[e2e] What is the meaning of "end-to end"?

[Christian Huitema]

> From: demir [mailto:demir at usc.edu]
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 2:36 PM
> To: Bob Braden
> Cc: end2end-interest at postel.org
> Subject: Re: [e2e] What is the meaning of "end-to end"?
> 
> > As for the meaning of "end-to-end", I hope you will not think me
> > frivolous if I say that it means what it says.  In any computer
> > communication, there are n >= 2 end points, called "end systems" by
the
> > OSI folks and "hosts" by the Internet crowd (or sometimes vice
versa).
> > End-to-end protocol issues are those that operate between (or among)
> > two (or more) end systems.  In this (simplistic) view, the network
has
> > two parts, the "ends" (hosts) and the middle (routers).  Because of
the
> > statelessness of Internet routers, end-to-end issues are
particularly
> 
> Philosophically, I think, n >= 0. However, traditional computer
> communication systems are based on n >= 2. I assume the "complexity"
> depends on how big n is.

N < 2? As in the proverbial one-ended stick?