Internet Backbone Index

Sun Jul 13 22:08:00 UTC 1997

There is one significant difference between routed and switched backbones.
The hops on routed backbones can be seen by end users using tools such as
traceroute.  On switched backbones, the hops are still there, but can not be
seen by end users.  Hence the marketing perception is different though the
results are really the same.

The router side could turn the argument.  "With a routed backbone, you can
actually SEE what is happening to your packets.  It is not a hidden unknown,
thus prone to failure you can not diagnose.  With routers you know it went
bad at nqu1.  With switches, it just went bad."

randy