Today you will not surprise anyone with the Internet. This network is accessed daily by a huge number of users. According to 2015 data, the number of connected users exceeded 3.3 billion. True, not everyone knows what the structure of the information resources of the Internet is in technical terms. Most people don't really need this. However, the foundations laid down in the principles of the functioning of the World Wide Web, you still need to know at least at the initial level.
What is the Internet in modern interpretation
In general, when it comes to the modern Internet, quite often the concept of the World Wide Web or the Network is used instead, in which computers from all over the world are connected.
In general, true, but one clarification should be made here. As you know, not a single computer directly connects to the Internet, only through a service provider, to which God knows how many other terminals or mobile devices are connected. It turns out thatthey are all connected to one network. And in this sense, the Internet is called a “network of networks.”
Indeed, the structure of the Internet is based on the union, so to speak, of subnets and has a high-tech hierarchy. In addition, accessing a particular resource is impossible to imagine without a router that is able to choose the best path for accelerated access to a given resource.
And that's what's interesting. The Internet as such has no owner, and the network itself is rather a virtual space, which affects a person more and more every day, sometimes even replacing reality. Good or bad, it is not for us to judge. But let's dwell on the main aspects of the construction and operation of the World Wide Web.
Structure of the global Internet network: the history of emergence and development
The Internet was not always the way we know it today. If you dig into history, it should be noted that the first attempts to create a single information network that could not only transmit data, but also serve in some way as a “translator” of many programming languages \u200b\u200bfor the perception of information, were made back in 1962, in the most the height of the Cold War between the US and the USSR. Then there was a program based on the theory of packet switching for data transmission by Leonard Kleinrock, which was led by Joseph Licklider. The main direction was not only the transfer of information, but also its "indestructibility".
Based onof these developments in 1969, the first network arose, called ARPANet, which became the progenitor of the Internet, or the World Wide Web. In 1971, the first program for sending and receiving e-mail was developed, by 1973, when the Euro-Atlantic cable was continued, the network became international, in 1983 it switched to the unified TCP / IP protocol, in 1984, IRC technology appeared, which allowed chatting. And only by 1989, the idea of creating a global web, which is now commonly called the Internet, matured at CERN. Of course, it was far from the model used now, nevertheless, some of the basic principles that the structure of the Internet includes, and still remain unchanged.
World Wide Web Infrastructure
Now let's see how it was possible to combine individual computer terminals and networks based on them into a single whole. The key principle was the use of packet data transmission using routing based on a universal protocol that would be understood by any machine. That is, information is not represented as separate bits, bytes or symbols, but is transmitted as a formatted block (packet), which can contain quite long combinations of different sequences.
However, the transfer itself does not happen randomly. At the same time, the hierarchical structure and resources of the Internet have several basic levels:
- Magistral (a system of high-speed servers interconnected).
- Major networks and access points connected to the main backbone.
- Regional networks ranked lower.
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
- End users.
The structure of information on the Internet is such that the terminals on which it is stored are called servers, and user machines (reading or receiving it, as well as sending feedback and streams) machines are called workstations. The transmission of the same information, as mentioned above, is carried out on the basis of routers. But such a scheme is presented solely for ease of understanding the issue. In fact, everything is much more complicated.
Basic protocols
Now we come to one of the key concepts, without which it is impossible to imagine what the structure of the Internet is. These are universal protocols. Today there are quite a lot of them, but the main one for the Internet is TCP/IP.
In this case, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the two terms. The IP (internet) protocol is one of the means of routing, that is, it is solely responsible for the delivery of data packets, but in no way is responsible for the integrity and security of the transmitted information. The TCP protocol, on the contrary, is a means of providing session communication between a sender and a receiver based on a logical connection between two points with the so-called guaranteed delivery of packets, and absolutely intact.
Today TCP/IP isde facto Internet standard, although there are many other protocols such as UDP (transport), ICMP and RIP (routers), DNS and ARP (network address authentication), FTP, HTTP, NNTP and TELNET (applications), IGP, GGP and EGP (gateway), SMTP, POP3 and NFS (mail and file access protocols on remote terminals), etc.
Domain Name System
Special mention should be made of the universal approach to accessing resources. It is clear that writing a page address like 127.11.92.785 to get to the desired resource is not so convenient (let alone remembering all these combinations). Therefore, at one time a unique domain name system was developed that allowed you to enter the address in the form we see it today (in English).
But even here there is a hierarchy of its own. It also has several levels. For example, international top-level domains include resources that are independent of the country identifier (GOV - government, COM - commercial, EDU - educational, NET - network, MIL - military, ORG - general organizational, not related to any of the above types).
Following are resource domain names that explicitly indicate the country identifier. For example, US - USA, RU - Russia, UA - Ukraine, DE - Germany, UK - Great Britain, etc. In addition, such domains have their own sublevels like COM. UA, ORG. DE, etc. In their turn, and here you can find a clearer binding at lower levels (KIEV. UA, KIEV. COM. UA, etc.). In other words, when looking at the address, you can immediately determine not only the country, but also the territorial affiliation of the resource within it.
Basic Internet services
As for the services that can be found on the Internet today, in their categories they are divided into e-mail, news and mailing lists, fiexchange networks, electronic payment systems, Internet radio and television, web forums, blogs, social networks, online stores and auctions, educational projects "Wiki", video and audio hosting, etc. Since social networks have become the most popular lately, let's dwell on their structure.
Structure of the social networks of the Internet
The common feature of such an online community is independence from territorial position or citizenship. Each user creates his own profile (image, place of residence on the Web, whatever you want to call it), and communication is carried out using an instant messaging system, but not through a chat, but in private mode. Only the comment system can be compared with chat. In addition, any registered resident of such a community can leave so-called posts, share with the public some materials or links to other publications, etc.
The structure of the Internet is such that when certain protocols are involved, such as TCP / IP and IRC, all this is done quite elementarily. The main condition is registration (creating a login and password to enter), as well as indicating at least minimal information aboutyourself.
It's no surprise that personal sites and chats are slowly but surely disappearing into oblivion. Even the once popular "dialers" like ICQ or QIP cannot stand any competition, because social networks have much more opportunities.
