Fractal geodesic networks

Jim Choate ravage at einstein.ssz.com
Mon Dec 11 20:59:50 PST 2000



On Mon, 11 Dec 2000, Karst Starkenburg wrote:

> Power laws are measurable, and somewhat related to the "fractal" nature.
> According to the measurement described in the paper, the Internet topology
> is, in fact, fractal.

There is no such thing as 'the Internet topology'. There are many
topologies and protocols. Some aspects are fractal, some are not. If
you're talking strictly of the connectivity diagram, it is certainly
self-similar (which would account for the power law, I made reference to a
similar power law, m/4, that is used in biology related to branching) and
space filing, but that doesn't make it self similar enough to qualify for 
'fractal' in the strictest sense of the word. Different branches, while
they are both branches, wouldn't share enough common sub-structures to
have similar fractal dimensions, and it still retain any convenience from 
a global perspective.

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