Java™ Network Programming and Distributed Computing

1.5. Internet Architecture

The most important revolution in networking history has been the evolution of the Internet, a worldwide collection of smaller networks that share a common communication suite (TCP/IP). The term evolution rather than creation is used here, as the Internet did not simply come into existence one day and start running. Over the years, the Internet has been extended to include what we have today; it has evolved from a defense communications project called ARPANET into a worldwide collection of networks that spans both the commercial and noncommercial domains. Contributions to the design of the Internet came from both the original ARPANET developers and from academic and commercial researchers who offered suggestions and ...