Patterns in Network Architecture

Chapter 3. Patterns in Protocols

The trick with reductio ad absurdum is knowing when to stop.

Introduction

In this chapter, we begin to get to the crux of the matter: finding patterns in the architecture of networks. And not just any patterns, but patterns that go beyond natural history and make predictions and provide new insights. The task is made more difficult by the nature of computer science; that is, we build what we measure. Unlike physics, chemistry, or other sciences, the patterns that form the basis of our field are seldom fixed by nature, or they are so general as to provide little guidance. For us, it is more difficult to determine which patterns are fundamental and not an artifact of what we build.

Even in what we think of as ...