Abstract
Computers connected in large global networks create a space, Cyberspace. The backbone of Cyberspace is the Internet, the world's largest computer network. Internet pilots advanced information services that are becoming an indispensible resource for a large number of users, both governmental institutions and commercial businesses. These services are different from those of the telecom administrations. This paper gives an overview of Internet and argues that the differences are due to different underlying philosophies and that we are witnessing a clash of cultures when the telecommunications and computer markets converge.
1 Introduction
2 What is Internet?
2.1 History
2.2 What does the Internet comprise?
2.3 The Internet services
2.4 OSI and Internet
2.5 Organisation of the Internet
3 Conflicting cultures
3.1 Packet switched vs. circuit switched
3.2 Videotex and World Wide Web
4 The future of Internet
4.1 Voice and audio communication
5 Conclusions
References
William Gibson,
Neuromancer
The backbone of this complex network of computers is the Internet. The Internet is the largest computer network in the world. Internet pilots advanced information services which allow millions of users to communicate. Users may send messages to each other, search information databases, play multi-user games, and make new acquaintances.
Most computers on the Internet are found within the universities and research facilities, but the net is expanding into commercial businesses. The Internet has proved to be a computer network that has offered reliable and advanced information services. This fact is attracting interest, and for the last few years the Internet has become a meeting place for many governmental institutions and private companies. The Internet fulfils a need for advanced information services - services telephone companies around the world could not offer.
This paper will give an overview of the Internet; the history, they way it works, the services offered, and how it is organised.
Furthermore, some of the differences between the information services offered by telecom administrations and the ones we find within the Internet are discussed.
The last part of the paper looks at the future of the Internet.
There is no clear answer to what the Internet is. The Internet may be viewed in terms of:
Internet is probably best known to be a term used to cover all the TCP/IP networks that are connected. This network offers services that let users access information, ask questions, talk to each other, play games and send letters. The Internet is providing a network that has become a valuable resource for millions of users as an information network and place for social gathering.
The history of the Internet started around 1969 when the US Defense Department began research on computer communication networks through their research agency, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). They established the first four-node network in 1969 called the ARPAnet (later renamed the DARPAnet). The ARPAnet was an experimental computer network, a testbed for military usage. The aim was to build a network that could run even if parts of the network was damaged, e.g. bombed.
In the mid-seventies the TCP/IP protocols were developed for ARPAnet usage. Later, the ARPAnet was split into a military network and the network that we today know as the Internet. In 1981, Andrew S. Tanenbaum (11) wrote about Internet:
Since then, the Internet has expanded dramatically. The number of computers on the Internet reached the first million in 1992. By October 1993 this number has increased to about 2 million computers. The figures (33) show an increase of about 100 % annually. The Internet is also expanding geographically. Currently, the number of countries connected has passed 80.
Norway was one of the first countries to connect to the Internet. In 1973, three computers in Norway got connected through a 9600 Baud line. This connection was replaced in 1980 by a packet-switched satellite connection (34). By August 1993, there were over 25,000 Internet nodes in Norway. This number gives Norway the highest density of Internet nodes in the world with over 5,000 computers per million people. This is about 25% higher than the US.
Companies with their own Local Area Network (LAN) may connect to a regional or national Internet service provider. These service providers are offering services to interconnect company LANs, university campus networks, and also offer interconnection to international networks.
In Norway, Uninett AS, Telepost Communication, Datametrix and EUnet AS are offering IP services. TelePost Communication, a joint venture between the Norwegian Post Administration and Norwegian Telecom, offer commercial interconnection to Uninett and Swipnett. Uninett is connected to a Nordic Internet subnet called NorduNet. NorduNet is in turn connected to EBONE (European Backbone Internet) at the main host in Stockholm. EBONE offers several connections to the US (28).
The TCP/IP protocol suite is the fundamental that makes the computers all over the world talk to each other, independently of computer vendors. The foundation is the IP (Internet Protocol) (18) which routes the packets between different physical networks. Each computer connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. The IP protocol can run on most underlying connections like ISDN, X.25, Ethernet, Token Ring, Frame Relay, ATM, FDDI, and telephone lines.
One may argue that Internet is more than just the networks running TCP/IP. Services in Internet, like electronic mail, may reach out beyond the TCP/IP networks. Gateway functions make it possible to communicate with other networks not using the TCP/IP protocol suite. An electronic mail message may be routed from an Internet host through a mail gateway to a host connected to a network running other protocols.
