Chapter 2:

Technology Infrastructure: The Internet

and the World Wide Web

Electronic
Commerce, Seventh
Annual Edition
 Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn about:
• The origin, growth, and current structure of
the Internet
• How packet-switched networks are combined
to form the Internet
• How Internet protocols and Internet
addressing work
• The history and use of markup languages on
the Web, including SGML, HTML, and XML

Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 2

 Objectives (continued)
• How HTML tags and links work on the World
Wide Web

• The differences among internets, intranets,

and extranets

• Options for connecting to the Internet,

including cost and bandwidth factors

• Internet2 and the Semantic Web

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 The Internet and the World Wide
Web
• Computer network
– Any technology that allows people to connect
computers to each other

• The Internet
– A large system of interconnected computer
networks spanning the globe

• World Wide Web

– A subset of computers on the Internet

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 Origins of the Internet
• Early 1960s
– U.S. Department of Defense funded research to
explore creating a worldwide network
• In 1969
– Defense Department researchers connected four
computers into a network called ARPANET
• Throughout the 1970s and 1980s
– Academic researchers connected to ARPANET
and contributed to its technological developments

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 New Uses for the Internet
• 1972
– E-mail was born
• Mailing list
– E-mail address that forwards any message
received to any user who has subscribed to the list
• Usenet
– Started by a group of students and programmers
at Duke University and the University of North
Carolina

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 Growth of the Internet
• In 1991, the NSF:
– Eased restrictions on commercial Internet activity
– Began implementing plans to privatize the Internet
• Network access points (NAPs)
– Basis of the new structure of the Internet
• Network access providers
– Sell Internet access rights directly to larger
customers and indirectly to smaller firms and
individuals through ISPs

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 8
 Emergence of the World Wide
Web
• The Web
– Software that runs on computers connected to the
Internet
• Vannevar Bush speculated that engineers
would eventually build a memory extension
device (the Memex)
• In the 1960s, Ted Nelson described a similar
system called hypertext

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Emergence of the World Wide Web
(continued)
• Tim Berners-Lee developed code for a
hypertext server program
• Hypertext server:
– Stores files written in the hypertext markup
language
– Lets other computers connect to it and read files
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
– Includes a set of codes (or tags) attached to text

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 Packet-Switched Networks
• Local area network (LAN)
– Network of computers located close together

• Wide area networks (WANs)

– Networks of computers connected over greater
distances

• Circuit
– Combination of telephone lines and closed
switches that connect them to each other

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 Packet-Switched Networks
(continued)
• Circuit switching
– Centrally controlled, single-connection model
• Packets
– Files and e-mail messages on a packet-switched
network are broken down into small pieces, called
packets
– Travel from computer to computer along the
interconnected networks until they reach their
destinations

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 Routing Packets
• Routing computers
– Computers that decide how best to forward
packets
• Routing algorithms
– Rules contained in programs on router computers
that determine the best path on which to send
packets
– Programs apply their routing algorithms to
information they have stored in routing tables

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 14
 Internet Protocols
• Protocol
– Collection of rules for formatting, ordering, and error-
checking data sent across a network
• Rules for message handling include:
– Independent networks should not require any internal
changes to be connected to the network
– Packets that do not arrive at their destinations must
be retransmitted from their source network
– Router computers act as receive-and-forward devices
– No global control exists over the network

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 TCP/IP
• TCP
– Controls disassembly of a message or a file into
packets before transmission over the Internet
– Controls reassembly of packets into their original
formats when they reach their destinations

• IP
– Specifies addressing details for each packet

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 IP Addressing
• Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)
– Uses a 32-bit number to identify computers
connected to the Internet
• Base 2 (binary) number system
– Used by computers to perform internal
calculations
• Subnetting
– Use of reserved private IP addresses within LANs
and WANs to provide additional address space

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 IP Addressing (continued)
• Private IP addresses
– Series of IP numbers not permitted on packets
that travel on the Internet
• Network Address Translation (NAT) device
– Used in subnetting to convert private IP addresses
into normal IP addresses
• Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
– Protocol that will replace IPv4
– Uses a 128-bit number for addresses

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 Domain Names
• A domain name is a set of words assigned to
a specific IP address
• Top-level domain (or TLD)
– Rightmost part of a domain name

• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and

Numbers (ICANN)
– Responsible for managing domain names and
coordinating them with IP address registrars

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 20
 Web Page Request and Delivery
Protocols
• Web client computers
– Run software called Web client software or Web
browser software
• Web server computers
– Run software called Web server software
• Client/server architecture
– Combination of client computers running Web
client software and server computers running Web
server software

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 Web Page Request and Delivery
Protocols (continued)
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
– Set of rules for delivering Web page files over the
Internet
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
– Combination of the protocol name and domain
name
– Allows a user to locate a resource (the Web page)
on another computer (the Web server)

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 Electronic Mail Protocols
• Electronic mail (e-mail)
– Must be formatted according to a common set of
rules
• E-mail server
– Computer devoted to handling e-mail
• E-mail client software
– Used to read and send e-mail
– Examples include Microsoft Outlook and Netscape
Messenger

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 Electronic Mail Protocols
(continued)
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
– Specifies the format of a mail message
• Post Office Protocol (POP)
– POP messages can tell the e-mail server to:
• Send mail to a user’s computer and delete it from
the e-mail server
• Send mail to a user’s computer and not delete it
• Simply ask whether new mail has arrived
– POP provides support for Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions (MIME)

