the Internet Backbone

Sat Apr 6 00:39:50 UTC 1996

At 03:34 PM 4/5/96 +0800, Vadim Antonov wrote:

>Paul A Vixie <paul at vix.com> wrote:
>
>>Last time this term came up, I opined that there was no "backbone" any more
>>and that 1996's Internet had a "hairball topology."  Vadim, among others,
>>disagreed with me but we didn't pursue the topic.  Perhaps we should have.
>
>Well, "backbone" is too vague.  I rather prefer to think of Internet
>topology as of "tiers".  The nodes in upper-levels cast "cones of
>influence" in lower tiers.  Nodes from lower tiers belonging to 
>different cones of influence do not generally speak to each other,
>and so have to purchase transit from higher tiers.
>

Well, I kind of liked the term 'blobs' [credit to Jerry Scharf].  :-)

- paul