Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset)

Mon Sep 24 18:13:44 UTC 2001

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Alex Bligh wrote:
> My point being that building a network which doesn't have more
> than an annoying route flap, if /both/ 60 Hudson and 111 8th
> avenue are lost, is extremely hard (*) (especially if it has
> a transatlantic component). And that's true even if you
> have your own fiber.
>
> (*) hard means that it isn't compatible with existing topologies,
> and building new ones is expensive.

Which brings me back to my original question.  Are there specific
locations which are more important to the functioning of the Internet
than others?  You can't simply say everything is important.  The FAA
breaks airports down into several catagories, large airports, medium
airports and small airports.  A large airport has 1% or more of the
passenger traffic.  Are there specific locations which handle 1% or
more of the Internet's traffic (assuming we had figures for the total
amount of traffic).