Chapter 4: The Internet

Business Data Communications, 6e

 Internet History
•  Evolved from ARPANet (Defense
Department’s Advanced Research Projects
Agency Network)
•  ARPANet was developed in 1969, and was
the first packet-switching network
•  Initially, included only four nodes: UCLA,
UCSB, Utah, and SRI
 Switching Methods
•  Circuit Switching: Requires a dedicated
communication path for duration of transmission;
wastes bandwidth, but minimizes delays
•  Message Switching: Entire path is not dedicated,
but long delays result from intermediate storage
and repetition of message
•  Packet Switching: Specialized message
switching, with very little delay
Internet Domain Expansion
 Early Applications & Protocols
•  Telnet/FTP (1972/73)
•  Distributed Email (1972)
•  TCP/IP (1982-83)
•  DNS (1984)
Internet Components
 NSF and the Internet
•  In the 1980s, NSFNet extended packet-switched
networking to non-ARPA organization;
eventually replaced ARPANet
•  Instituted Acceptable Use Policies to control use
•  CIX (Commercial Internet eXchange) was
developed to provide commercial
internetworking
 The World Wide Web
•  Concept proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989,
prototype WWW developed at CERN in 1991
•  First graphical browser (Mosaic) developed by
Mark Andreessen at NCSA
•  Client-server system with browsers as clients,
and a variety of media types stored on servers
•  Uses HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) for
retrieving files
 Internet Terminology
•  Central Office (CO)
•  Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
•  Internet Service Provider (ISP)
•  Network Access Point (NAP)
•  Network Service Provider (NSP)
•  Point of Presence (POP)
 Connecting to the Internet
•  End users get connectivity from an ISP
(internet service provider)
–  Home users use dial-up, ADSL, cable
modems, satellite
–  Businesses use dedicated circuits connected to
LANs
•  ISPs use “wholesalers” called network
service providers and high speed (T-3 or
higher) connections
 Commercial Internet Use
•  ARPANet and NSF limited use to research
and development
•  Early commercial use primarily
information dissemination
•  EDI transactions gradually moved to the
Internet
•  WWW growth in 1990s has led to
increased direct sales
•  Growth has led to the expansion of data
mining for target marketing
 Internet Addressing
•  32-bit binary numbers provide unique
global Internet address
•  Includes network and host identifiers
•  Dotted decimal notation [4 octets]
–  11000000 11100100 00010001 00111001
(binary)
–  192.228.17.57 (decimal)
 Domain Name System
•  32-bit IP addresses have two drawbacks
–  Routers can’t keep track of every network path
–  Users can’t remember dotted decimals easily
•  Domain names address these problems by providing a
name for each network domain (hosts under the control of
a given entity)
 DNS Components
•  Domain name space
–  Tree-structured name space to identify all internet
resources
•  DNS database
–  Stored in a distributed database
•  Name servers
–  Server programs that hold information about a specific
portion of the domain name tree
•  Resolvers
–  Programs that extract information from name servers
based on client requests
 DNS Database
•  Hierarchical database containing resource records
(RRs) (name, IP address, other info about hosts).
•  Variable-depth hierarchy for names
–  essentially unlimited levels
–  uses . as the level delimiter in names
•  Distributed database:
–  resides in DNS servers throughout the Internet
•  Distribution controlled by the database
–  database divided into thousands of separately
managed zones,
–  distribution and update of records controlled by
database software.
 DNS Server Hierarchy
•  Each name server configured for a specific local
zone
–  Includes subdomains and associated RRs
–  Authoritative source for that portion of hierarchy
•  Root servers are at top of hierarchy
–  Different root servers for different top level domains
–  Some redundancy within domain spaces to prevent
bottlenecks
 DNS Operation
•  User program requests IP address for a domain name
•  Resolver module in local host or ISP formulates query for
local name server (same domain as the resolver)
•  Local name server checks local database/cache
–  if found returns IP address to the requestor.
–  If not found, queries other available name servers, starting down
from the root of the DNS tree or as high up the treeas possible.
•  When response is received, local name server stores the
name/address mapping in local cache
•  User program receives IP address or error message.
 DNS Name Resolution
•  Query begins with name resolver located in the
user host system
•  If requested name not in cache, query sent to
local DNS server
–  returns an address immediately, or
–  returns address after querying other servers
•  Two possible types of queries
–  Recursive
–  Iterative