Next-Generation Network Services

Chapter 2. IP Networks

This chapter covers the following topics:

• IP Past, Present, and Future

• IP Network Convergence

• Local IP Networks: LANs

• Long IP Networks: WANs

• Mobile IP Networks

• Global IP Networks

• Beyond IP

Your digital consciousness. Once upon a time, around the 1960s, you could turn it off as you left work at the end of the day. Lumbering mainframes consumed so much power—a scarce resource of the time—that a common exit procedure was to power down after the work cycle, saving not only valuable kilowatts, but also the longevity of vacuum tubes and other precious electronic life.

Prior to 1960, information was customarily stored in analog form—photographic papers and phonotubes, audiotapes and vinyl platters, videotapes and millimeter movie projectors, ...