IMS 6485: The Internet & WWW 1 Dr. Lawrence West, MIS Dept., University of Central Florida [email protected] Topics Components of the Internet –Technical

IMS 6485: The Internet & WWW

1Dr. Lawrence West, MIS Dept., University of Central [email protected]

Topics

• Components of the Internet

– Technical

– Standards

– Transmission

• Internet II

• The WWW

• New Uses of the Internet

• Important Themes

• Akami Case



Chapter Overview

• Chapter covers Internet Technologies and Internet Content/Uses

– Can't have one without the other

– Which came first?

– Which is shaping the use and structure of the Internet?

– What forces are also shaping the Internet

• Technical?

• Market?

– Supply? − Demand?

• Regulatory?



What Are the Components of the Internet?

• Physical?

• Protocol?

• Legal?



When Did the Internet Become the Internet?

• What separately developed pieces became the first Internet?

– Private Internet?

– Public Internet?

• Who paid for each piece and what was their motivation?

• When did the Internet go mainstream?

– What were the reasons?

– What were the investments and benefits?

– Was there a tipping point?



Packet Switching

• What is packet switching?

– Why is it so important in data communications?

– What is the alternative?

– Why has packet switching persisted as the transmittal means of choice for the Internet?

– What factors are currently making packet switching problematic (in some instances)?

• What are the economic issues affecting packet switching and recent problems?

• Is the fix being contemplated technical or economic?



Impact of Standards & Protocols

• SMTP

• POP

• IMAP

• FTP

• Telnet

• SSL

• TCP/IP

• IP Addressing scheme

• Domain Names

• HTTP

• The technical capabilities of these protocols are important enablers

• What are the economic impacts of these protocols?



Technical Infrastructure—The Internet Backbone

• The Internet backbone is billions of dollars of fiber optic data transmission capability

– Internet Exchange Points connect the backbone to local networks

– Local Networks provide the connectivity to ISPs who in turn connect users

• What is the pricing model used by backbone suppliers?

• By ISP?



Infrastructure Investment

• Read the discussion at the bottom of p. 153

– Who screwed up?

– What was their motivation?

– Who has benefited? In what way?

• What is the implication of the overinvestment in capacity of the end of the last century?

– What drove Lucent stock from $85 dollars a share to 85 cents a share?



Technical Infrastructure—The Last Mile

• The Last Mile refers to the connectivity directly to the user's equipment (phone or computer)

• Much of the last mile technology has been based on outdated technologies

– Telephone and cable lines using copper wire

– Hugely expensive to update

– P. 153: Verizon spent $2.5 billion to run fiber optic lines into 3 million homes (≈ $835 / home)

– What gamble is Verizon making?

– What Revenue Model does Verizon have?

• How many signals came into a home in 1990?



Technical Infrastructure—The Last Mile (cont.)

• What does all of this have to do with current services and marketing by AT&T and the Cable Companies?

– What are they trying to do and why?

• What is NetZero trying to do?




• Wireless Connectivity

– WiFi breaks the wired connection for the last mile

– Precedent follows from developing countries that skipped wired last mile telephony to implement strictly cellular access

– Many WiFi public hot spots

• Who pays?

• What is motivation?

• Who benefits?

– Also municipal and community WiFi projects




• Wireless Technologies (p. 154…)

– There are multiple competing technologies for wireless connectivity

• WLAN vs. telephone-based connectivity

– What are the technical and market implications of competing standards?

– Wireless Application Protocol for mobile (small) devices

• System development implications?



New Uses of the Internet

• IM

• Wikis

• Podcasts

• VOIP telephone service

• Streaming media

• Application Service Providers & Cloud Computing

– What are they and what are the economic motivations?

– What technologies enabled them?



Cloud Computing

• CC is a model of computing and data storage that moves computing resources onto the Internet and away from local machines

– Applications

– Data storage

– Computing capacity

• Companies invest in high capacity computing, storage, and networking

– Able to shift demand to idle resources

• Clients only need network access



New Uses of the Internet (cont.)

• What impact have new uses of the Internet had on the Old Internet (Internet 1)?

• What constraints from Internet 1 affect new uses?

• How do new uses affect the network?

• What market and technical forces affect this interaction between new uses and old technologies?



Internet II Technologies

• IP Multicasting• Latency Solutions address differential packet delivery

times– Note a market issue involved

• Guaranteed Service Levels – Also a new market issue

• Declining Costs– Increased use = lower average cost for consuming

fixed assets• An important and common economic model

– Improved technologies lead to lower costs



The WWW

• Some Themes

– Government and/or academic development

– Proven technologies and concepts then translate to the public sector

– Look for first movers who were overtaken by followers

• Netscape→Microsoft

• Compuserve →AOL

– Existing technologies adapted for Web

• SGML →HTML



Themes Revisited

• Network Externalities

– What are the instances of in the history of the Internet and it's current version?

– What opportunities do you see for future development?

• Leverage—What instances of leverage did we see in the development of the Internet?

• The Social Environment

– What will be different as the Internet goes forward?

– How will these differences affect future Internet development?



Themes Revisited—Standards

• What are all of the examples of competing standards we have seen as the Internet grew and for future development?

• How have standards been selected from among candidates?

• What are the risks of having competing standards?

• Given these risks why do we see them?

• What have been some historical standards battles?



Themes Revisited (cont.)

• We have seen some of the impacts of the Internet on business

– Traditional businesses

– eCommerce-intensive businesses

• What changes can you anticipate as the Internet develops?

– More of the same

– Entirely new opportunities

– Entirely new threats



Themes Revisited--Constraints

• What constraints have existed on the Internet at various points in its history?

• What have been the dynamics (changes) in these constraints?

• What have been the results of the changes?

• What are current constraints on the Internet?

• What could change about current constraints?

• What would be the results of such future changes



The Akami Case

• What does the Akami Company do

• Discuss the Business Model elements:

– Value Proposition

– Revenue Model

– Competitive Environment

• Not just competitors

• Could the need that spawned their service become obsolete?



Finally

• What parallels can be drawn from the development of the Internet and the development of the Interstate Highway System?

• Where do the analogies break down?

Documents

IMS 6485: The Internet & WWW 1 Dr. Lawrence West, MIS Dept., University of Central Florida [email protected] Topics Components of the Internet –Technical