Re: the Internet Backbone

[Avi Freedman <freedman () netaxs com>]

> On Fri, 5 Apr 1996, Paul Ferguson wrote:
>
> > Better yet, call it the 'default-free core', which is ironically what it
> > is already called.  :-)
>
> OK, how about this...
>
> The core of the US Internet, also known as the default-free core, no longer 
> follows a backbone topology. The core is composed of the major NSP's who 
> operate national backbones providing national transit and who interconnect
> at all or most of the public exchange points.
>
> So, to determine whether a carrier is part of the core:
>
> Are they an NSP?
> Do they operate their own national backbone?
> Can they provide national transit over their own network infrastructure?
> Do they interconnect with other NSP's who satisfy the previous two 
> conditions at most of the public exchange points?

Where public exchange points == {MAE-East, MAE-West, Pennsauken, PacBell NAP,
Chicago NAP, and arguably the CIX router/cloud}.

> Is this better? 
>
> Michael Dillon                                    Voice: +1-604-546-8022
> Memra Software Inc.                                 Fax: +1-604-546-3049
> http://www.memra.com                             E-mail: michael () memra com

Avi