Overview
The Internet as we know it in contemporary is a hub of solutions from software solutions to network of enterprise hardware solutions.
The Internet first came into the foray in technology in 1969 as a research project in the academia and since then has continued to grow. It became globally accepted in the 1990s and it became the foundation of the proposal of the world wide web by Tim Berners-Lee.
The Internet was created in the early days of computer existence by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) as a means of communication in the military this made them to monopolise the usage as they were the original funders. As the development of the internet, when the ARPANET as it was called then moved to a more advanced standard TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), The National Science Foundation pioneering the development of the first long distance networks that served as the backbone for the internet and they became the sole controllers until the funding for the development of the Internet now moved to the private sector.
The web as we know it now became popular and outgrew other application of the internet technology. We have other Internet applications as:
- Travel
- Communication - email
- Electronic Commerce
- Payments
- Peer to Peer computers - The web
The Internet which is a powerhouse of the digital technology as we know it now is housed in different platforms and systems established by ambitious teams who have taken the time, energy and resources to build out the current digital experiences we have in our world currently. We have the Internet powered currently by Fibre Optics, Data Centers, Cable Tv systems, etc.
The Foundational Concept of the Internet
The original goal of the Internet was to have a decentralised network of computer networks, where we have individuals, organisations and government freely connect to the network and freely share the data and informations they wish to share based on agreement - this means that privacy was respected in the early dream of the Internet.
Protocol stacks, for any computer to be able to participate in the communication of the internet it must have TCP/IP protocol stacks built into their Operating system. These protocol stacks works in this way - it receives alphabetical texts from a party in the network and converts it to electronic signals and then moves it through the network to other parties connected in the network through the protocol and it appears as alphabetical texts to the other party in the network.
The Identity System of the Internet
Every node providing space for networking in the Internet is represented by an identity system called Internet Protocol Address. The Internet Protocol Address is the number given to the node to secure it’s place within the Internet. This is the identity they bear when they transmit information from one computer to another.
The IPv4 and IPv6
When the first advanced internet architecture was engineered it afforded that only 4 billion IP addresses will be allocated to users and initially this was thought to actually be a huge number in the 1970s but after a particular period of time the number of nodes connected to the Internet increased and exceeded the already provided addresses and this led to the move to re-engineer the architecture and standard of the Internet to afford a particular number that would take a distant time and a significant advance in technology for the IPv6 standard to be exhausted.
Advancement of the Internet and the Future
It’s not news again that we’re in the more matured stage of the Information Age. Digital technology and the hardwares powering them are advancing currently we have advancements in our experience of the internet ranging from Cloud Computing to Blockchain Technology to Internet of things. There is currently a reformation happening to the current Internet so we are still in the early morning of that this new revolution which is the Web 3 and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Watch the Space and Keep Learning.