A History of the Internet & BeyondBy Abraham Reyes |
In "A Brief History of the Internet," it is stated that "'the internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before.' The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location."(ISOC,2003,p.1). An interesting idea of computer networking was first developed in 1962 by the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) J.C.R Licklider. The ARPA would later change its name Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This agency was created in 1957 by the government within the Department of Defense. The fist written experiment-which was referred to as "Galactic Network", would later be tested by Licklider’s successors. In 1961 Leonard Kleinrock from MIT would publish the first article on "packet switching," and later an actual book on the same concept. Here is a little input on packet switching and circuits. Packet Switching: is the common method of computer networks. When information is sent through a network, it is broken up (divided) into packets; these packets are transmitted individually and are immediately put back together upon their arrival. Circuit Switching: These network resources are basically static; as information is sent from one computer to the other a “circuit” is created. The entire message follows one path and as a whole. This is the order of packet swithching:
By 1965 Kleinrock teamed up with another colleague Lawrence G. Roberts, Kleinrock would persuade him in to using packets instead of circuits. This resulted on new experiment where Roberts along with Thomas Merrill connected two computers, one in Massachusetts and the other in California. This experiment confirmed the ability of two computers working together through a remote machine. It also shed to light the incompetence of the circuit telephone switch used at the time, and established the acceptance of the packet switching. At that time a slow speed dial-up telephone line was used in which the first computer network was ever built. (ISOC,2003 p. 1). In 1968, BBN was rewarded the ARPANET contract, BBN would build the switch on a Honeywell minicomputer. In 1969 the actual network was constructed through 50Kbps circuit. (Kristula, 2001). Important Fact: BBN is a leader in technology used by government and corporate clients since 1945 until present time. They are recognized for safe and secure networks. J.C.R. Licklider was part of this corporation and developed technological books in 1965 which would be the cornerstone for the future of computers. (BBN Technologies). In 1973 the TCP/IP was developed by a group whose leaders were Vinton Cerf from Stanford and Bob Kahn from DARPA (Kristula, p.1). More fun facts: TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. The TCP is responsible of verifying the correct delivery of data from client to server. The IP: Internet Protocol is responsible for moving packet of data from node to node. (H. Gilbert p.1) During the beginning and trough the course of time the Internet has evolved massively and major changes have taken place in the computer networking world. As we all know it was in the early 90's when this technology boomed and forever changed society. The Internet Society (ISOC)-the group that controls the internet- is an organization that controls all the aspects of the internet. This organization has an enormous amount of information about the Internet. There are about 6,000 pages of resources that examine and predict what the Internet will be in the future as well as taking a look back into its past. ISOC is currently trying to figure out a new TCP/IP system that can operate billions of sites. (Kristula, p. 5). For more information on the future of the Internet visit: www.elon.edu References
|