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From: use...@gatech.CSNET
Newsgroups: mod.map,net.news
Subject: The USENET Backbone (Last changed: 13 August 1985)
Message-ID: <1103@gatech.CSNET>
Date: Sun, 1-Sep-85 00:19:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.1103
Posted: Sun Sep 1 00:19:54 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Sep-85 11:49:29 EDT
Expires: Fri, 11-Oct-85 00:19:54 EDT
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Original-from: Gene Spafford (gatech!spaf)
[Most recent change: 13 August 1985 by spaf]
A Usenet "backbone" site is one which exchanges every (non-local) news
article it receives with at least two other backbone sites; or which is
the main newsfeed for a particular area (e.g., Australia) and exchanges
news with at least one other backbone site. This exchange is done
(theoretically) with minimum delay. Thus, any article submitted to a
backbone site is supposed to propagate to all other backbone sites
within a very short time period. (Under actual conditions, your milage
may vary.)
Each backbone site normally feeds some number of well-connected
secondary sites, most of which are not "leaf" (terminal) nodes.
These secondary sites feed the news out to other distribution and leaf
nodes, and so on.
For optimal news distribution, each site should establish an "L" type
link with a site closely connected to a backbone site. This will help
ensure that any articles submitted from that site get propagated to the
whole net with a minimum of delay. Sites should *not* request a news
feed from a backbone site unless they are willing to feed at least five
or six (or more) other, non-terminal sites.
Note that some backbone links (viz., seismo--munnari,
uw-beaver--ubc-vision, seismo--mcvax) do not carry all newsgroups,
including some "net" and "mod" newsgroups. The European component of
Usenet receives a limited number of "net" and "mod" groups, as well as
having a number of active "eur" newsgroups, and exchanges all those
articles via X.25 links.
To send mail to the administrators of all the backbone sites, address
your mail to "backb...@cbosgd.UUCP". If you wish to send mail to the
administrator of a particular site, consult the uucp map for the name
and address of the appropriate individual(s).
Here is the backbone as of 1 September 1985:
mgnetp--------ihnp4-----------------------cbosgd
| |
| |
alberta ulysses |
| | |
| | |
ubc-vision burl---------clyde--------watmath---------utzoo
| |
| |
uw-beaver----tektronix--------------------decvax---------linus
| | |
| | |
hplabs-------sdcrdcf mcnc---------philabs
| | |
| | |
hao sdcsvax |
| |
| |
munnari--------seismo------------------------------------cmcl2
|
|
kddlab---------mcvax--------< see below>
This is the European backbone:
enea penet diku
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
vmucnam----mcvax------cernvax
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
ukc prlb2 i2unix
|