At 03:34 PM 4/5/96 +0800, Vadim Antonov wrote:

Paul A Vixie <paul@vix.com> wrote:

...

Last time this term came up, I opined that there was no "backbone" any more and that 1996's Internet had a "hairball topology." Vadim, among others, disagreed with me but we didn't pursue the topic. Perhaps we should have.

Well, "backbone" is too vague. I rather prefer to think of Internet topology as of "tiers". The nodes in upper-levels cast "cones of influence" in lower tiers. Nodes from lower tiers belonging to different cones of influence do not generally speak to each other, and so have to purchase transit from higher tiers.

Well, I kind of liked the term 'blobs' [credit to Jerry Scharf]. :-) - paul