[IP] Internet vs internet

[David Farber <farber@tmail.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike O'Dell <mo@ccr.org>
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Internet vs internet
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:46:23 -0500 (EST)



at least one existing distinction between "Internet" and
"internet" has been around for a while and fills an
important role when discussing related technology.

some of us use "Internet" (pronounced "Big-I Internet") to
refer to the global network which is mostly connected, at
least at the IP layer, and can forward IP packets from
sources to destinations (NAT boxes ignored for now).

we then use "internet" (pronounced "little-i internet") to
refer to a network merely using IP and friends as the primary
end-to-end protocol suite, not especially part of the Big-I
Global Internet nor inclusive of it.

This becomes quite important when discussing the scalability
of certain technologies based on IP packet formats.  some
protocols will work at "Big-I Internet scale" (TCP, DNS, HTTP,
and TLS are but a few examples), while other protocols will
only work at "little-i internet scale".  (DHCP, RADIUS, and
UDP/NFS are examples to varying degrees)

i think it is *very* important to keep a strong distinction
between "just a random network using IP", and the highly-connected
global IP-based network at I use to send you this email.

and if balkanization is indeed a risk in the near future,
reserving Big-I Internet for the highly-connected region could
be very important indeed.

	cheers,
	-mo
-- Dave

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