Introduction - Internet and Intranet
- Intranet is the networking structure in which multiple computers are connected to each other, generally for organizational purposes.
- The intranet within an organization is only accessible to the members of that organization.
- Internet is the worldwide network of interconnected computers.
- Each computer connected to the Internet is identified by a unique address called IP Address.
- Everyone in the globe have access to the Internet.
Similarities
1. Both uses Internet protocol like TCP/IP and FTP.
2. Both can be accessed via a web browser.
Differences
1. Internet is general to computers all over the world while Intranet is for specific computers only.
2. Internet has a lot of vulnerabilities while Intranet can be safely privatized as per the need.
3. Internet has public space while Intranet is designed to be a private space.
4. Visitor’s traffic is unlimited in Internet while traffic allowed is limited in Intranet.
History and Development of Internet and Intranet
- The development of Internet initiated in early 1960 AD, with the development of ARPANET.
- The first message was sent over the ARPANET from computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock’s laboratory at University of California to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute.
- Between 1960 and 1970, various other packet switching networks were developed such as NPL network, CYCLADES, Tymnet, Telenet and so on using communication protocols.
- ARPANET project led to the development of internetworking protocols that allows multiple networks to be connected into network of networks.
- In 1981, access to ARPANET is extended.
- In 1982, TCP/IP was introduced as the standard networking protocol on the ARPANET.
- In 1980’s, Tim Berners Lee founded World Wide Web, linking hypertext documents into an information system, accessible from any node on the network
- Commercial ISP’s also emerged during this period.
- In 1990, ARPANET was decommissioned.
- After mid 1990’s, Internet has had revolutionary impact on commerce and technology, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, VoIP, two way interactive video calls, blogs, social networking and so on.
- In 1993, only 1% of the information flow through telecommunication network; which rises to 51% by 2000 and more than 97% by 2007.
- Web1.0 (Static sites) and Web2.0 (User generated contents)
Internet Ecosystem
Components of Internet Ecosystem
- Internet ecosystem describes the organizations and communities that guides the operation and development of technologies and infrastructure that comprises the global Internet.
- It focuses on the rapid and continued development and adoption of Internet technologies.
The various components of Internet ecosystem are as follows:
1. Naming and Addressing Component
2. Policy Development Body
3. Education and Capacity Building Body
4. Users
5. Shared global Services and Operations
6. Open Standards Development Body
Naming and Addressing:
- Focus Areas : IP Address and Generic Top Level Domains(gTLD)
- IP address is unique numeric identifier that are needed by every device that connects to Internet.
- It helps in accurate transmission of data from source to destination.
- It is handled by ICANN, IANA, RIR, ASO and so on.
- IP address allocation is undertaken by IANA.
- The ISP request for IP addresses to RIR directly or in some cases through LIR and NIR.
- If the RIR have no remaining allocations as given by IANA, it requests IANA for new allocation.
- gTLD is the type of top level domain maintained by IANA for use in Domain Name System of the Internet. Eg: .com, .org and so on.
- It is handled by Generic Name Supporting Organization(GNSO), Commercial and Business Users Constituency(CBUC), Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers(ISPCP), Non-Commercial Users Constituency(NCUC) and so on.
Policy Development:
1. IP address policy:
- The process by which allocation policy is proposed and agreed is driven through bottom-up and open consultation.
- It is mainly handled by Number Resource Organization(NRO) and ICANN Address Supporting Organization.
- Any individual and organization can participate in policy proposal, which starts at Regional IP address allocation policy development body.
- The policy that may have global import will be submitted through RIR policy forum.
- To be declared global, the policy should affect all the five RIR and IANA.
- Global policy are discussed within each of the RIR and a common position is sought that can then be forwarded to ASO.
- The ASO then communicates the proposal to the ICANN board and once it is accepted, it is announced global and published on NRO and ICANN websites.
2. gTLD Policy:
- gTLD policy discussion is initiated by or within ICANN’s GNSO following inputs from its stakeholders i.e. CBUC, ISPCP, NCUC, gTLD Registries, Registrars and Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC).
- Each of the stakeholder has their own policy process to allow positions to be submitted to the GNSO Council for review.
- GNSO has the policy development process under ICANN.
- GNSO will meet the advisory committee for encouraging discussions.
- Once the proposal has passed through GNSO’s policy development process, it is submitted to ICANN for approval.
Shared Global Services and Operations
- It focuses on root servers and Country Code TLD (ccTLD).
- Root zone file is at the apex of the DNS database.
- Root servers consists of the IP address of all the TLD registry name servers including gTLD and ccTLD.
