The Internet is a computer network that interconnects billions of computing devices throughout the world. Not too long ago, these computing devices were primarily traditional desktop PCs, Linux workstations, and so-called servers that store and transmit information such as Web pages and e-mail messages. Increasingly, however, nontraditional Internet “things” such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles, thermostats, home security systems, home appliances, watches, eye glasses, cars, traffic control systems and more are being connected to the Internet. Indeed, the term computer network is beginning to sound a bit dated, given the many nontraditional devices that are being hooked up to the Internet. In Internet jargon, all of these devices are called hosts or end systems. By some estimates, in 2015 there were about 5 billion devices connected to the Internet, and the number will reach 25 billion by 2020 [Gartner 2014] . It is estimated that in 2015 there were over 3.2 billion Internet users worldwide, approximately 40% of the world population [ITU 2015].

Figure 1.1 Some pieces of the Internet

End systems are connected together by a network of communication links and packet switches. We’ll see in Section 1.2 that there are many types of communication links, which are made up of different types of physical media, including coaxial cable, copper wire, optical fiber, and radio spectrum. Different links can transmit data at different rates, with the transmission rate of a link measured in bits/second. When one end system has data to send to another end system, the sending end system segments the data and adds header bytes to each segment. The resulting packages of information, known as packets in the jargon of computer networks, are then sent through the network to the destination end system, where they are reassembled into the original data.

A packet switch takes a packet arriving on one of its incoming communication links and forwards that packet on one of its outgoing communication links. Packet switches come in many shapes and flavors, but the two most prominent types in today’s Internet are routers and link-layer switches. Both types of switches forward packets toward their ultimate destinations. Link-layer switches are typically used in access networks, while routers are typically used in the network core. The sequence of communication links and packet switches traversed by a packet from the sending end system to the receiving end system is known as a route or path through the network. Cisco predicts annual global IP traffic will pass the zettabyte ( ${10}^{21}$ bytes) threshold by the end of 2016, and will reach 2 zettabytes per year by 2019 [Cisco VNI 2015].

Packet-switched networks (which transport packets) are in many ways similar to transportation networks of highways, roads, and intersections (which transport vehicles). Consider, for example, a factory that needs to move a large amount of cargo to some destination warehouse located thousands of kilometers away. At the factory, the cargo is segmented and loaded into a fleet of trucks. Each of the trucks then independently travels through the network of highways, roads, and intersections to the destination warehouse. At the destination warehouse, the cargo is unloaded and grouped with the rest of the cargo arriving from the same shipment. Thus, in many ways, packets are analogous to trucks, communication links are analogous to highways and roads, packet switches are analogous to intersections, and end systems are analogous to buildings. Just as a truck takes a path through the transportation network, a packet takes a path through a computer network.

End systems access the Internet through Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including residential ISPs such as local cable or telephone companies; corporate ISPs; university ISPs; ISPs that provide WiFi access in airports, hotels, coffee shops, and other public places; and cellular data ISPs, providing mobile access to our smartphones and other devices. Each ISP is in itself a network of packet switches and communication links. ISPs provide a variety of types of network access to the end systems, including residential broadband access such as cable modem or DSL, high-speed local area network access, and mobile wireless access. ISPs also provide ­Internet access to content providers, connecting Web sites and video servers directly to the Internet. The Internet is all about connecting end systems to each other, so the ISPs that provide access to end systems must also be interconnected. These lower-tier ISPs are interconnected through national and international upper-tier ISPs such as Level 3 Communications, AT&T, Sprint, and NTT. An upper-tier ISP consists of high-speed routers interconnected with high-speed fiber-optic links. Each ISP network, whether upper-tier or lower-tier, ismanaged independently, runs the IP protocol (see below), and conforms to certain naming and address conventions. We’ll examine ISPs and their interconnection more closely in Section 1.3.

End systems, packet switches, and other pieces of the Internet run protocols that control the sending and receiving of information within the Internet. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP) are two of the most important protocols in the Internet. The IP protocol specifies the format of the packets that are sent and received among routers and end systems. The Internet’s principal protocols are collectively known as TCP/IP . We’ll begin looking into protocols in this introductory chapter. But that’s just a start—much of this book is concerned with computer network protocols!

