[Outages-discussion] Internet "backbone"

[Larry Sheldon]

On 11/18/2011 2:57 PM, Joseph Jackson wrote:
> I think we should disabuse the notion that there is a Internet
> "backbone". With all the interconnection of networks and POPs that
> services Internet connectivity is it correct to still consider that the
> internet has a backbone? This isn't the NSFnet anymore with a few long
> haul links between sites. When someone says Internet Backbone what are
> they trying to describe since such a physical infrastructure doesn't
> really exist anymore.

Last I heard (I've been inactive for a while) "the backbone" == "the 
default-free zone".

I didn't think the term ever had any useful meaning above the physical 
layer (if that).

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