Sprint v. Cogent, some clarity & facts

[patrick at ianai.net (Patrick W. Gilmore)]

On Nov 4, 2008, at 9:49 AM, David Freedman wrote:

>> 2. The Internet cannot "route around" de-peering
>> I know everyone believes "the Internet routes around failures".   
>> While
>> occasionally true, it does not hold in this case.  To "route  
>> around" the
>> "failure" would require transit.  See item #1.
>
> The internet "routes around" technical failures, not political ones.

If two transit free networks have a technical failure which disables  
all peering between them, the Internet cannot route around it.

Intention is not the gating factor here.  Intention just -guarantees-  
a problem exists, turning off BGP sessions and/or light is still the  
base problem. :-)

-- 
TTFN,
patrick