In 1973, the U.S.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated aresearch program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinkingpacket networks of various kinds. The objective was to develop communicationprotocols which would allow networked computers to communicate transparentlyacross multiple, linked packet networks. This was called the Internettingproject and the system of networks which emerged from the research was known asthe "Internet." The system of protocols which was developed over thecourse of this research effort became known as the TCP/IP Protocol Suite, afterthe two initial protocols developed: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) andInternet Protocol (IP). In 1986, the U.
S. National Science Foundation (NSF)initiated the development of the NSFNET which, today, provides a major backbonecommunication service for the Internet. With its 45 megabit per secondfacilities, the NSFNET carries on the order of 12 billion packets per monthbetween the networks it links. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) and the U.S.
Department of Energy contributed additional backbonefacilities in the form of the NSINET and ESNET respectively. In Europe, majorinternational backbones such as NORDUNET and others provide connectivity to overone hundred thousand computers on a large number of networks. Commercial networkproviders in the U.S.
and Europe are beginning to offer Internet backbone andaccess support on a competitive basis to any interested parties."Regional" support for the Internet is provided by various consortiumnetworks and "local" support is provided through each of the researchand educational institutions. Within the United States, much of this support hascome from the federal and state governments, but a considerable contribution hasbeen made by industry. In Europe and elsewhere, support arises from cooperativeinternational efforts and through national research organizations. During thecourse of its evolution, particularly after 1989, the Internet system began tointegrate support for other protocol suites into its basic networking fabric.
The present emphasis in the system is on multiprotocol interworking, and inparticular, with the integration of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)protocols into the architecture. Both public domain and commercialimplementations of the roughly 100 protocols of TCP/IP protocol suite becameavailable in the 1980's. During the early 1990's, OSI protocol implementationsalso became available and, by the end of 1991, the Internet has grown to includesome 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries, serving over 700,000 hostcomputers used by over 4,000,000 people. A great deal of support for theInternet community has come from the U.S.
Federal Government, since the Internetwas originally part of a federally-funded research program and, subsequently,has become a major part of the U.S. research infrastructure. During the late1980's, however, the population of Internet users and network constituentsexpanded internationally and began to include commercial facilities.
Indeed, thebulk of the system today is made up of private networking facilities ineducational and research institutions, businesses and in governmentorganizations across the globe. The Coordinating Committee for IntercontinentalNetworks (CCIRN), which was organized by the U.S. Federal Networking Council (FNC)and the European Reseaux Associees pour la Recherche Europeenne (RARE), plays animportant role in the coordination of plans for government- sponsored researchnetworking. CCIRN efforts have been a stimulus for the support of internationalcooperation in the Internet environment.
Over its fifteen year history, theInternet has functioned as a collaboration among cooperating parties. Certainkey functions have been critical for its operation, not the least of which isthe specification of the protocols by which the components of the systemoperate. These were originally developed in the DARPA research program mentionedabove, but in the last five or six years, this work has been undertaken on awider basis with support from Government agencies in many countries, industryand the academic community. The Internet Activities Board (IAB) was created in1983 to guide the evolution of the TCP/IP Protocol Suite and to provide researchadvice to the Internet community. During the course of its existence, the IABhas reorganized several times. It now has two primary components: the InternetEngineering Task Force and the Internet Research Task Force.
The former hasprimary responsibility for further evolution of the TCP/IP protocol suite, itsstandardization with the concurrence of the IAB, and the integration of otherprotocols into Internet operation (e.g. the Open Systems Interconnectionprotocols). The Internet Research Task Force continues to organize and exploreadvanced concepts in networking under the guidance of the Internet ActivitiesBoard and with support from various government agencies. A secretariat has beencreated to manage the day-to-day function of the Internet Activities Board andInternet Engineering Task Force.
IETF meets three times a year in plenary andits approximately 50 working groups convene at intermediate times by electronicmail, teleconferencing and at face-to-face meetings. The IAB meets quarterlyface-to-face or by videoconference and at intervening times by telephone,electronic mail and computer-mediated conferences. Two other functions arecritical to IAB operation: publication of documents describing the Internet andthe assignment and recording of various identifiers needed for protocoloperation. Throughout the development of the Internet, its protocols and otheraspects of its operation have been documented first in a series of documentscalled Internet Experiment Notes and, later, in a series of documents calledRequests for Comment (RFCs).
The latter were used initially to document theprotocols of the first packet switching network developed by DARPA, the ARPANET,beginning in 1969, and have become the principal archive of information aboutthe Internet. At present, the publication function is provided by an RFC editor.The recording of identifiers is provided by the Internet Assigned NumbersAuthority (IANA) who has delegated one part of this responsibility to anInternet Registry which acts as a central repository for Internet informationand which provides central allocation of network and autonomous systemidentifiers, in some cases to subsidiary registries located in variouscountries. The Internet Registry (IR) also provides central maintenance of theDomain Name System (DNS) root database which points to subsidiary distributedDNS servers replicated throughout the Internet.
The DNS distributed database isused, inter alia, to associate host and network names with their Internetaddresses and is critical to the operation of the higher level TCP/IP protocolsincluding electronic mail. There are a number of Network Information Centers (NICs)located throughout the Internet to serve its users with documentation, guidance,advice and assistance. As the Internet continues to grow internationally, theneed for high quality NIC functions increases. Although the initial community ofusers of the Internet were drawn from the ranks of computer science andengineering, its users now comprise a wide range of disciplines in the sciences,arts, letters, business, military and government administration.
