16.5. Hurricane Numbering
The bane of Usenet administrators has historically been a requirement that all articles pass through a single server to get numbered. Without synchronized article numbers, servers cannot be load-balanced effectively. Hurricane allows for a departure in such a methodology.
Hurricane is a transit-less article numbering server that can number articles without the need to process or ever accept them. Because of this, you can use your network topology to leverage peering points without the significant bandwidth required to redirect a full-feed to the POP. Routers benefit from the articles already local to the POP without the need to send them off to a numbering server and then wait for their return before injecting them to your Usenet Reader network.
With Hurricane, one or more Cyclones at each site can provide unique, authoritative article numbers. Feed traffic can then take on a more organic, "feed it if you need to" approach, rather than "force a full feed across the country, then back because it needs to be numbered."
Take a look a Figure 4 for an simple Hurricane setup where 3 hosts are numbering at 3 remote POPs. Feeds from 2 Cyclones to their local Tornado Back Ends have been left out for simplicity.
