At present computers exist in most offices and several homes. Hence there is a call for sharing information and programs amid diverse computers. With the development of data communication services the interaction amid computers has augmented, therefore extending the supremacy of computers outside the computer room.
At present a user operating from one place can interact with computers of various remote sites via communication outlets.
So as to expound on this topic, this paper shall discuss: the term Internet; the three networks that were involved in the first test of TCP/IP protocol and conduction of the test; the standard used before the first test of the TCP/IP standard; when the Internet started; the major driving force for the growth of the Internet; broadband technologies in terms of DSL and cable modems; the difference between mobile wireless and fixed wireless; three future technologies that might change how we access and use the Internet; and the next generation of the Internet.
The term Internet
Internet is a worldwide network that links many computers. It is mainly used in communication and sharing knowledge. It allows hundreds of states to be linked to exchanges of information, reports and views (Stallings, 2007). Internet has a decentralized design, hence different from centrally managed online services.
Every host, also known as Internet computer, is self-sufficient. Its machinists can select the type of Internet services to employ and the local services that can be made accessible to the international Internet society (Ruley, 2006).
The Three Networks involved in the First Test of TCP/IP Protocol and Conduction of the Test
The three networks that were involved in the first TCP/IP protocol test included: the ARPANET, the Atlantic Packet Satellite network and the Packet Radio Network (Aboba, 2011).
The test was conducted in November 1977. The three-network TCP/IP test effectively created multifaceted, military-rank communications and established the inter-networking functionality intrinsic in the TCP/IP blueprint (Fitzgerald and Dennis, 2008). A study by Aboba (2011) describes the conduction of the test as follows:
“An LSI-11 computer in a van driven down the San Francisco Bayshore Freeway sent the original data over a dual-rate 400/100 kbps spread spectrum Packet Radio Net to a stationary ARPANET gateway at BBN in Boston, which sent the traffic over an internal ARPANET satellite link to a computer in Norway, which sent the data over an ARPANET dedicated circuit to UCL in London, England, which sent the data back across the ocean on the 64 kbps Packet Satellite Net using a shared channel on the Intelsat IV satellite to BBN in Boston, which sent the data across the ARPANET to a DEC KA-10 computer at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute in Marina Del Ray” (p.2).
The map of the TCP/IP test is illustrated in figure 1.
Standard Used Before the First Test of the TCP/IP Standard
NCP was the standard which was employed prior to the TCP/IP Standard. NCP offered links and flow control amid processes operating on diverse computers with ARPANET host.Relevant services, like file transfer and email, were developed ahead of NCP.
Using the ARPANET, protocols in the Data Link Layer, the Network Layer and the Physical Layer employed in the network were executed on detached Interface Message Processors (IMPs) (Fitzgerald and Dennis, 2008). The host generally linked to an IMP by means of another type of interface, with particular Data Link, Network and Physical Layer provisions.
The capacity of IMP was singled out by the Host/IMP Protocol in BBN Report 1822 (David, 2008). Because the IMP-host interface supplied lower protocol layers, NCP basically offered a Transport Layer comprising of the ARPANET Host-to-Host Protocol (AHHP). AHHP described actions to pass on a flow-governed data stream which was unidirectional, amid two hosts.
The ICP cleared the process for instituting a bidirectional duo of such streams amid a couple of host courses. In early 1983 NCP became formally outdated, since the ARPANET modified its key networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP protocol, founding the beginning of the contemporary Internet (Fitzgerald and Dennis, 2008).
When the Internet Started
Internet came into being as a product of creative thinking by some individuals in early 1960s. These individuals viewed immense latent value in enabling people to share knowledge on research and progress in technical and military aspects.
In 1962, a visionary called Licklider came up with the idea of a worldwide computer network, and approached the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) later in the same year to head the task of constructing it.
During the same time, Leonard Kleinrock came up with the packet switching theory, which was to create the foundation for Internet connections. In 1965, Lawrence Robert contributed to the development of the Internet when he linked a California computer with a Massachusetts computer in using dial-up telephone lines (Zograf, 2010).
It demonstrated the viability of broad area networking, but also demonstrated that the circuit switching of telephone lines was insufficient. The activities of Robert established the packet switching theory of Kleinrock. In 1966 Robert joined DARPA and made key contributions to his ARPANET plan. These creative thinkers and others who are not mentioned here were the actual initiators of the Internet.
In 1969 the Internet, also called ARPANET, was taken online in a contract allowed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). At first, the internet linked four main computers in the United States South Western universities. Later on, several developments were made and more computers became connected to the Internet.
The Major Driving Force for the Growth of the Internet
The growth of the Internet was majorly driven by the need to communicate and share knowledge on research and progress in technical and military aspects. The Internet was designed in a way that it would offer a network of communication, which would function even when a number of the sites were damaged by nuclear assault.
