Packet switching
Packet switching is a digital communication approach that divides digital messages into distinct units called packets, which contain the header information that describes the address of origin and destination, any other information needed to control the message such as encryption and decryption methods. The packets use different paths to reach the destination whereby reassembling takes place. Routers are responsible for transmission in packet switching.
In addition, they deploy algorithms to determine the most appropriate for the packets depending on traffic and security. Packet switching are more advantageous to circuit switching because they are less costly and less wasteful; meaning they do not contain a lot of overhead data compared to circuit switching. Another advantage is that packet switching can deploy both connection-less oriented and connection oriented approaches to digital communication, this implies that there guarantee of security and faster delivery since the packets can follow the routes that are more secure and are experiencing less traffic.
Reasons for limited information sharing over the internet
The internet offers a vast source of information due to the fact that there are internet users are increasing on a daily basis. Despite this improvement, a number of factors such as privacy issues limit rich information sharing. Privacy issues entail concepts such as authentication and validation in order to have access to information on the internet. Rich information sharing is also limited due to security issues on the internet. Security is a major issue in peer-to-peer connections over the internet; as a result, people are putting into consideration security measures that serve to limit information sharing over the internet.
Limitations of the internet today
There are four major limitations associated with the current internet infrastructure. The first significant limitation is bandwidth limitations associated with insufficient capacity to meet the communication requirements in the backbones and switching centers. Insufficient bandwidth results to communication bottlenecks and the incapability to handle high data traffic of voice and video. The second significant limitation is Quality of Service (QoS) limitations resulting to latency issues and delays and no guaranteed in delivery of messages.
The third limitation of the current internet is language development limitations related to web development tools such as HTML, which are not efficient in the development of databases and online communication platforms. Tags used in web development tools are fixed and generic in nature. The fourth limitation associated with the current internet is Network architecture limitations related to ineffective topologies that are incapable of supporting communication to multiple users at the same time. In addition there are limitations of wired internet connections associated with the expensiveness of fiber-optic cables, distance issues in the normal Ethernet cables and cellular systems that are outdated.
Services currently available through the web
The first significant internet service is the electronic mail service, which facilitates communication over the internet via electronic text messages. Examples of e-mail services include yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. The second service available on the internet is World Wide Web (www), which is a set of interlinked documents, found on the internet and is accessible using Uniform Resource locators (URLs). The third service available on the internet is the search engines, which offer faster search to any information on the internet.
Examples of search engines include Google, Bing and Yahoo search. Another internet service is Internet telephony, which facilitates the transmission of voice messages over the internet. Examples of telephony services include yahoo messenger and Windows Live messenger. The fifth internet service is web bases application, which internet users use to run applications without having them installed in their workstation. An example of web-based application is the Office Web Apps and Google Apps.
Another service available on the internet is online video teleconferencing, which facilitates video communication between multiple users. An example of teleconferencing service is the Cisco WebEx meeting center. The internet also provides internet radio and television services used to stream radio and TV content via the internet. Another service available on the internet is the instant messaging service, which provides real-time online chat between users in interconnected networks. An example of instant messaging service is the AOL instant messenger. The other internet services are Blogs, Wikis and Podcast services.
Internet connections used today
There are various methods used in setting up internet connections. They include the dial-up access, cable connection, internet via satellite, tier connection, DSL, ADSL 2+, optical cable and Internet 2. The significant difference between them is the transmission speeds. The dial up access is the most cheap and slowest internet access method having speeds of up to 56 Kbps. The cable connection provides internet connection via TV lines and can support a range of 512 Kbps to 20Mbps.
The satellite connection is uninterrupted and can support an average speed of 500Kbps. Tier carries are used as internet Backbone and their speeds vary according to the number of Individual channels.T1, T2 and T3 can support up to 64 Kbps. T4 and T5 can support up to 43 and 400 Mbps respectively. DSL uses telephone lines that can support a range of 128 Kbps to 8 Mbps depending on the category. Optic cable connection supports a speed that is greater than 1Gbps, which can transmit voice and video messages effectively.
The Internet2 is not common and provides the highest transmission speeds of about 100 Gbps. The most common internet connection trend in the recent times is the optical cable connection. Internet 2 is a recent approach and has not gained much popularity. Corporates and business organizations prefer using the Tier connection and DSL, while individuals roaming prefer using dial-up connection.