[2407] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: the Internet Backbone
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (George Herbert)
Fri Apr 5 14:46:12 1996
To: "William Allen Simpson" <bsimpson@morningstar.com>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu, gherbert@crl.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 05 Apr 1996 15:32:57 GMT."
<5201.bsimpson@morningstar.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 11:39:25 -0800
From: George Herbert <gherbert@crl.com>
>> Everyone (of importance) agrees that in order to claim you're a backbone
>> you have to (now, not a year ago) be connected to at least 2 public NAPs/MAEs
>> and have at least one circuit that runs at DS3 or higher speed.
>>
>No, that is not correct.
>A US Internet "backbone" is one which connects to ALL the NAP/MAEs in
>the US. Not just two. All of them.
>Everyone else is just a "regional", of one size or another.
Name any ISP which meets that critiera.
[Hint: who is at MAE-Chicago right now?]
Once you start doing BGP peering at T3 speeds in two geographically distinct
regions, you're playing in big leagues. There is a tier below that of BGP
peering at one location; there is the tier above it of peering at *lots*
of places rather than just a few, but IMHO once you have the multiple
peering points you can call yourself a backbone or core provider,
and I'll gladly testify to that in a deposition or in court if you
start going around suing people who use it.
-george william herbert
gherbert@crl.com
