Introduction to the Internet

Introduction to the Internet

60 Seconds (binary/octet-stream)

Caption: : A lot happens in an Internet Minute

What is the Internet, how is it built, and how does it work? The development of the Internet can be traced to the space race between the United States and Soviet Union during the 1960's. After the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik into Earth's orbit in 1959, the United States created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to bolster technological innovation.

From ARPA to Internet

The Wikipedia definition of Internet is, a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link several billion devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

Definition of Internet

The Internet is a network of networks. It carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), the infrastructure to support email, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing and telephony.

Internet Map (binary/octet-stream)

End to End Architecture

The processing of Internet traffic is done at the sending and receiving locations.  At the sending location, the information is broken into smaller packets of the same size.  the packets are sent on their way to the destination location along different routers.  The intermediate routers along the path move the packets to the next destination on the path.  The packets are put back together at the destination.  This is called end-to-end architecture because the process is done at each end with nothing but moving along the route happening in the middle.

Fmcfig2a (binary/octet-stream)

Caption: : End to End Network Architecture

Fault Tolerant

Network (binary/octet-stream)

There is a lot of Intentional  duplication built into the Internet.  If one node quits working, traffic will be redirected to a different node to get to its ultimate destination.  The duplication enables the Internet to scale up by increasing the routers and paths to be able to manage more devices and additional traffic.

Caption: : Many routes to the same destination = fault tolerant

Nodes & Hosts

Every device on a network is referred to as a node or a host.  When a device connects to the Internet, it is given an address similar to a mailing address for a home or business.  The node can be located anywhere in the world and the address enables devices to find and communicate with each other.  The address is known as the Internet Protocol (IP) address and allows the Internet to route information to the node.

The Internet continues to grow as more hosts and users are added to the network. A host is a computer connected to the Internet. The Internet has grown exponentially since its inception in 1984. Intel predicted that by 2017, the number of devices connected to the internet would climb to three times the number of people on earth (Carestruck Current 2016). Today, basically, the entire world is connected.

Growth

The open Internet model provides net neutrality which means people can access and place lawful content on the Internet and everyone receives the same speed of delivery from the telecommunications carriers. However, there has been discussion on ISPs like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon being allowed to offer fast lanes to certain companies that would possibly slow down the individual user. Read more about the original 2015 rulings in Net Neutrality http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/26/what-the-net-neutrality-battle-is-really-about.html

Net Neutrality