Internet Evolution

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to provide a historical account of the design and evolution of the Internet and use it as a concrete starting point for a scientific exploration of the broader issues of robustness in complex systems. To this end, we argue that anyone interested in complex systems should care about the Internet and its workings, and why anyone interested in the Internet should be concerned about complexity, robustness, fragility, and their trade offs.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT2

CHAPTER 15

INTRODUCTION5

Purpose of the Study5

Background of the Problem8

Research Question8

Aims and Objectives of the Study10

Rationale10

Significance of the Study13

CHAPTER 215

LITERATURE REVIEW15

The Transmission Media Layer15

The Internet Layer19

The Transport Layer25

The Application and Service Layer26

The Business Layer29

CHAPTER 334

METHODOLOGY34

Research Method34

Literature Selection Criteria34

Search Technique34

Keywords Used35

Theoretical Framework35

CHAPTER 436

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION36

Internet invention36

Need for internet Standards37

Major Internet Protocols40

Electronic Mail41

File Transfer Protocol41

HTTP (World Wide Web)41

News (or Usenet)42

Gopher42

Telnet42

Advantages Of The Internet43

Communication43

Information43

Entertainment44

Services45

E-Commerce45

Disadvantages46

Theft of Personal information46

Spamming46

Virus threat46

Pornography47

CHAPTER 550

CONCLUSION50

REFERENCES54

Chapter 1

Introduction

Purpose of the Study

Despite the widespread use of the Internet and its impact on practically every segment of society, its workings remain poorly understood by most users. Nevertheless, more and more users take it for granted to be able to boot up their laptops pretty much anywhere (e.g., cafes, airports, hotels, conference rooms) and connect to the Internet to use services as mundane as e-mail or Web browsing or as esoteric as music or movie-distribution and virtual reality games. The few times the users get a glimpse of the complexity of the infrastructure that supports such ubiquitous communication are when they experience various ”networking" problems (e.g., the familiar “cannot connect" message, or unacceptably poor performance), because diagnosing such problems typically exposes certain aspects of the underlying network architecture (how the components of the network infrastructure interrelate) and network protocols (standards governing the exchange of data). Consider, for example, a user sitting in a cafe and browsing the Web on her laptop. In terms of infrastructure, a typical scenario supporting such an application will include a wireless access network in the cafe; an Internet service provider that connects the cafe to the global Internet; intermediate service providers that agree to carry the user's bytes across the country or around the globe, through a myriad of separately administered, autonomous domains; and another service provider at the destination that hosts the server with the Web page requested by the user. As for protocols, successful Web browsing in this setting will require, at a minimum, standards for exchanging data in a wireless environment (cafe) and standards for the (possibly) different networking technologies encountered when transmitting the user's bit stream over the different domains' wired links within the Internet; a standard for assigning a (temporary) ID or address to the user's laptop so that it can be identified and located by any other device connected to the Internet; a set of rules for providing a single, authoritative mapping between names of hosts that provide Web pages such as www.santafe.org and their less mnemonic numerical equivalent (e.g., the address 208.56.37.219 maps to the more informative host name www.santafe.org); standards for routing the data across the Internet, through the different autonomous domains; a service that ensures reliable transport of the data between the source and destination and uses ...