The evolution of ARPANET into the modern internet and telecommunications

NETWORKS & TELECOM

Networking & Telecom

Networking and telecommunications have come a long way over the last several generations. Some people ascribe the 1990's or perhaps the 1980's to be the point in which networking came to be but the answer to that question is actually the 1970's. Indeed, ARPANET has evolved into what is now the modern internet and it is now hard to see the lines that exist between telecom/telephone infrastructures and the broader internet because they are very much one and the same nowadays at one level or another. This report will cover how local and global connectivity exists with data and voice networks around the world, the basic concepts related to the same and the impact that telecommunications and computer networking have on today's business and team performance paradigms. While person-to-person contact is still craved by many people, the leveraging of voice and data networks is necessary and vital to remain competitive in today's marketplace.

Questions Answered

As indicated in the introduction, ARPANET was the genesis of today's internet systems, both in the United States and around the world. ARPANET, also commonly known as DARPANET, came to be in 1968 and was renamed to ARPANET in 1971. Also as noted in the introduction, both phone and computer communication is based on the same general technology but has largely been separated in many ways over the years. That has since changed a lot as the lines between the two have blurred significantly. Further, the lines between mobile phones and the internet (e.g. Wi-Fi calling, etc.) have blurred as well. In any event, ARPANET was a United States Department of Defense creation and was largely developed in response to the prospects of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union or other countries with such weapons. Since then, it has extended from a government operation to something that the public, both in the United States and around the world, has come to use (InetDaemon, 2015).

The internet as we know it today is often referred to as the World Wide Web. Indeed, this is what the "www" stands for in common internet addresses. Through internet and computer languages like Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML), Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP…the start of most internet addresses), information is displayed and extended for anyone who has access and wants to view it. This technology really did not come to pass until 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee invented and presented it to CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Since its launch, the world wide web has grown to be nearly one trillion public pages with a total of about 1.7 billion users taking it in, as of 2008 and 2009, respectively (Web Foundation, 2015).

The aforementioned ARPANET was basically one self-contained network. However, the structure of networks has expanded and changed expansively and exponentially since then. Nowadays, there are networks, subnetworks and so forth. To be technical, a small group of computers in a single location is a network. That small network then connects to one or more larger networks that thus connects the initial small network with the world. When it comes to areas like Michigan, a small group of computers in a single house are a network. A group of computers connected through an internet service provider or other collective of connections is itself a network with smaller networks that connect to it. That progression continues in a way that eventually encircles and encompasses the entire globe. This is where terms like local area networks (LAN's), wide area networks (WAN's) and metropolitan area networks (MAN's) come into play. Regardless of size, these networks are mapped and linked together so as to get information from point A to point B (Mitchell, 2015).

Each communication itself occurs at seven different levels. This is known as the OSI model. The seven layers are physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application. Put another way, these are the different layers at which data must pass as it goes from one point to another. It stretches from the network cable (the physical) to what the users see as they communicate (the application). Of course, all data (in one form or another) moves via binary code. However, this alone does not get data from one point to another nor does it help someone view the data when it makes it its destination. This is why having all seven layers is important as it provides a framework and mapping of how to move the data and how to present it once it gets there. Even though it is all binary, the data that is moved can include inter-process communication, network virtual terminals, resourcing sharing/device redirection, remote file access, remote printer access and other functions (Microsoft, 2015).

Coming back to the phone/network paradigm just one more time, there was a time where those two systems were largely separate. However, many phone call control devices, both small and large, are computer controlled almost entirely nowadays whereas there was a heavy reliance on a separate phone network, switchboards and other separated devices in prior years. However, there has been a large shift with there being a basic melding of the two networks. Home phones are starting to become extinct as Voice Over IP phones (internet phones, basically) are now the norm and traditional phones are becoming less and less common. Even the traditional phones make heavier use of networking technology even if the end-user is not aware of it. Even cell phone networks, which themselves have been their own animal in many ways, are now doing the same thing as Wi-Fi calling (calls using Wi-Fi rather than cell phone networks alone) are more common. VOIP phones and smartphones (with or without Wi-Fi) are being combined via vendors like Vonage and others. The point is that there have been semi-separate pathways for different telecom and data solutions but those pathways are very quickly becoming more singular rather than remaining separate (Cisco, 2015; Vonage, 2015).

Conclusion

As proven by situations like the Target hack, the TJX hack and network failures like the one AT&T had some years ago, there are some growing pains and a few incompetent people when it comes to the ever-growing telecom and data capabilities that exist. However, the good far outweighs the bad. Even so, there needs to be an embracing of learning and best practices so that the pains are limited and the benefits come quicker and quicker. Privacy and security are concerns but perhaps they will become less so as the years go on.