The Internet would also enable routers to control traffic about the network through different routes, in cases where it was difficult to access direct route (Zograf, 2010).
Broadband Technologies in terms of DSL and Cable Modems
Broadband is a high-powered and swift transmission means that can bear signals from several network carriers that are independent (Zograf, 2010). This is made on a sole fiber-optic cable by creating diverse bandwidth conduits. Broadband technology is capable of bearing a broad array of frequencies. It is applied in transmitting voice, information and video over elongated distances concurrently.
Nowadays, phone and television companies let information to be conveyed through cable connections and DSL connections, rather than carrying television signals or phone discussions on the broadband lines (Ruley, 2006). Therefore, one can hook his/her modem up to any mobile phone jack or cable channel and experience immediate Internet access providing that all the cable channels are activated.
DSL employs a refined modulation system to set data on copper chains. DSL is occasionally regarded as a last-mile technology since it is solely employed for links from telephone Cable Internet connections utilizing TV channel space for communication of information; definite outlets are employed for downstream communication and other outlets for upstream communication (Ruley, 2006).
DSL is also referred to as an always on connection since it employs live 2-wire copper telephone line linked to the principle and it never joins phones like the case of a dial-up link. SDSL and ADSL are the two key groups of DSL for home users (Leondes, 2008).
Both the cable Internet and DSL can mutually be used among computers on home LAN by means of a connection sharing device like firewall and router software or via software like Microsoft Internet (Fitzgerald and Dennis, 2008).
The Difference between Mobile Wireless and Fixed Wireless
Mobile Wireless and Fixed Wireless are the two extensive groups of Wireless telecommunications. Each of these groups has its own exclusive market in regard to consumer wants and technological needs.
The mobile infrastructure market needs non-tied or mobile communications (Wireless Cowboys, 2011). The aim of mobile wireless is to enable communication at anytime and at anywhere. The technology of mobile communications should be in a position to permit roaming, which is the capacity to offer mobile communication services to a phone consumer while remote to his/her home arrangement.
Mobile wireless builds considerable forfeits in performance and speed as a result of the imbalanced and greatly uneven return course from a tiny antenna (Wireless Cowboys, 2011). This also results to regular competence issues, network burden and criticism on mobile data service coverage. In future, it is expected that there will be an exponential rise in demand for mobile wireless.
Conversely, fixed wireless is just an option to wired interactions. Consumers of fixed wireless do not require mobility. Rather, most consumers of fixed wireless prefer it due to its cost effectiveness in spite of its accessibility from merely set locations (Wireless Cowboys, 2011). In most cases, fixed wireless is used by consumers in remote locations.
Fixed wireless forfeits mobility in trade for a well-built return path and a superior signal to noise proportion, which permits superior data inflection rates and augmented capacity. It is besides far less costly to install than mobile, vastly scalable and not reliant on incredibly costly licensed spectrum.
The mishmash of the existence of unlicensed fixed wireless apparatus and the reduced obstacles to market entry has formed a tendency of novelty in services, commercial models and non-public sector financed development of broadband to regions that are under-served and those that are not served.
Local Area Networks (LANs) that are restricted to a particular building are an example of fixed wireless network that cover a small region (Data Communication and Networking, 2011). The following is a figure showing the how different LANs work.
Three Future Technologies that might Change how we Access and Use the Internet
Some of the three technologies that have the potential to change how we access and use the internet are: bandwidth, wireless and grids. I shall discuss each of these separately.
Bandwidth
The prospect of the Internet development in bandwidth accessibility demonstrates miniature sign of annihilation. Huge augmentations of bandwidth in the 10 Mbps array and above will go on to be installed to home consumers via phone, cable and wireless systems (Leondes, 2008).
Telephone-founded modems and DSL Cable modems will persist to extend high velocity Internet right through inhabited areas. The price of all types of Internet links will go down. Finally, there will be more availability and demand of high resolution acoustic, video, and virtual authenticity.
Wireless
The wireless infrastructure is expected to change significantly in prospect. Wireless communications boast two immense advantages. First, no infrastructure creation or maintenance charge that is usually required except the support stations and secondly it gives consumers the freedom of use, enabling them to use it in different dimensions (Leondes, 2008).
Networks that boast wireless Internet are expected to present increasingly quicker services at infinitely lesser costs over broader distances, ultimately banishing physical communication structures.
Grids
The prospect of the Internet grid infrastructure is as certain as the extension of the Internet appears currently. The Internet link of millions of computers mutually to resolve problems, also known as grid computing, will go on to develop and transform several aspects of human ventures (Leondes, 2008).
In a comprehensive instance of the linked Internet nurturing technological collaboration, idle computer sets from home consumers across the globe will be connected together to offer enormous pools of computer power for all kinds of functions. Frequently employed in engineering and scientific research, grids are capable of establishing processing powerhouses more than any other single organization (Leondes, 2008).