- It translates the names into next level nameserver IP addresses.
- It is handled by IANA, ICANN, Root server operators, Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC), Root Server Technical Operations Association (RSTOA).
- ccTLD is an Internet top level domain generally used by a country. Eg : .np (Nepal)
- It is designed according to ISO two letter country code standard.
- It is handled by IANA, ICANN, ccNSO, ccTLD Operators, Regional ccTLD Associations.
Open Standard Development
- The Internet is built on technical standards that allows devices, services and applications to be interoperable across a wide network of networks.
- Internet standards defines the protocols without prescribing device characteristics and models.
- The technical standards are developed by various organizations like Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and so on.
Education and Capacity Building
- It focuses on providing education about technological development to the people around the globe.
- It is performed by governmental organizations, academic institutes and so on.
Users
- Users the people who makes use of the developed technologies and Internet following the standard policies and protocols.
Internet Number Management
IANA (Internet Assigned Number Authority)
- IANA is a department of ICANN.
- It oversees the global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the DNS, IP related symbols and Internet numbers.
- Internet number resources are delegated to the customers by Regional Internet Registrar (RIR), National Internet Registrar (NIR), Local Internet Registrar (LIR) and Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- Regional Internet Registrar is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a particular region of the world.
- RIR divides the world into five sections as:
1. African Network Information Center (Africa)
2. American Registry for Internet Number (US, Canada, parts of Caribbean regions and Antarctica)
3. Asia-Pacific Network Information Center (Asia, Australia, New Zealand)
4. Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center (Latin America and parts of Caribbean region)
5. Reseaux IP Europeens Network Coordination Center (Europe, Russia, Middle East, Central Asia)
- National Internet Registrar is an organization under RIR with the task of coordinating IP address allocations and other Internet resource management functions at a national level within a country.
- Local Internet Registrar is an organization that has been allocated a block of IP addresses by RIR, which in turns assigns most parts of this block to its own customers.
- Generally, LIR includes Internet Service Provider.
- Membership in RIR is required to become a LIR.
Hierarchical Structure for Internet Number Resource Management
- The hierarchy is shown in given figure:
Internet Domain and DNS
- Domain Name System helps to resolve the domain name into an address.
- The DNS consists of Domain names, Domain name space and Name servers.
- Domain name is the symbolic string associated with an IP address.
- Domain name space refers to a hierarchy in the Internet naming structure.
- The hierarchy has multiple levels, with the root at the top.
- Name server contains the DNS database, which includes names and their corresponding IP addresses.
- The information is distributed over multiple DNS servers.
- Zone is collection of sub domains under the main domain.
- The server is responsible to maintain a database called zone file for each zone.
- Name Servers are of 3 types:
a) Root Server (Contains entire DNS tree)
b) Primary Server (Stores a file about its zone)
c) Secondary Server (Transfer information about the zone from another server)
Internet Access Overview
- Internet access is defined as the ability of an individual or an organization to connect to the Internet using personal computer, mobile devices, etc so as to gain services such as email and WWW.
- The major things to be viewed while accessing Internet are as follows:
1. Speed in bits per second (bps)
2. Network Congestion (Shared or Dedicated Network Resources)
- The technologies used to access Internet are as follows:
1. Dial Up Connection
2. Ethernet over twisted pair cabling
3. Wi Fi
4. FDDI
5. Cable Internet Access
6. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL, ADSL, SDSL, VDSL)
7. Satellite Broadband
8. Mobile Broadband
Role of IP Address for Internet Access
- IP address is the unique identifier given to each device that is connected to the Internet.
- During Internet access by any device, it must send requests to the server and get response from the server.
- In order to exactly locate to which server request is to be sent and to which node the response is to be sent, IP address is the only solution.
- IP address helps to identify the source and destination for the data transfer within the Internet.
- As Internet is based on request-reply protocol, it is very important to uniquely identify the source and destination for the request and the reply.
- This job is properly handled by the use of IP address.
- Also, some websites are made restricted for users from certain regions of the globe.
- Such restrictions can be easily initiated by the use of IP address restriction because IP address are allocated regionally by IANA.
Internet Backbone Network
- Internet backbone network is defined as the principal data routes between large, strategically inter-connected networks and core routers on the Internet.
- It is a very high speed data connection line that provides networking services to small but high speed ISP all around the world.
- It requires high speed bandwidth connection and high performance router/server.
Teleports:
- Teleport is a satellite ground station with multiple parabolic antennas that functions as a hub connecting a satellite with a terrestrial telecommunication network.
- It may provide broadcasting services among other telecommunication functions, such as uploading a computer program or issuing commands over an uplink to a satellite.
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