Guatemala was selected at the end of 2020 by + RAÍCES Program, of LACNIC (Latin America and the Caribbean Internet Address Registry), to install a copy of one of the thirteen Internet Domain name root servers.  A root server is a fundamental part of the Internet infrastructure that makes it easy to use, acting as the backbone of online access. Keep reading and find out more about the process and benefits of this decision! 

Selection for the program

Sixteen organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean were interested in hosting a server instance. The committee selected four beneficiaries: IXP.GT of Guatemala (a project coordinated by RAGIE), Telefónica of El Salvador, PIT Peru of Peru, and the National Council of Universities (CNU) of Nicaragua. 

Various parameters were considered to choose the organizations, for example:

  • The countries that didn’t have copies of root servers sponsored by the program
  • If a country have a low number of copies of other root-servers
  • If the country is interconnected with a significant number of other autonomous systems. 

These criteria are not exclusive and a balance is made between each other in accordance with operators root DNS servers.

Benefits of the installation

The installation of these copies of the root servers has improved the access times in most of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the study “Use of DNS root servers in Latin America”.  Through LACNIC’s + RAÍCES project, nearly 40 copies of Internet root servers have been installed in organizations in the region. This project seeks to strengthen the Internet infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean, assured to LACNIC News Guillermo Cicileo, leader of Research and Development in Internet Infrastructure at LACNIC and head of the + Raíces program. 

The copies installed in Latin America and the Caribbean region allow greater resilience of some of the critical Internet resources such as the DNS. In addition to more direct access to DNS, copies improve connectivity for local Internet providers and users.