The Next Generation of the Internet
Although no one can precisely envisage the future of the Internet, there exists indicators and tendencies which can guide us in the correct bearing. The following is a summary of some key tendencies forming the prospect of the Internet along with relevant forecasts.
Globalism
The prospect of the Internet worldwide sharing of ideas and knowledge at decreased cost will go on to raise the global society for future generations. Persons will be able to obtain any knowledge they desire and have more information about the globe outside their home setting.
Well knowledgeable people will make enhanced macro-level choices, and a gradually more integrated humanity will compel worldwide relations towards a universal focus. Connections to nations will marginally reduce, and links to the Earth as a common resource will drastically rise.
Communities
The prospect of the Internet infrastructure revolution is continuing, at present uniting societies as it lately united systems. Not all about the Internet is international; an interlinked humanity is also interlinked locally. The Internet will more and more be employed for communications inside societies just like across nations.
Local societies will systematize in virtual space and acquire increasing benefits of group communication. Machinery like mailing lists, towns and cities, websites and newsgroups will turn out to be more ordered and sanctioned at the vicinity level (Ruley, 2006).
In addition, communities will be intensely impacted by the potential that the Internet will have on personal communications, offering individuals in the one time remote city the capacity to easily institute interactions with others in their home region by first meeting in the Internet.
From leisure arenas to political unions and social association, Internet appliances will transform expectations of physically oriented societal organizations, and offer increasingly broad choices to persons who desire to contribute to local societies that they have mutual interests with.
Virtual reality
The prospect of the Internet scientific revolutions will go on to be created in man’s likeness. Tests with broad area video and voice communications on the Internet came into being in the early 1990’s (Fitzgerald and Dennis, 2008). Also, 2002 was the year that Voice over IP (VOIP) became frequently used for long distance voice connections (Zograf, 2010).
In years to come, Internet video phones will be very common. With the continuous increment of computer skill in every year, the capacity of technology to transform the composite analog atmosphere that people live in, or else reality, will go on to augment and will be gradually more merged with the Internet.
Three sided graphics will turn out to be more refined, and virtual authentic interfaces, for instance tangible feedback structures and viewers will turn out to be more realistic. Technology will be used in inventive ways to steer the Internet’s ideas globally, for group interactions and for super-realistic gaming.
A day may come when one will be able to hold a dinner with a cluster of buddies, each in a different nation, just as if they were in a common room, even if each person will have to get his/her own meal.
Virtual authenticity appliances will not merely improve and mirror the ordinary world in a superior way, but they will as well have the mutability, flexibility, and momentum of the digital earth, encrusted on the Internet, which will be used to make apparently magical settings of kinds that we can only imagine for now.
These more and more refined virtual practices will go on to transform how we identify with the life of reality, practice, art, and human associations.
In conclusion, Internet is a worldwide network that links many computers. The three networks that were involved in the first TCP/IP protocol test included: the ARPANET, the Atlantic Packet Satellite network and the Packet Radio Network. NCP was the standard which was employed prior to the TCP/IP Standard. It offered links and flow control amid processes operating on diverse computers with ARPANET host.
Internet came into being in early 1960s. At first, the internet linked four main computers in the United States South Western universities. Later on, several developments were made and more computers became connected to the Internet. The growth of the Internet was majorly driven by the need to communicate and share knowledge on research and progress in technical and military aspects.
Broadband is a high-powered and swift transmission means that can bear signals from several network carriers that are independent. Nowadays, phone and television companies let information to be conveyed through cable connections and DSL connections, rather than carrying television signals or phone discussions on the broadband lines. The aim of mobile wireless is to enable communication at anytime and at anywhere.
Conversely, fixed wireless is just an option to wired interactions. Consumers of fixed wireless do not require mobility. Rather, most consumers of fixed wireless prefer it due to its cost effectiveness in spite of its accessibility from merely set locations.
Some of the three technologies that have the potential to change how we access and use the internet are: bandwidth, wireless and grids. Although no one can precisely envisage the future of the Internet, there exists indicators and tendencies which can guide us in the correct bearing including: globalism, virtual reality and communities.
References
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Data Communication and Networking (2011) Data Communication and Networking. Web.
David, M. (2008) Troubleshoot your network. Web.
Fitzgerald, J. and Dennis, A. (2008) Business data communications and networking. 10th ed. New York, Wiley & sons.
Leondes, C. (2008) Database and data communication network systems: techniques and applications. London, Elsevier.
Ruley, J. (2006) Networking windows. New York, Wiley Publishing.
Stallings, W. (2007) Data and computer communications. 8th ed. London, Prentice Hall.
Wikipedia (2011) History of the Internet. Web.
Wireless Cowboys (2011) Fixed wireless and mobile wireless are not the same. Web.
Zograf, B. (2010) A brief history of the internet: an anecdotal history of the people and communities that brought about the Internet and the Web. Web.