The Internet offers a wide variety of services like electronic mail, file transfer, and bulletin boards. In fact, there is no overview of all the different services offered in the Internet. Most services found in the Internet are in the beginning only used on a small scale. As the services become known to the users in Internet, the services might develop into larger scale use. Some services never grow beyond a small group of users (7)(24)(25)(31).
The Internet can be compared to the traffic road infrastructure where the cars used in the infrastructure can be of every make from Unix workstations to PCs. Nobody asks you what you are doing on the road as long as you follow the rules. Nobody asks you what you are carrying and where you are going. You may start up a parcel delivery service to carry packages between Oslo and Trondheim. If one of the customers want that package to be sent to another place you might want some other parcel delivery company to do that for you. Then you have to gateway to that company by making the necessary arrangements.
The best known services in Internet are:
When Internet was established, the Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model (8), from ISO, was not ready. Many companies and organisations have adopted OSI, but until implementations of OSI are available, they use TCP/IP as an interim solution.
Some OSI application protocols have been taken into use on the Internet. The CCITT X.400 electronic mail protocol is heavily used in the European part of the Internet. Electronic mail gateways ensure smooth interworking of X.400 and SMTP (30).
Internet has assigned several working groups inside IETF (see below) to investigate the interconnection of Internet protocols and OSI.
The IETF consists of volunteers who want to contribute to the standardisation of new protocols and services in the Internet. The IETF is split into different technical areas. Currently, these areas are:
The standardisation of the protocols and other Internet technology is informal and different from the formal procedures of the standardisation bodies like ITU (International Telecommunication Union) or ISO (International Standardisation Organisation). The work of the IETF working groups are primarily done electronically and at the IETF meetings (3 meetings a year). Everyone contributing to the standardisation as a participant at a meeting or making comments on-line, is considered a member of the working group. The working group operates for approximately 9-18 months. After the working group has finished, the result is sent to the IAB for approval. The result is submitted as a draft-RFC (Request For Comments) for a brief public review (3). When it is approved it becomes a standard RFC and given a number.
The telephone companies have long traditions of offering reliable and secure services. They are managing large and complex telephone networks. Their main focus has been voice communication services in the analogue telephone network. The telecoms have also played a major role in the establishment of a large number of computer networks by providing services like leased lines and X.25.
For the telecoms there has been a clear distinction between the computer networks, known as data communication, and the telephone networks. In the telephone network the users are offered end-user services like telephony and fax. On the data communication side, the customers - primarily businesses and governmental institutions - are offered services on a much lower level e.g. X.25 and Frame Relay.
The end-user services offered in the analogue telephone network and in ISDN are quite different from those offered in the Internet and in other computer networks. Computer networks have so far only considered asynchronous information services, while the telephone network has primarily offered voice communication services.
The distinction between data communication and telephony is disappearing as new digital technology is being introduced.
Why does it take years to implement an apparently simple service as a wake-up call into the telephone network ? To a computer programmer it seems quite simple, as it can be implemented with a few lines of code. The reason seems clear when we get to know that the software inside a telephone switch consists of several million code lines. All that code is fitted into a single proprietary telephone switch.
You will not find the same open systems philosophy among the telecom switch vendors as you will in the computer industry.
But telephone companies are changing their network architectures by introducing Universal Personal Telephony (UPT) and Intelligent Networks (IN). UPT and IN will attach numbers and services to a person, not to the terminal. The distributed architecture of UPT and IN will be very much like the architecture of computer networks.
Another clash of cultures have been seen on the end-user side between the computer industry and the telecom terminal vendors (13). The telecoms have had a tradition of making dedicated terminals with no other purposes than to support a single service, e.g. telephones, fax machines, and videophones. With the introduction of desktop computers this is changing. Computers are able to integrate video, audio, images and text - in fact they are able to handle telecommunication services like videophony, telephony, and fax in parallel (14)(15).
Advantages of packet switched networks (1):
The videotex service of French Telecom, called Minitel, has undoubtedly become a success. A large number of French households are currently using the service. The widespread use of the service is much due to France Telecom's policy of providing the terminals free of charge.
Videotex has not become the same success in other countries (6). In Norway there is a similar service: Datatorg. By mid-1993 the Norwegian Telecom's Datatorg had about 7,500 users - very few of them in households.
