N nodes are assigned to a first layer of nodes having a first domain name server (DNS) anycast Internet Protocol (IP) address and a first fully qualified domain name (FQDN). M nodes are assigned to a second layer of nodes having a second DNS anycast IP address and a second FQDN. When a request to resolve the first FQDN for the first layer of nodes is received by a DNS of a node of the first layer and a load on the ES of the node is less than a threshold, the DNS handles the request by returning an edge server (ES) anycast IP address for the ES of the node. When the load on the ES is greater than the threshold, the DNS offloads the request by returning the second FQDN so that the second FQDN of the second layer is resolved to the second DNS anycast IP address.