Versatile and Efficient Multi-Link DNS Service Discovery

Abstract

DNS Service Discovery over Multicast DNS (DNS-SD/mDNS) is used widely for configurationless service discovery in local networks; due in no small part to the fact that it is based on the well established DNS, and efficient in small networks. In our research, we address three shortcomings of DNS-SD: (1) adding easy-to-use privacy; (2) making it more efficient, especially for large networks; (3) increasing the versatility by enabling DNS-SD to cross broadcast domains; and (4) providing user control through scopes instead of network boundaries within an organization; while maintaining the deployment simplicity and — where it makes sense — backward compatibility. In this report, we focus on providing multi-link capabilities and scalable scopes for DNS-SD. We propose DNS-SD over Stateless DNS, a solution that allows configurationless service discovery in arbitrary self-named scopes without multicast by leveraging Stateless DNS and the Raft consensus algorithm.