The DNS Camel refers to the complexity and density of protocols and operations within and throughout the Domain Name System. Referencing the "straw that broke the camel's back"[1], Bert Hubert's 2018 presentation to the IETF's DNSOP Working Group at the 101st IETF Meeting was tentatively titled "The DNS Camel, or, how many features can we add to this protocol before it breaks."[2] The agenda shortened the title to "The DNS Camel."[2]
Origins and Usage
Hubert notes that, as early as 2000, Randy Bush was using the analogy of a "camel"[3] (as well as the precursor pack animal of the "last straw" metaphor, the horse), in a presentation to IETF at its 49th meeting entitled "The DNS Today: Are we Overloading the Saddlebags on an Old Horse?"[4][2] Bush posited that multiple factors, including user expectations, application development demands, design by committee, and others were pushing DNS operators to continuing adding loads onto the DNS architecture. Bush's presentation was bolstered by his uses of the "last straw" metaphor, which emphasized that the addition of a small burden could cause a surprising, global, and catastrophic effect.[1]
Common usage of the phrase "DNS Camel," however, appears to largely date to Hubert's presentation, as well as his development of the "DNS Camel" tracker for RFCs related to the DNS,[5] which was also posted to GitHub in March 2018[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wikipedia.org - Straw that Broke the Camel's Back
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 APNIC Blog - The DNS Camel, Bert Hubert, March 29, 2018
- ↑ IETF 49 Archive - "How we Made this Camel" slide from The DNS Today: Are we Overloading the Saddlebags on an Old Horse?, December 13, 2000
- ↑ IETF 49 Archive - Plenary Session - The DNS Today: Are we Overloading the Saddlebags on an Old Horse?, presented by Randy Bush, December 13, 2000
- ↑ PowerDNS.org - DNS Camel
- ↑ Github - protocol-camel Contributor Graph