Re: Another UUNET Explanation

["Dorian R. Kim" <dorian () blackrose org>]

On Tue, 1 Jul 1997, Robert Bowman wrote:

> On the inverse, routers--if designed properly, can be 10 times better
> because of lower overhead, cost effectiveness, etc.  I don't think this
> is going to be a debate that one will win in this forum.  There are
> many router only based backbones, such as ours, Digex, etc.  Then there
> are the many on the fr/router side..  just as "effective" one might
> say..

There is nothing inherently good or bad about switches either. The problem
comes in, as Sean stated far more eloquently than I can, when layer 2 and
layer 3 each have their own intelligence and do not work together. This is
probably the single most problematic part of the layer 2 + layer 3 designs
I've seen implemented. 

While this has in large part caused by the lack of correct tools to build such
a beast, when you are trying to tie a necktie with two hands and your left and
right hands don't coordinate, you sometime end up hanging yourself instead.

-dorian