17 Nov
1995
17 Nov
'95
5:55 p.m.
Gordon, "There are more things in this world, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your Philosophies." Different networks are engineered for different demands and different models based on different assumptions. This results in a a spectrum of designs which differ in a number of important dimensions. Each network was created by its designers as a solution to the problems posed by environment, business model, market focus, and engineering realities both current and anticipated. An attempt to compare the architecture of two large networks assumes you can compare all the drivers which went into the designs. Even then, you don't get "right" and "wrong" as answers. -mo