Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!SDE.HP.COM!wunder
From: wunder@SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: large corporate networks
Message-ID: <8807061752.AA04284@sde.hp.com>
Date: 6 Jul 88 17:52:57 GMT
References: <8807052226.AA10904@thumper.bellcore.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29


   It now serves roughly 1,000 hosts, almost all of which speak TCP/IP
   and related protocols.

   I believe this to be one of the largest networks of its type, and I
   would like to compare it to other corporate computer networks.

Sorry, not even close.  The HP Internet has about 7500 hosts
worldwide (US, Europe, and Japan).  We have about 120 gateways, over
200 subnets, and nearly all links are 56Kbit or above.  Our link to
Japan is 19.2Kbits, but we plan to upgrade it.  We are testing a
couple of T1 links, and may be installing some cross-country T1 next
year, depending on funding.

In the US, most of our links are channels on T1s that were bought for
our voice network.  In Europe, we use 64Kbit X.25 service.  We also have
two satellite connections.

DEC and Xerox have corporate networks with over 10,000 hosts, but
they are not TCP/IP (DECNET and XNS, natch).  My guess is that the HP
Internet is the largest private TCP/IP network, where "private" and
"TCP/IP" are necessary qualifiers in order to say "largest".

The HP Internet was my first project after coming to HP.  It was all
modems and UUCP three years ago.

Walter Underwood
HP Software Development Environments
Palo Alto, CA