<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On 6 okt 2007, at 02.10, Milton L Mueller wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">If people responsible for running networks use a phrase like "global</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">routing table(s)" to describe something (and they do) there's a very</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">good chance that the phrase stands for something meaningful, and that</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">there is utility in describing it as such.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>i would agree. while it is true that there is no global routing table as in some list sitting in one place somewhere, the entire point of routing protocols is to build a distributed global routing table. these days, that distributed table never settles down, i.e. never converges, and hence there is never a single global table. but to say this is as if 'to say not only can you not put your foot in the same river twice, you can't even but it in once'. there still are rivers, even if i can't put my foot in it even once.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>it s also true that there is routing policy that is instantiated in these tables and some of it has to do with financial and political considerations - who will be allowed to transit a particular network is often a business and/or political decision.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>but having said that, i certainly don't find myself in favor of some sort of top down policy control for these essentially local policy decisions. and the idea of some regulatory entity having something to say about routing policy is somewhat frightening.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>a.</DIV></BODY></HTML>