DNS names are resolved along a hierarchy. This lesson keeps that path structural and explicitly defers caching, retries, and transport behavior.

highlighted = computed this step

Why delegation is structural

Resolution follows a hierarchy before it reaches the answer record. This diagram keeps only the structural path parsed from the name bytes.

.comexamplewww.\to\text{com}\to\text{example}\to\text{www}
Delegation pathThe delegation path follows the parsed DNS label hierarchy.Delegation path - 17 byte QNAME.comexamplewww

Root, TLD, authoritative name

The simplified path starts at the root dot, then com, then example, then the requested host. Those labels are the same parsed QNAME labels used earlier.

rootTLDauthoritativehost\text{root}\to\text{TLD}\to\text{authoritative}\to\text{host}
Delegation pathThe delegation path follows the parsed DNS label hierarchy.Delegation path - 17 byte QNAME.comexamplewww

The path ends in data

For this example, the final A answer carries 93.184.216.34.

0x5db8d82293.184.216.340x5db8d822\leftrightarrow93.184.216.34
Delegation answerThe DNS answer record is decoded from exact fields.Delegation answer80 bits / 10 bytes0x0001000100045db8d822byte 0byte 1byte 2byte 300000000000000010000000000000001byte 4byte 5byte 6byte 700000000000001000101110110111000byte 8byte 91101100000100010type0x0001class0x0001rdlength4rdata93.184.216.34(cont.)

What is not shown

Real resolution may use caches, several servers, retries, and different transports — and a recursive resolver walks this path on the client's behalf. Whether resolution is recursive or iterative is not modeled here; this structural tree only names the simplified path.

simplified delegation path\text{simplified delegation path}
Delegation pathThe delegation path follows the parsed DNS label hierarchy.Delegation path - 17 byte QNAME.comexamplewww

Summary

Delegation is a hierarchy from the root toward the name, followed here by one A answer. Message structure and exact bytes only; resolution timing, caching, and UDP/TCP transport are not modeled here.

answer address pinned\text{answer address pinned}
Delegation pathThe delegation path follows the parsed DNS label hierarchy.Delegation path - 17 byte QNAME.comexamplewww