Here is a description of the San Diego Road Runner network architecture as I've been able to piece it together by the use of standard Internet network diagnostic tools, from comments made by Road Runner staff, and from discussions with others familiar with the technology. It is entirely possible that my information contains errors and/or is incomplete; additions and corrections are welcome.
Also connected to the ATM backbone via point-to-point fiber links are fifteen Toshiba Authentication Systems (TASes) at the various regional hubs around the city. TAS-7 is located at Ware Ct where it is used for local testing. TAS 14 does not exist. The TASes provide DHCP and DNS service to the users, and they also implement an ad-hoc login protocol that must be executed on the user's computer before upstream packets are permitted to pass to the ATM backbone.
Colocated with each TAS and connected to it with a small (2 host) FDDI ring is a Motorola Cable Router, the device that talks directly to the Motorola CyberSURFR cable modem in each subscriber's home.
Here is a diagram of the network courtesy of Mike Maculsay.
The MCI connection is seven downward multiplexed T1s to MCI's Los Angeles POP. The connection to CERFnet (installed 31 July 1997) is now a full DS3 (43 Mb/s).
The Cisco 7507 has a third external connection: a frame relay link to the Time Warner Pathfinder site.
Ware Ct. has several miscellaneous LANs. Two, a 100 megabit and a 10 megabit ethernet, apparently use the mail server (mail.san.rr.com, 204.210.0.1) as a router to the ATM backbone. Another two LANs, probably Ethernets, use a Cisco 4700 as a router to the ATM backbone.
The San Diego address space is divided into 64 256-host ("Class C") nets as follows:
| subnet, 204.210.nnn |
usage |
| 0 | ATM backbone |
| 1 | Ware Ct 100Base-T network |
| 2 | Ware Ct 10Base-T network |
| 3 | unused |
| 4 | Ware Ct network (32-48 only - via Cisco 4700) |
| 5 | Ware Ct 10Base-T network (via Cisco 4700) |
| 6 | unused |
| 7 | regional hub FDDI subnets (see below) |
| 8 | Hub 7 user subnets (Ware Ct test) |
| 9-11 | Hub 2 user subnets (Mira Mesa) |
| 12-18 | Hub 1 user subnets (Pacific Beach) |
| 19-21 | Hub 3 user subnets (Scripps Ranch) |
| 22-26 | Hub 8 user subnets (La Jolla) |
| 27-30 | Hub 4 user subnets (Rancho Penasquitos) |
| 31-34 | Hub 5 user subnets (North Clairemont) |
| 35-38 | Hub 6 user subnets (University City/UTC) |
| 39-41 | Hub 15 user subnets (Carmel Valley) |
| 42-45 | Hub 10 user subnets (South Clairemont) |
| 46-49 | Hub 9 user subnets (Kearney Mesa) |
| 50-51 | Hub 11 user subnets (Rancho Bernardo West) |
| 52-55 | Hub 12 user subnets (Rancho Bernardo East) |
| 56-57 | Hub 13 user subnets (Tierrasanta) |
| 58-59 | Hub 16 user subnets (Coronado) |
| 60 | Hub 15 (Carmel Valley) overflow |
| 61 | Hub 3 (Scripps Ranch) overflow |
| 62 | Hub 6 (University City/UTC) overflow |
| 63 | Ware Ct network (via Cisco 4700) |
In each user subnet, the .1 address (e.g., 204.210.35.1) is assigned to the cable router. It has a domain name of the form tas[1-16]-hfc[1-9].san.rr.com. The remaining addresses are available for DHCP assignment to users. They have domain names of the form dt[1-16]h[1-9]n[2-fe].san.rr.com. The first numeric field gives the hub number, the second gives the subnet number within the hub starting at 1, and the third field gives the host part of the IP address in hexadecimal.
The Motorola Cable Routers do not support classless IP subnetting, so the address blocks they manage must be aligned on full Class C boundaries.
Note that the hubs are not assigned equal numbers of subnets, probably because they serve different numbers of customers.
