Modern Backbone
Because of the enormous overlap between long-distance telephone networks and backbone networks, the largest long-distance voice carriers such as AT&T Inc., MCI, Sprint, and CenturyLink also own some of the largest Internet backbone networks. These backbone providers sell their services to Internet service providers (ISPs).
Each ISP has its own contingency network and is equipped with an outsourced backup. These networks are intertwined and crisscrossed to create a redundant network. Many companies operate their own backbones, that are all interconnected at various Internet exchange points (IXPs) around the world. In order for data to navigate this web, it is necessary to have backbone routers, which are routers powerful enough to handle information on the Internet backbone and are capable of directing data to other routers in order to send it to its final destination. Without them, information would be lost because data does not know how to locate its end destination.
Read more about this topic: Internet Backbone
Famous quotes containing the word modern:
“Chaucer is fresh and modern still, and no dust settles on his true passages. It lightens along the line, and we are reminded that flowers have bloomed, and birds sung, and hearts beaten in England. Before the earnest gaze of the reader, the rust and moss of time gradually drop off, and the original green life is revealed. He was a homely and domestic man, and did breathe quite as modern men do.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)