Network Security First-Step, Second Edition

Edge Router as a Choke Point

A choke point came to the world of networking courtesy of the Internet’s military heritage. A choke point refers to a single point at which everything will try to either enter or leave your network. A great example of this concept is the real history of the Battle of Thermopylae, which as portrayed in the movie 300 showed a narrow point, the pass of Thermopylae, aka The Hot Gates, being defended by a unified force of Greeks against an enormous Persian host.

In today’s world of network security, the term choke point means the edge router. The edge router is the single point from which the entire Internet gains access to your network. The router then is also a single point of failure, but that is an entirely separate ...