The 204.210.7 subnet is further subdivided into small 4-host subnets for the FDDI ring in each regional hub. Each hub uses the the four available addresses as follows:
| FDDI host number | usage | domain name, #=hub number |
| 0 | unused | |
| 1 | TAS | tas#-fddi.san.rr.com |
| 2 | Motorola Cable Router | mcr#-fddi.san.rr.com |
| 3 | unused |
| hub# | region | user subnets, 204.210.nnn |
Cable router FDDI address mcr#-fddi.san.rr.com |
TAS FDDI address tas#-fddi.san.rr.com |
TAS ATM address tas#-atm.san.rr.com |
| 1 | Pacific Beach Mission Beach |
12-18 | 204.210.7.6 | 204.210.7.5 | 204.210.0.240 |
| 2 | Mira Mesa | 9-11 | 204.210.7.10 | 204.210.7.9 | 204.210.0.241 |
| 3 | Scripps Ranch | 19-21,61 | 204.210.7.14 | 204.210.7.13 | 204.210.0.242 |
| 4 | Rancho Penasquitos |
27-30 | 204.210.7.18 | 204.210.7.17 | 204.210.0.243 |
| 5 | North Clairemont |
31-34 | 204.210.7.22 | 204.210.7.21 | 204.210.0.244 |
| 6 | University City UTC |
35-38,62 | 204.210.7.26 | 204.210.7.25 | 204.210.0.245 |
| 7 | Ware ct test | 8 | 204.210.7.30 | 204.210.7.29 | 204.210.0.246 |
| 8 | La Jolla | 22-26 | 204.210.7.34 | 204.210.7.33 | 204.210.0.247 |
| 9 | Kearney Mesa | 46-49 | 204.210.7.38 | 204.210.7.37 | 204.210.0.100 |
| 10 | South Clairemont |
42-45 | 204.210.7.42 | 204.210.7.41 | 204.210.0.101 |
| 11 | Rancho Bernardo West |
50-51 | 204.210.7.46 | 204.210.7.45 | 204.210.0.102 |
| 12 | Rancho Bernardo East |
52-55 | 204.210.7.50 | 204.210.7.49 | 204.210.0.103 |
| 13 | Tierrasanta | 56-57 | 204.210.7.54 | 204.210.7.53 | 204.210.0.104 |
| 14 | unused? | ||||
| 15 | Carmel Valley | 39-41,60 | 204.210.7.58 | 204.210.7.57 | 204.210.0.106 |
| 16 | Coronado | 58-59 | 204.210.7.62 | 204.210.7.61 | 204.210.0.105 |
Traceroute is a utility that determines the path an IP packet takes through the Internet by cleverly using the Time to Live (TTL) field in the IP packet header and looking for ICMP Destination Unreachable (TTL exceeded) messages generated by the routers along the path.
When looking at a traceroute, bear in mind that routers generally have a different IP address for each interface, so the IP address shown in a traceroute is always that of the interface on which the router received the packet.
Because of this rule, a traceroute done in the reverse direction may show a completely different set of IP addresses and domain names even when the exact same routers are traversed in reverse order.
Here is the annotated output of a "traceroute" command ("tracert" in Windows 95) performed from a host in the University City area through the Road Runner system to a host on the external Internet. The nodes beyond the entry point to MCI are not shown.
1 * * * 2 tas6-fddi.san.rr.com (204.210.7.25) 125.26 ms 258.222 ms * 3 7507-atm.san.rr.com (204.210.0.254) 244.646 ms 39.975 ms 48.9 ms 4 border7-serial4-2.LosAngeles.mci.net (204.70.252.105) 52.217 ms 263.338 ms 19.007 ms
Node 1: The Cable Router should have responded here with its IP address (204.210.35.1 in this case), but a bug in the current firmware prevents this. I have heard the new release (1.3) fixes this, but I'm not sure.
Node 2: This is the FDDI interface on TAS 6, the side "facing" the cable router (and me).
Node 3: This is the ATM interface on RR's main Cisco router. Again, this is the side that faces the TAS, the cable router and me.
Node 4: This is the input interface on MCI's router in Los Angeles.
Now here is the last part of a traceroute performed in the reverse direction from a machine outside the RR network. Although the very same nodes are traversed in reverse order, the names and addresses are different because traceroute reports the interfaces away from the destination.
11 * * time-inc-new-media.LosAngeles.mci.net (204.70.252.106) 43 ms 12 tas6-atm.san.rr.com (204.210.0.245) 44 ms * 44 ms 13 * * * 14 dt6h1n34.san.rr.com (204.210.35.52) 70 ms 47 ms 149 ms
Node 11: This is the MCI leased line interface on RR's Cisco 7507 router. Don't be fooled by the name, it is standard practice to assign carrier-owned IP addresses and domain names to the external interface on a customer's border router.
Node 12: This is the ATM interface on TAS 6, the side of TAS 6 facing away from the end user (me).
Node 13: Again, the Motorola cable router refuses to respond. It should have responded with 204.210.7.26, its FDDI interface address.
Node 14: We reach our destination.
