Episode 14 – Roto And Cascade with Terts and Arya from NLnet Labs.

In this episode we have a conversation with Terts and Arya from NLnet Labs. Together we explore their paths into systems programming, the mission of NLnet Labs, and the critical internet infrastructure the organization maintains. The discussion spans DNSSEC, large scale DNS operations, Rotonda, and the Roto scripting language, with deep dives into performance engineering, zero copy design, and building resilient open source networking software. It is a technical episode that highlights the people and ideas behind essential internet protocols.

Learn more:

• https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/ — NLnet Labs website
• https://github.com/NLnetLabs/cascade — A friendly DNSSEC signing solution
• https://indico.dns-oarc.net/event/55/contributions/1186 — slides of conference talk introducing Cascade
• https://github.com/NLnetLabs/rotonda — Modular, programmable BGP Engine
• https://github.com/NLnetLabs/roto — strongly-typed, compiled embedded scripting language for Rust
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xJEFPlfy7Y — EuroRust 2025 talk by Terts on Roto
• https://docs.rs/domain/latest/domain/new/base/wire/index.html — domain's zerocopy module
• https://bal-e.org/blog/ — Blog from Arya
• https://2026.rustweek.org/ — RustWeek 2026 (with open CFP until EOY 2025)

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:14 Backgrounds of Terts and Arya
• 10:37 Overview of NLnet Labs
• 17:43 Understanding DNSSEC
• 25:29 The Role of Cascade in DNSSEC
• 41:06 Understanding Roto and Rotonda
• 45:55 The Evolution of Roto's Scripting Language
• 49:34 Integration and Efficiency in Roto
• 52:05 Real-World Applications of Roto
• 01:00:36 The Importance of Data Structures in Performance
• 01:06:34 Optimization Strategies for High Performance
• 01:17:14 Zero-Copy Techniques in DNS Handling
• 01:26:06 Outro

Netstack.FM

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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj