Talk:Routing

General comment

This article has an elegant beginning that nicely describes what routing is for a beginner. I reworded it a little (for better flow, I hope) and consolidated it into two paragraphs. Great start!Pat Palmer 14:42, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Given that there are multiple subarticles, the thing that would make this small article relatively complete would be a succinct overview in the last section of how the information base (etc) can be "learned". Possibly, brief examples related to the highway analogy might be sufficient.Pat Palmer 14:45, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

A number of years ago -- to be precise, it was 1999, when I briefed the head of the Federal Y2K Information Center and the Assistant to the President for Y2K policy -- I had a very useful PowerPoint animation. I just don't know enough about wiki or html graphics to know how to reproduce it.

1. Picture of dirt graded away by a bulldozer (i.e., dark fiber)
2. Paved road (i.e., lighted fiber)
3. Lanes painted on the road (i.e., multiplexing and medium access)
4. Road signs (Baltimore and points north, Richmond and points south, Rockville and points west--next hop and that which was beyond.

Maybe it doesn't need to be an animation, but, if it is to be a self-contained article, those lower layers are relevant. Even the L2 stuff will turn out to be relevant later on, so a single physical interface can present multile routable interfaces based on VLANs, Frame Relay DLCs, VPNs, TDM time slots, etc. Routing has to be understood before router.

To extend the metaphor, one of the early slides might show green off-ramp (i.e., outbound interface) signs, but with no lettering. The Control Plane letters the signs. This might be too tempting, though, since I can think of tailgaters I'd like to route to the null interface. Howard C. Berkowitz 00:25, 25 December 2010 (UTC)