North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Exchange point networks

  • From: Bill Woodcock
  • Date: Mon Jan 08 13:09:44 2001

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