry SIDN. The ccTLDs wish to have a new domain name provisioning protocol that is based on the latest RESTful principles and meets modern requirements. A corresponding working group at the IETF, the premier organisation for developing internet standards, is being considered. With their presentation, DENIC and SIDN want to win other specialists from the CENTR environment for the project and hope to incite fruitful discussions at the BarCamp.

Meeting Venue Frankfurt Sachsenhausen - courtesy of outofoffice.place

The location

On the evening of the CENTR R&D and TECH Meeting, DENIC invites the participants to the beautiful lounge in the DENIC Tower with a breathtaking view on the Frankfurt skyline. The workshop on the next day will take place at an innovative meeting location in the historic Frankfurt apple wine quarter Sachsenhausen.

We are looking forward to interesting new insights and to meeting our colleagues from the other registries.