From: Paul Ferguson <pferguso@cisco.com> At 03:34 PM 4/5/96 +0800, Vadim Antonov wrote:

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

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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]. :-)

I agree with Paul Vixie, there is no true backbone, although there are two possible contenders for the title. Tiers were called "bubbles" by Noel Chiappa, if I remember correctly. I rather like bubbles instead of cones or tiers, as it matches the old political "spheres of influence". WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32 BSimpson@MorningStar.com Key fingerprint = 2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3 59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2