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 Markup Languages and the Web
• Text markup language
– Specifies a set of tags that are inserted into text
• Standard Generalized Markup Language
(SGML)
– Older and more complex text markup language
than HTML
– A meta language
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
– Not-for-profit group that maintains standards for
the Web

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 26
 Standard Generalized Markup
Language
• Offers a system of marking up documents
that is independent of any software
application

• Nonproprietary and platform independent

• Offers user-defined tags

• Costly to set up and maintain

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 Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML)
• Prevalent markup language used to create
documents on the Web today
• HTML tags are interpreted by a Web browser
and are used by it to format the display of the
text
• HTML links can be structured as:
– Linear hyperlink structures
– Hierarchical hyperlink structures

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 Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML) (continued)
• The most common scripting languages
include JavaScript, JScript, Perl, and
VBScript
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are sets of
instructions that give Web developers more
control over the format of displayed pages
– Style sheet is:
• Usually stored in a separate file
• Referenced using the HTML style tag

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Extensible Markup Language (XML)

• XML uses paired start and stop tags

• It includes data management capabilities that
HTML cannot provide
• Differences between XML and HTML:
– XML is not a markup language with defined tags
– XML tags do not specify how text appears on a
Web page

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 31
 Intranets and Extranets
• Intranet
– Interconnected network that does not extend
beyond the organization that created it

• Extranet
– Intranet extended to include entities outside the
boundaries of an organization
– Connects companies with suppliers, business
partners, or other authorized users

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 Public and Private Networks
• Public network
– Any computer network or telecommunications
network available to the public
• Private network
– A private, leased-line connection between two
companies that physically connects their intranets
• Leased line
– Permanent telephone connection between two
points

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 Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• VPN
– An extranet that uses public networks and their
protocols
• IP tunneling
– Effectively creates a private passageway through
the public Internet
• Encapsulation
– Process used by VPN software
• VPN software
– Must be installed on the computers at both ends of
the transmission

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Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition 35
 Internet Connection Options
• Bandwidth
– Amount of data that can travel through a
communication line per unit of time
• Net bandwidth
– Actual speed that information travels
• Symmetric connections
– Provide the same bandwidth in both directions
• Asymmetric connections
– Provide different bandwidths for each direction

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 Voice-Grade Telephone
Connections
• POTS, or plain old telephone service
– Uses existing telephone lines and an analog
modem
– Provides bandwidth between 28 and 56 Kbps
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
– Connection methods that do not use a modem
• Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
– Bandwidths between 128 Kbps and 256 Kbps

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 Broadband Connections
• Broadband connections operate at speeds of
greater than 200 Kbps
• Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)
– Transmission bandwidth is from 100 to 640 Kbps
upstream and from 1.5 to 9 Mbps downstream
• Cable modems
– Provide transmission speeds between 300 Kbps and
1 Mbps
• DSL
– Private line with no competing traffic

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 Leased-Line Connections
• DS0 (digital signal zero)
– Telephone line designed to carry one digital signal
• T1 line (also called a DS1)
– Carries 24 DS0 lines and operates at 1.544 Mbps
• Fractional T1
– Provides service speeds of 128 Kbps and upward in
128-Kbps increments
• T3 service (also called DS3)
– Offers 44.736 Mbps

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 Wireless Connections
• Bluetooth
– Designed for personal use over short distances
– Low-bandwidth technology, with speeds of up to
722 Kbps
– Networks are called personal area networks
(PANs) or piconets
– Consumes very little power
– Devices can discover each other and exchange
information automatically

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 Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi)

• Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi or 802.11b) is the

most common wireless connection
technology for use on LANs
• Wireless access point (WAP)
– Device that transmits network packets between
Wi-Fi-equipped computers and other devices
• Has a potential bandwidth of 11 Mbps and a
range of about 300 feet
• Devices are capable of roaming
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 Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi)
(continued)
• 802.11a protocol
– Capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 54
Mbps
• 802.11g protocol
– Has 54 Mbps speed of 802.11a
– Compatible with 802.11b devices
• 802.11n
– Expected to offer speeds up to 320 Mbps

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 Fixed-Point Wireless
• One version of fixed-point wireless uses a
system of repeaters to forward a radio signal
from an ISP to customers
• Repeaters
– Transmitter-receiver devices (transceivers)

• Mesh routing
– Directly transmits Wi-Fi packets through hundreds,
or even thousands, of short-range transceivers

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 Cellular Telephone Networks

• Third-generation (3G) cell phones

– Combine the latest technologies available today

• Short message service (SMS)

– Protocol used to send and receive short text
messages

• Mobile commerce (m-commerce)

– Describes the kinds of resources people might
want to access using wireless devices

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 Internet2 and the Semantic Web
• Internet2

– Experimental test bed for new networking

technologies

– Has achieved bandwidths of 10 Gbps and more

on parts of its network

– Used by universities to conduct large collaborative

research projects

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 Internet2 and the Semantic Web
(continued)
• Semantic Web
– Project by Tim Berners-Lee
– If successful, it would result in words on Web
pages being tagged (using XML) with their
meanings
• Resource description framework (RDF)
– Set of standards for XML syntax
• Ontology
– Set of standards that defines relationships among
RDF standards and specific XML tags

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 Summary
• TCP/IP
– Protocol suite used to create and transport
information packets across the Internet
• POP, SMTP, and IMAP
– Protocols that help manage e-mail
• Languages derived from SGML
– Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
– Extensible Markup Language (XML)

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 Summary (continued)
• Intranets
– Private internal networks

• Extranet
– Used when companies want to collaborate with
suppliers, partners, or customers

• Internet2
– Experimental network built by a consortium of
research universities and businesses

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