The Internet

The Internet is the first thing that

humanity has built that humanity
doesn’t understand, the largest
experiment in anarchy that we
have ever had.

Eric Schmidt, Google

What is the Internet?
• Global network of networks
• Considered a wide area network (WAN) of diverse devices
• Communication is facilitated using agreed-upon protocols
(i.e., rules for transmitting and receiving data)
• Data travels over the Internet using packet switching
• Computers on the Internet are identified by IP addresses

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Who controls the Internet?
• No central body controls the Internet
• There are organizations that help standardize protocols and
carry out administrative tasks
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): contributes technical
expertise to recommend future Internet development
• Internet Society (ISOC): promotes open development of the
Internet for global benefit
• Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA): manages the
assignment of IP address on the Internet
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN):
administrates assignment of domain names on the Internet
• No one owns the entire Internet either, as it is comprised of
many separate networks
• These networks are each owned and operated by various entities
• People access the Internet via Internet service providers
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Internet Backbone (or Trunk)
• Primary high speed connections between large networks
• Hosted by commercial, government, academic and other
high-capacity network centers
• Built upon long distance networks of telephone companies
• Networks connect through Internet exchange points (IXPs)
• The largest IXP in Canada is The Toronto Internet Exchange
at 151 Front St. downtown

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Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Provides Internet access to customers and to each other
• Large telecommunication companies (e.g., Bell, Telus, Rogers)
own the network (e.g., lines to your home)
o Sell access to business and residential customers
o Sell wholesale access to “smaller” ISPs
(e.g., Teksavvy, Acanac, Primus, and others)
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Fibre-To-The-Node (FTTN)
o Provided by Bell, Telus, and smaller ISPs
o Require a “modem” (often integrated in a Wi-Fi router) to access network
• Cable
o Provided by Rogers and smaller ISPs
o Require a “modem” (often integrated in a Wi-Fi router) to access network
• Mobile
o Provided by your mobile phone provider (e.g., Bell, Rogers, Wind)
o Smartphone can serve as a Wi-Fi access point (“hotspot”)
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Multi-Layered Protocol Hierarchy

applications

TCP

IP

physical layer

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High-Level Protocols
• Rules for Internet services & applications to exchange data
• Initial communication uses a specific network port

Protocol Port Description

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 21 Exchanges files between computers

Secure Shell Host (SSH) 22 Remote login to a computer (like Telnet)

Used by email servers to send and

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) 25
receive messages

Requests web documents, typically using

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 80
a web browser

Secure HTTP (HTTPS) 443 Encrypted version of HTTP for security

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Transport Protocols
• Data is divided into segments (similar to packets)
• Segments are transported using one of two protocols:
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
 Designed by: Vinton Cerf & Robert Khan [1973] – won Turing Award
 Emphasizes reliability
 “If a segment is lost/damaged, send it again, and I’ll put it in order”
 For each segment received, the recipient sends a +/− acknowledgement
 Data is resent if −ve or no ack. is received within a set amount of time.
 Example: Netflix.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

 Less commonly used than TCP, simpler, typically one-way streaming
 Emphasizes timeliness
 “If a segment is lost, don’t worry, it’s too late to be of use”
 Examples: Live video streaming, voice over IP, some online games

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Information flow via TCP/IP

Client Server
App: web browser App: web server
HTTP HTTP

TCP TCP
gateway gateway gateway
IP IP IP IP IP

Physical layer Physical layer Physical layer Physical layer

iPhone Wi-Fi Fiber Ethernet

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Network Addressing on the Internet
• IP address: as discussed in the “Networking” slides
• Two versions of IP addressing in use:

IPv4:
o 4 bytes long
o Takes the form x.x.x.x where x is any number in the range 0-255
o Number of available IPv4 addresses ran out in Sept. 2015 [reference]

IPv6:
o 16 bytes long
o Takes the form hhhh: hhhh: hhhh: hhhh: hhhh: hhhh: hhhh: hhhh,
where h is a hexadecimal digit
o Devised to take over from IPv4; transition ongoing and growing,
but difficult, as IPv6 is not compatible with IPv4

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Domain Names
• Remembering an IP address is difficult (especially IPv6)
• Domain names are strings of characters used to identify
computers (typically servers) on the Internet
• Multiple domains can be combined (with dots) to form a
fully qualified domain name (e.g., www.eecs.yorku.ca)
• Domains get more general (higher level) moving Left-to-Right
• www: the web server in the EECS Department
• eecs: the EECS Department at York University
• yorku: York University in Canada
• ca: the Canadian “top level domain”
• Top level domains determined by ICANN [list]
Can be associated with a specific economic sector (.com, .edu, .org)
or a country (.ca, .uk, .ru, .nl, .cn) [not strictly enforced]

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Domain Name Servers (DNS)
• Keep track of registered domain names and their
associated IP addresses
• Updates are shared between DNSs
• Every request for an internet resource using a domain name
involves at least one access to a DNS
• ISPs typically host their own DNS to improve service quality
Slow access to a DNS results in slow Internet communication

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Ping
• Network utility to test if a network computer is accessible
Like poking your friend to get a response
• Some servers are configured to ignore ping requests
Like a friend who is ignoring you

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Traceroute
• Network utility to trace the routing path of packets
between two computers
• Provides IP address, domain name, and time for each hop

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Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
• Uniquely identifies any resource (e.g., file) on the Internet
• A combination of protocol, domain, and file path

• Example:

http://www.eecs.yorku.ca/courses/1520/Course_Outline.html

o Protocol: http (see the next slide on WWW)

o Domain: www.eecs.yorku.ca
o File path: /courses/1520/Course_Outline.html

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What is “the Cloud”?
• Network of servers that store and/or process data
• Provides resource sharing
• This is akin to virtualization over the Internet.

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Cloud Computing

• Allows users access to processing power of a network of

servers
• Users can pay for access to remote servers/software
without having to buy – good for short-term computing
needs
• Browser-based systems becoming nearly as responsive as
desktop systems
• Example: Google Docs
 provides word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program
 competes with Microsoft Office (in principle)
 allows simultaneous access/update by multiple users

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Cloud Storage

• Allows users to store data,

accessible anywhere on the Internet
• Data is stored on servers in one or more
locations for backup and ease of access purposes
• Examples: Gmail, Outlook, Facebook, …

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Types of Cloud

Public: a cloud operated for public use (often for free)

Private: a cloud operated for a specific company

Hybrid: a combination of public and private

 free basic service,
 advanced services for a fee

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