MIX

Thu Apr 4 23:00:15 UTC 1996

> > I believe that a middle-tier between the ISP and the NSP is the best way
> > to achieve this and could very well decrease global routing table size.
> >
> These are often called Metropolitan Exchanges.  They have been proposed
> repeatedly in the IETF context.  Several of them are operational around
> the US, but there need to be hundreds of them.
> 
> How about you?  Have you created one in _your_ metro?

Yes, actually, but they solve a different problem ... bandwidth.
It doesn't provide Internet connectivity, it doesn't assign IP addresses...
though it could provide backup connectivity with the appropriate transit
agreements in place between participating ISP's.

This is the model that most of these exchanges are being built around.
Anything else is "just a really big local ISP" and is imposing a business
model upon a region worse than any FCC tarriff has done.

Dave

-- 
Dave Siegel		     Sr. Network Engineer, RTD Systems & Networking
(520)623-9663		     Network Consultant -- Regional/National NSPs
dsiegel at rtd.com		     User Tracking & Acctg -- "Written by an ISP, 
http://www.rtd.com/~dsiegel/					for an ISP."