[33289] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Exchange point networks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Woodcock)
Mon Jan 8 13:06:59 2001
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:04:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Bill Woodcock <woody@zocalo.net>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <200101081731.JAA07786@nemo.corp.equinix.com>
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Yes, when I said "route-server or looking glass" I meant one or the other
or both, not that they were interchangeable terms. My apologies for any
confusion I may have caused.
> I think it would be useful if we had an agreed set of terms for
> those services.
>
> One is a "route collector", with which exchanges participants peer in
> order to give the exchange operator a view into what is going on
>
> Another is a "looking glass" which allows some group (ranging from
> participants to the general public) to see layer 3 adjacencies
Hmmm... These would seem to me to be the same thing, just a difference of
who's allowed to log in. I'd call both of these a looking glass.
> The third is a route server. The route servers allow
> exchange participant to outsource the routing task (but not the
> forwarding of packets) to a specialized host within the exchange.
I've also heard some symantic confusion between route-servers and route
reflectors. In conversation, I usually assume that distinction to be
between functionally equivalent boxes operating in the plenum between a
number of administrative domains (a route-server) or as glue between
regions or ASes within one administrative domain (a route reflector).
I don't know how common that understanding would be, though. Anyone have
any better thoughts on the difference between a route-server and a route
reflector?
-Bill