Given the importance of protocols to the Internet, it’s important that everyone agree on what each and every protocol does, so that people can create systems and products that interoperate. This is where standards come into play. Internet ­standards are developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) [IETF 2016]. The IETF standards documents are called requests for comments (RFCs) . RFCs started out as general requests for comments (hence the name) to resolve network and protocol design problems that faced the precursor to the Internet [Allman 2011]. RFCs tend to be quite technical and detailed. They define protocols such as TCP, IP, HTTP (for the Web), and SMTP (for e-mail). There are currently more than 7,000 RFCs. Other bodies also specify standards for network components, most notably for network links. The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee [IEEE 802 2016], for example, specifies the Ethernet and wireless WiFi standards.

Our discussion above has identified many of the pieces that make up the Internet. But we can also describe the Internet from an entirely different angle—namely, as an infrastructure that provides services to applications. In addition to traditional applications such as e-mail and Web surfing, Internet applications include mobile smartphone and tablet applications, including Internet messaging, mapping with real-time road-traffic information, music streaming from the cloud, movie and television streaming, online social networks, video conferencing, multi-person games, and location-based recommendation systems. The applications are said to be distributed applications, since they involve multiple end systems that exchange data with each other. Importantly, Internet applications run on end systems— they do not run in the packet switches in the network core. Although packet switches facilitate the exchange of data among end systems, they are not concerned with the application that is the source or sink of data.

Let’s explore a little more what we mean by an infrastructure that provides ­services to applications. To this end, suppose you have an exciting new idea for a distributed Internet application, one that may greatly benefit humanity or one that may simply make you rich and famous. How might you go abouttransforming this idea into an actual Internet application? Because applications run on end systems, you are going to need to write programs that run on the end systems. You might, for example, write your programs in Java, C, or Python. Now, because you are developing a distributed Internet application, the programs running on the different end systems will need to send data to each other. And here we get to a central issue—one that leads to the alternative way of describing the Internet as a platform for applications. How does one program running on one end system instruct the Internet to deliver data to another program running on another end system?

End systems attached to the Internet provide a socket interface that specifies how a program running on one end system asks the Internet infrastructure to deliver data to a specific destination program running on another end system. This Internet socket interface is a set of rules that the sending program must follow so that the Internet can deliver the data to the destination program. We’ll discuss the Internet socket interface in detail in Chapter 2. For now, let’s draw upon a simple analogy, one that we will frequently use in this book. Suppose Alice wants to send a letter to Bob using the postal service. Alice, of course, can’t just write the letter (the data) and drop the letter out her window. Instead, the postal service requires that Alice put the letter in an envelope; write Bob’s full name, address, and zip code in the center of the envelope; seal the envelope; put a stamp in the upper-right-hand corner of the envelope; and finally, drop the envelope into an official postal service mailbox. Thus, the postal service has its own “postal service interface,” or set of rules, that Alice must follow to have the postal service deliver her letter to Bob. In a similar manner, the Internet has a socket interface that the program sending data must follow to have the Internet deliver the data to the program that will receive the data. The postal service, of course, provides more than one service to its customers. It provides express delivery, reception confirmation, ordinary use, and many more services. In a similar manner, the Internet provides multiple services to its applications. When you develop an Internet application, you too must choose one of the Internet’s services for your application. We’ll describe the Internet’s services in Chapter 2.

We have just given two descriptions of the Internet; one in terms of its hardware and software components, the other in terms of an infrastructure for providing services to distributed applications. But perhaps you are still confused as to what the Internet is. What are packet switching and TCP/IP? What are routers? What kinds of communication links are present in the Internet? What is a distributed application? How can a thermostat or body scale be attached to the Internet? If you feel a bit overwhelmed by all of this now, don’t worry—the purpose of this book is to introduce you to both the nuts and bolts of the Internet and the principles that govern how and why it works. We’ll explain these important terms and questions in the following sections and chapters.

Now that we’ve got a bit of a feel for what the Internet is, let’s consider another important buzzword in computer networking: protocol. What is a protocol? What does a protocol do?