the Internet Backbone

Sun Apr 7 20:45:45 UTC 1996

It is not symmetrical.

64 bytes from 38.1.2.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=249 time=273 ms
RR:     -------------------------
        Fddi0/0.San-Jose6.CA.Alter.Net (137.39.27.12)
        san-jose3.ca.alter.net (198.32.136.42)
        38.1.2.16
        core.net99.psi.net (38.1.2.10)
        core.net99.psi.net (38.1.2.10)
        Fddi0/0.Vienna1.VA.Alter.Net (137.39.11.1)
        Hssi2/0.Vienna6.VA.Alter.Net (137.39.100.78)

>From Alternet to PSI is via MAE-WEST but not vice versa.

Here's the traceroute.  Note the large jump in response time
at the CIX which confirms the above

traceroute to www.psi.net (38.8.8.2), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
 3  Fddi0/0.San-Jose3.CA.Alter.Net (137.39.27.1)  8 ms  9 ms  8 ms
 4  mae-west.psi.com (198.32.136.23)  13 ms  13 ms  12 ms
 5  38.1.2.14 (38.1.2.14)  86 ms  90 ms  89 ms
 6  www.psi.net (38.8.8.2)  91 ms  89 ms  88 ms