Exchange point networks
Bill Woodcock
woody at zocalo.net
Mon Jan 8 18:04:04 UTC 2001
Yes, when I said "route-server or looking glass" I meant one or the other
or both, not that they were interchangeable terms. My apologies for any
confusion I may have caused.
> I think it would be useful if we had an agreed set of terms for
> those services.
>
> One is a "route collector", with which exchanges participants peer in
> order to give the exchange operator a view into what is going on
>
> Another is a "looking glass" which allows some group (ranging from
> participants to the general public) to see layer 3 adjacencies
Hmmm... These would seem to me to be the same thing, just a difference of
who's allowed to log in. I'd call both of these a looking glass.
> The third is a route server. The route servers allow
> exchange participant to outsource the routing task (but not the
> forwarding of packets) to a specialized host within the exchange.
I've also heard some symantic confusion between route-servers and route
reflectors. In conversation, I usually assume that distinction to be
between functionally equivalent boxes operating in the plenum between a
number of administrative domains (a route-server) or as glue between
regions or ASes within one administrative domain (a route reflector).
I don't know how common that understanding would be, though. Anyone have
any better thoughts on the difference between a route-server and a route
reflector?
-Bill
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