Anycast DNS definition
With anycast DNS, multiple servers can apply to a single IP address. This means that numerous DNS servers worldwide can respond to DNS queries. Additionally, with anycast DNS, the server that is geographically closest to the end user that is making the query will be the one to respond to it. This ensures that web content is deployed faster, reducing latency issues and loading times. Anycast DNS allows you to scale a stateless service like DNS or HTTP because it places multiple nodes for the same IP address and uses equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routing to assign traffic between them.
See also: DNS over HTTPS, class A IP address
Anycast DNS benefits
- Provides faster connections because it routes users through the nodes that are closest to them, which also reduces latency.
- Simplifies server configuration because the same DNS server settings can be used across all nodes within the network.
- Advertises an IP address across multiple nodes, which creates redundancy. This means that even if a node is overloaded or unresponsive, the IP will be backed up and functioning on another node.
- Provides DDoS mitigation because it distributes the IP across more nodes, meaning that it will transfer your IP to another node if one is flooded and overwhelmed by traffic and requests.
