Sprint v. Cogent, some clarity & facts

Tue Nov 4 16:02:57 UTC 2008

Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:

> On Nov 4, 2008, at 9:49 AM, David Freedman wrote:

> >> 2. The Internet cannot "route around" de-peering
> >> I know everyone believes "the Internet routes around failures".
> >> While
> >> occasionally true, it does not hold in this case.  To "route
> >> around" the
> >> "failure" would require transit.  See item #1.
> >
> > The internet "routes around" technical failures, not political ones.

> If two transit free networks have a technical failure which disables
> all peering between them, the Internet cannot route around it.

Sure it can. The traffic just flows through any of the providers that still
have reliable high-bandwidth connectivity to both of those providers.

Unless, of course, a pre-existing political failure prohibits this traffic.
The Internet can't route around that political failure.

>From a technical standpoint, the Internet is always suffering from multiple
political failures. This leaves it vulnerable to small technical failures it
could otherwise route around.

DS