|
North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Risk of Internet collapse grows
On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, Irwin Lazar wrote: > Thought this might be worth passing on: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2514651.stm > <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2514651.stm> Its difficult to tell what the authors have discovered since the paper won't be published for four months. From the press release I notice some language which would indicate it may have the same issues other Internet models have predicting the impact of physical disruptions. Q: What's the difference between airline traffic and highway traffic during a snow storm in Chicago? A: A snowstorm in Chicago doesn't have much of an impact on highway traffic through Dallas. But a snowstorm in Chicago does impact air traffic in Dallas. Air traffic in the US is a tightly coupled system. Air traffic is coordinated nationally, and passengers must make connections at fixed points which are difficult to change. Its difficult to get on a different plane heading in the general direction of your destination. Automotive traffic is loosly coupled. Auto traffic is locally controlled and cars may be individually re-routed towards its destination at many different points. Which analogy is closer to what happens to the Internet? Air traffic or highway traffic? Or maybe Internet traffic is like Internet traffic.
|