Could the Internet fragment? [domain name system]

This paper examines whether the proliferation of alternative domain names make the Internet more user-friendly and global or whether it will accelerate the Internet's fragmentation. This issue has become even more critical as China and some Arab countries have begun testing domain names in their native scripts. While coordinating several hundred roots, each offering domain names in a different language, would certainly be difficult, it is not as difficult as some Internet purists may lead us to believe