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"Gordon" == Gordon Cook <gcook@tigger.jvnc.net> writes:
Gordon> Sean, I am trying learn and understand and if Gordon> I was unnecessarily harsh on sprint I Gordon> apologize. Ok, no big deal. Like everyone else, we have our share of whoppingly bad mistakes, but it's nicer to get beaten up for those than for imaginary things. (Well, actually, it's nicer to get people to repeat all the wonderful things about us, but then we call such people PR agents and pay them lots of money :-) ) The NSF's new architecture as I understand it was principally designed as a way for the NSF to get out of the business of supplying production networking services itself by dumping the funded regional networks onto commercial providers without having to worry that those networks would end up on multiple providers who didn't talk to each other. Parts of the NSF93-52 scheme have worked quite well, other parts not so well, and other parts have so completely surpassed all predictions for success as to be somewhat frightening on engineering and planning fronts. I imagine that the NSF is already thinking "What Next" and could well be planning a further devolution of funding to the level of Universities (or perhaps even to funded projects). The problem with the NSF thinking "What Next" is typically that the Internet moves faster than it does, so by the time a programme is underway, it is in danger of being obsolete or wrong-headed. One could argue that some of NSF 93-52 is already in one or both of those boats. Planning for X being experimental and then seeing at the time the plan is approved that X is about to be rolled into production and X**2 is being designed for because of anticipated production need probably gives people ulcers. On the opposite side of the coin, planning for X, later needing X, but getting something considerably less than X gives the Internet ulcers, as we have seen from time to time with parts of the NSF's new design thingie. I think both types of flaw should be more easily correctable than they appear to be right now, but then sometimes I think the same about telcos... Sean. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: PGP Public Key in ftp://ftp.sprintlink.net/engineer/smd/pgpkey iQCVAwUBMNO1RESWYarrFs6xAQEZvAP+NVSIouUlX3ep3fdqe/4dIivL8lJLkpE4 qpCCQJdQfgZoz0D2T5iC9M8Q+crb+1ebwFu+y3lIbuphQs0pbrKSdoRve7FZcSc9 tmEu+zV0sOPXrhJuYE5lIll455KGBli0OA8TAUb20biMdhkdKQIQ7zHawZY8R+6p nNdwhYmCWhc= =iUPS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----