XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: jclarkeusenet@cox.net   
      
   In article ,   
   droleary@8usenet2013.subsume.com says...   
   >   
   > In article ,   
   >  scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:   
   >   
   > > Doc O'Leary  writes:   
   > >   
   > > >And yet the physical reality of the Internet is that the vast distances   
   > > >are covered by backbone routes that are more like rails than a "drive   
   > > >anywhere" highway.  The whole "self-driving packets" bit is nonsense;   
   > > >the packets don't do the routing.  If you're going to draw an analogy,   
   > > >use something you better understand.   
   > >   
   > > To be fair, there are network protocols where the packets _are_   
   self-driving.   
   > >   
   > > Infiniband directed route packets come to mind.   
   >   
   > Interesting, if true.  I just find it hard to believe that the packets   
   > would carry and work with all the routing information needed for their   
   > delivery (i.e., even if we pretend that the processing doesn't happen at   
   > "stations" and the cable connections aren't dumb "rails").  Can you   
   > point to a high-level discussion of the protocol that demonstrates it?   
   > Everything I'm seeing is at a lower level than I can readily understand,   
   > or seemingly points to the smarts still being in the network.   
      
   You might want to google "source routing".  It's not unique to   
   Infiniband.  Token Ring had it as an option to take another example.   
      
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