TECHNICAL
Internet Traffic and Humpty Dumpty
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master - that’s all.”
What follows is update to an earlier paper.
by John Francis Nolan First Mile Networks
Introduction What follows are some thoughts on the misuse of the term Internet/internet traffic and note that this analysis is from an engineering perspective and not an economic one. In addition, and what started as a thought piece on my part, has developed into a rather critical review and note, there are no external sponsors for this paper. My approach within this paper is to briefly review the origins of traffic within both circuit and packet switched networks, review the development of “internets,” identify the measurement (or not) of traffic and will close with some observations. Fundamentally, my concerns are over
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DECEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.4
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