Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Roadmap
- 1 What makes CDMA work for my smartphone?
- 2 How does Google sell ad spaces?
- 3 How does Google rank webpages?
- 4 How does Netflix recommend movies?
- 5 When can I trust an average rating on Amazon?
- 6 Why does Wikipedia even work?
- 7 How do I viralize a YouTube video and tip a Groupon deal?
- 8 How do I influence people on Facebook and Twitter?
- 9 Can I really reach anyone in six steps?
- 10 Does the Internet have an Achilles' heel?
- 11 Why do AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge me $10 a GB?
- 12 How can I pay less for each GB?
- 13 How does traffic get through the Internet?
- 14 Why doesn't the Internet collapse under congestion?
- 15 How can Skype and Bit Torrent be free?
- 16 What's inside the cloud of iCloud?
- 17 IPTV and Netflix: How can the Internet support video?
- 18 Why is WiFi faster at home than at a hotspot?
- 19 Why am I getting only a few % of the advertised 4G speed?
- 20 Is it fair that my neighbor's iPad downloads faster?
- Index
- Notes
13 - How does traffic get through the Internet?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Roadmap
- 1 What makes CDMA work for my smartphone?
- 2 How does Google sell ad spaces?
- 3 How does Google rank webpages?
- 4 How does Netflix recommend movies?
- 5 When can I trust an average rating on Amazon?
- 6 Why does Wikipedia even work?
- 7 How do I viralize a YouTube video and tip a Groupon deal?
- 8 How do I influence people on Facebook and Twitter?
- 9 Can I really reach anyone in six steps?
- 10 Does the Internet have an Achilles' heel?
- 11 Why do AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge me $10 a GB?
- 12 How can I pay less for each GB?
- 13 How does traffic get through the Internet?
- 14 Why doesn't the Internet collapse under congestion?
- 15 How can Skype and Bit Torrent be free?
- 16 What's inside the cloud of iCloud?
- 17 IPTV and Netflix: How can the Internet support video?
- 18 Why is WiFi faster at home than at a hotspot?
- 19 Why am I getting only a few % of the advertised 4G speed?
- 20 Is it fair that my neighbor's iPad downloads faster?
- Index
- Notes
Summary
We have mentioned the Internet many times so far, and all the previous chapters rely on its existence. It is about time to get into the architecture of the Internet, starting with these two chapters on the TCP/IP foundation of the Internet.
A Short Answer
We will be walking through several core concepts behind the evolution of the Internet, providing the foundation for the next four chapters. So the “short answer” section is going to be longer than the “long answer” section in this chapter.
It is tricky to discuss the historical evolution of technologies like the Internet. Some of what we would like to believe to be the inevitable results from careful design are actually the historical legacy of accidents, or the messy requirements of backward compatibility, incremental deployability, and economic incentives. It is therefore not easy to argue about what could have happened, what could have been alternative paths in the evolution, and what different tradeoffs might have been generated.
Packet switching
The answer to this chapter's question starts with a fundamental idea in designing a network: when your typical users do not really require a dedicated resource, you should allow users to share resources. The word “user” here is used interchangeably with “session.” The logical unit is an application session rather than a physical user or device. For now, assume a session has just one source and one destination, i.e., a unicast session.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Networked Life20 Questions and Answers, pp. 277 - 308Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012