There are many reasons why the videotex has been a failure. The technology, developed in the 1970s, was apparently not designed to be used by general computers. No wonder why, since the affordable personal computer did not exist. Videotex was designed to be accessed by dedicated terminals with no other purpose than supporting that service. The main problem with the service was that there was no clear separation between the network, protocol, exchange format, terminal and the presentation. The user was not given any opportunity to customise a solution for his own need. The service determined the way the information should be presented and the way the user should interact with the service.
It is not fair to compare new services like the World Wide Web (WWW) with videotex even though they fulfil the same objective - to make information accessible to users over a network. Videotex was developed in the 1970s, while WWW has been developed over the past few years. The development of WWW is based on packet switched technology with an aim of presenting the information on a wide range of general purpose computers with graphical user interface capabilities.
Vice-president Al Gore
Dr. Vinton G. Cerf,
President of Internet Society,
March 23, 1993
about the future of the Internet
AT&T has recently announced that they will offer Internet services. PSI has announced Internet over their cable network by mid-1994. US carriers Sprint and MCI already offer such services; British Telecom and France Telecom have announced commercial Internet services. In Norway, three Internet providers entered the market in 1993 (9).
There is reason to believe that Internet will expand into commercial businesses because businesses do not have other alternatives which can offer the same services.
When President Clinton and Vice-president Al Gore visited Silicon Graphics in California earlier this year, their speeches were broadcast live on the Internet using video and audio.
The same system for audio and video transmission has been used to cover IETF meetings and also as a tool for researchers to communicate. The ESPRIT MICE project, where Norwegian Telecom Research is participating, is piloting Internet services for the communication of audio, video and shared workspaces.
The fact that you may now listen to the Internet is a threat to the telephone companies. When new digital network technology is introduced there is no technological barriers that prevent the Internet from communicating voice over a computer network.
The issue is not Internet vs. OSI, or some other technology. The issue is smooth interworking - information interworking.
It will get increasingly important to be able to communicate information across networks with different functionality and bandwidth, between different terminal equipment, and between users with different needs. The challenges of the future is to make all networks, computers, terminals, and services to co-exist.
The information services used on the Internet have proved to be a success with millions of users. There are reasons to believe that these information services will expand into other areas, both at home and in businesses. An increasingly larger part of the population are gaining skills and needs for such services as they are going through universities and other educational institutions.
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[2] Cerf, V G. A national information infrastructure. Connexions, 7(6), 2-10, 1993.
[3] Crocker, D. Making standards the IETF way. Connexions, 7(9), 18-26, 1993.
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[5] CCITT. Recommendation X.400. Message Handling Systems, Geneve, 1992.
[6] CCITT. Recommendation T.100. International information exchange for interactive videotex, Geneve, 1984.
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[8] ISO. OSI - Open System Interconnection - Basic reference model. ISO/TC 97/SC, 16(719), 1981.
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[17] Kahle, B. Why Nintendo games will save the world by encouraging learning and growing in children. Found on the net 21.09.91.
All RFCs are available online at ftp site ugle.unit.no.
[18] Internet protocol - DARPA Internet program protocol specification, RFC 791, September 1981.
[19] Simple mail transfer protocol, RFC 821, August 1982.
[20] Telnet protocol specification, RFC 854, May 1983.
[21] File transfer protocol, RFC 959, October 1985.
[22] Assigned numbers, RFC 1060, March 1990.
[23] Internet numbers, RFC 1166, July 1990.
[24] Kautrowitz, B. Live wires. Newsweek, 120(10), 32-39, 1993.
[25] Deutsch, P. The Internet as service provider. Connexions, 7(9), 50-55, 1993.
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[29] Daniel, C, Dern, P. Commercial IP providers establish CIX gateway. Connexions, 5(7), 20-23, 1991.
[30] Blum, D. An analysis and comparison of Internet and X.400 messaging. Connexions, 6(9), 40-52, 1992.
[31] Ness, B. Into the great wide open: ABC om kommunikasjonstjenester for IT-brukere ved Universitetet i Oslo. Oslo, USIT, Universitets Senter for Informasjonsteknologi, 1992.
[32] Information given by P?l Spilling, Norwegian Telecom Research.
[33] Figures given by Quarterman, J S, at Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS) by mail October 25, 1993.
[34] The NII documents may be found online at: URL: http://sunsite.
unc.edu/nii/NII-Table-of-Content.
[35] Markoff, J. Traffic jams already on the information highway. New York Times, 3 November 1993.
