ICANN and the Africa Network Information Center (AFRINIC) have signed an agreement to increase the number of root DNS server instances in Africa. According to the terms, the companies will work together on identifying additional potential locations for the expansion of L-Root anycast instances in the region.
L-Root DNS system is 13 servers located around the world, with some using anycast technology that enables to operate instances of the server in various locations at once.
Under the signed agreement, AFRINIC is willing to help ICANN strengthen the resilience of the DNS further by helping to identify potential additional physical locations that host L-Root. This, in turn, will help AfriNIC to strengthen the global Internet and the network resiliency in the region, as a dispersed system cannot be taken offline by a problem at any single instance of a given DNS root server.
AfriNIC is a RIR (Regional Internet Registry) that that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources in Africa. Overall, there are 5 RIRs in the world.
