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Internet vs internet
From: David Farber <farber () tmail com>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 17:52:03 -0500
-----Original Message----- From: Mike O'Dell <mo () ccr org> To: dave () farber net Subject: Internet vs internet Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:46:23 -0500 (EST) at least one existing distinction between "Internet" and "internet" has been around for a while and fills an important role when discussing related technology. some of us use "Internet" (pronounced "Big-I Internet") to refer to the global network which is mostly connected, at least at the IP layer, and can forward IP packets from sources to destinations (NAT boxes ignored for now). we then use "internet" (pronounced "little-i internet") to refer to a network merely using IP and friends as the primary end-to-end protocol suite, not especially part of the Big-I Global Internet nor inclusive of it. This becomes quite important when discussing the scalability of certain technologies based on IP packet formats. some protocols will work at "Big-I Internet scale" (TCP, DNS, HTTP, and TLS are but a few examples), while other protocols will only work at "little-i internet scale". (DHCP, RADIUS, and UDP/NFS are examples to varying degrees) i think it is *very* important to keep a strong distinction between "just a random network using IP", and the highly-connected global IP-based network at I use to send you this email. and if balkanization is indeed a risk in the near future, reserving Big-I Internet for the highly-connected region could be very important indeed. cheers, -mo -- Dave ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To unsubscribe or update your address, click http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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