Hi Doug,
Re: dumb vs intelligent and where, there's a lot to be said about who's doing what, and why. Purists will argue the dumb component in the core, and intelligence at the edge... and all IP versus ATM... and a whole lot more with regards to RFC adherence.
But when the issue becomes the ability to compete on determinism for a wide range of electronic commerce services, the providers are likely to begin recognizing that business is, after all, business, and we will increasingly see the gloves coming off.
In this sense, sometimes intelligence must reside in the most unlikely of places, and damn the ideological torpedoes.
For example, witness ATHM's proprietary constructs in their backbone architecture, and Digital Island's adaptation of an "Intelligent Network" posture, using an international ATM backbone within their autonomous core.
I'd like to review your post a little more thoroughly later on, when I have some time. 'til then, Regards, Frank |
