North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: And then there were two
On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 05:16:13PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote: > > If you accept the premise that "peer == equal" does that mean > in the end there will be only two ISPs each with exactly 50% > of the world's Internet because no one else will be an equal? > > > I've never understood how the word "peer" mutated from its > technical definition arising from its use in the BGP protocol > to its use by marketing people. > > As far as I can tell, EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol) originally > used the term "neighbor." Berkeley used the berkelism "peer" in > their software and RFC 911 documenting their experience, and the > term stuck through EGP2, BGP1-4. > > If we still used the word "neighbor" would the phrase "Are you > a neighbor?" have a different ring than "Are you a peer?" You > can have lots of neighbors, even if you think you are superior > to all of them. there's the Mr. Rogers aspect of asking "won't you be my neighbor?" the current state of the internet does bear a striking resemblance to make-believe land, so this may be quite appropriate. :-D -- Sam Thomas Geek Mercenary
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