The Internet

Introductory material.
An overview lecture that covers Internet related topics, including a
definition of the Internet, an overview of its history and growth, and
standardization and naming.

1
A Definition

• On October 24, 1995, the FNC unanimously passed a

resolution defining the term Internet.
•RESOLUTION: The Federal Networking Council (FNC) agrees that the
following language reflects our definition of the term "Internet".
"Internet" refers to the global information system that --

•(i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space

based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent
extensions/follow-ons;

•(ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission

Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent
extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and

•(iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately,

high level services layered on the communications and related
infrastructure described herein.
2
History of the Internet

Mid 1960: Papers on “Packet Switching” emerge.

End 1969s: ARPA sponsors the development of a packet-switching
network, called the ARPANET. First four nodes are
UCLA, SRI, U. Utah, UCSB.
1974: The TCP/IP protocols and model are being proposed by
Cerf/Kahn.
1980: IPv4 is introduced
1983: ARPANET adopts TCP/IP. At this time, the ARPANET
has 200 routers.
1984: NSF funds a TCP/IP based backbone network. This
backbone grows into the NSFNET, which becomes the
successor of the ARPANET.
1995: NSF stops funding of NSFNET. The Internet is
completely commercial.

3
Applications of the Internet

• Traditional core applications:

Email
News
Remote Login
File Transfer
• The killer application:
World-Wide Web (WWW)
• New applications:
Videoconferencing
Telephony
P2P applications
Internet Broadcast

4
Time Line of the Internet

•Source: Internet Society

5
Growth of the Internet

1000000000
Number of Hosts on the Internet

100000000

10000000

1000000

100000

10000

1000

100
Aug-87

Aug-01
Aug-81

Aug-83

Aug-89

Aug-95

Aug-97
Aug-85

Aug-91

Aug-93

Aug-99
Source: Internet Software Consortium

6
Internet Infrastructure

Backbone Network Regional

Network
Regional
Network

IXP
local ISP IXP
Backbone Network

Regional IXP Regional

local ISP Network
Network

corporate cam pus

local ISP
network network

7
Internet Infrastructure

• The infrastructure of the Internet consists of a federation of

connected networks that are each independently managed
(“autonomous system”)
– Note: Each “autonomous system may consist of multiple IP
networks
– Autonomous systems have a number (AS number)

• Hierarchy of network service providers (NSPs)

– Tier-1: nation or worldwide network (US: less than 20)
– Tier-2: regional networks (in US: less than 100)
– Tier-3: local Internet service provider (in US: several
thousand)

8
Internet Infrastructure

• Location where a network (ISP, corporate network, or regional

network) gets access to the Internet is called a Point-of-
Presence (POP).
• Locations (Tier-1 or Tier-2) networks are connected for the
purpose of exchanging traffic are called peering points.
– Public peering: Traffic is swapped in a specific location,
called Internet exchange points (IXPs)
– Private peering: Two networks establish a direct link to
each other.

9
Topology of a Tier-1 NSP

10
Organization of a single node in a Tier-1 network

Peering points

Leased links

....
to customers
3Com

Bay Netwo rks

3Com

Leased links

....
SD

Links to other Mod em Bank Mo dem Bank

to customers
nodes of the
network
Bay Netw ork s
SD

3Com

Mod em Bank Mo dem Bank

Leased links

....
to customers

3Com

Metropolitan

....
area networks
Dial-up and
....

Mod em Bank

leased links
to customers

11
Who is Who on the Internet ?

• Internet Society (ISOC): Founded in 1992, an international nonprofit professional

organization that provides administrative support for the Internet. Founded in 1992,
ISOC is the organizational home for the standardization bodies of the Internet.
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): Forum that coordinates the
development of new protocols and standards. Organized into working groups that
are each devoted to a specific topic or protocol. Working groups document their
work in reports, called Request For Comments (RFCs).
• IRTF (Internet Research Task Force): The Internet Research Task Force is a
composed of a number of focused, long-term and small Research Groups.
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB): a technical advisory group of the Internet
Society, provides oversight of the architecture for the protocols and the
standardization process
• The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG): The IESG is responsible for
technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards process.
Standards. Composed of the Area Directors of the IETF working groups.

12
Internet Standardization Process

• Working groups present their work i of the Internet are

published as RFC (Request for Comments). RFCs are the
basis for Internet standards.
• Not all RFCs become Internet Standards ! (There are >3000
RFCs and less than 70 Internet standards)

• A typical (but not only) way of standardization is:

– Internet Drafts
– RFC
– Proposed Standard
– Draft Standard (requires 2 working implementation)
– Internet Standard (declared by IAB)

13
Assigning Identifiers for the Internet

• Who gives the university the domain name “virginia.edu”

• Who assigns it the network prefix “128.143.0.0/16”?
• Who assigns port 80 as the default port for web servers?

• The functions associated with the assignment of numbers is

referred to as Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA).

• IANA used to be managed by Jon Postel at ISI

• Since the 1990s, IP addresses and domain name allocation

are delegated to independent organizations. Different
organizations are responsible for allocating domain names
and IP addresses
14
The IANA Function

• The functions associated with the assignment of numbers in

the Internet is referred to as Internet Assigned Number
Authority (IANA).

• IANA serves as a registry that keeps records of

assigned numbers:
– IP addresses
– Protocol numbers
– Domain names (until 1992)

• There is no charge for allocation.

15
Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)
• Registration and management of IP address is done by Regional Internet
Registries (RIRs)
• Where do RIRs get their addresses from: IANA maintains a high-level
registry that distributes large blocks to RIRs
• RIR are administer allocation of:
– IPv4 address blocks
– IPv6 address blocks
– Autonomous system (AS) numbers

• There are currently 4 RIRs worldwide:

– APNIC (Asia/Pacific Region),
– ARIN (North America and Sub-Sahara Africa),
– LACNIC (Latin America and some Caribbean Islands)
– RIPE NCC (Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and African
countries located north of the equator).
• A fifth regional registry (AfriNIC) is in formation for Africa.
16
Transitioning of Domain Name Registration

• Until 1992: Domain name registration done as part of IANA

• 1992: InterNIC was created in a partnership between US government and
companies to organize and maintain the growing DNS registry and
services. The company Network Solutions ran the administration of
InterNIC. Until 1998, Network Solutions had a monopoly for domain
names.
• 1995: InterNIC started harging for domain names ($100 for 2 years)
• 1997: President Clinton directs the Secretary of Commerce to privatize
the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that
increases competition and facilitates international participation in its
management.
• 1998: ICANN was created in response to a policy statement issued by the
US Department of Commerce that called for the formation of a private
sector not-for-profit Internet stakeholder to administer policy for the
Internet name and address system. ICANN operates under a renewable 3-
year contract with the US Department of the Commerce.
– ICANN accredits domain-name registrar for .com, .org., .net (and other
domain)

17
ICANN

• The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

(ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation
that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space
allocation, protocol identifier assignment, Top-Level Domain
name system management, and root server system
management functions.
– ICANN performs the IANA functions
– ICANN accredits domain-name registrar for .com, .org.,
.net (and other domain)

• Since ICANN performs the IANA functions, it is in charge for

allocating all numbers. However, the main concern is the
allocation of domain names.
• ICANN role is to oversee the domain-name registration
system's transition from government hands to private hands
and to coordinate its decentralization and the integration into
a global community. 18