Peerage versus Peering

William Allen Simpson wsimpson at greendragon.com
Mon May 5 17:56:54 UTC 1997


I'll try not to belabor the point too much, since this fellow copied my
previous message in its entirety in his reply (I do wish folks would
learn how to use a MUA), but....

> From: "Jeff Young" <young at mci.net>
> webster certainly never contemplated this form of 'peer' so
> it is useless to quote him.  i agree with peter, in this
> form 'peer' means a network of equal or similar size.  in
> the current state of technology, peer to me means capable
> of asymmetry.
>
The folks discussing peering and routing policy, lo these many years
ago, were relying upon webster and other sources like unto it for the
terms to use in describing our needs.  For example, see RFC 1104.


> i'm sure the rest of nanog will play a large role in defining
> this term 'peer' in the coming months, native english speakers
> and not.
>
If you want to define some term for "networks of equal or similar size",
please use some other term, since the use of "peer" in network
terminology is already taken.  "Oligopoly" comes to mind.

WSimpson at UMich.edu
    Key fingerprint =  17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26  DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32
BSimpson at MorningStar.com
    Key fingerprint =  2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3  59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2





More information about the NANOG mailing list