Internet: the Mother of all networks

Since the beginning of data processing, it became obvious that connecting computers, initially on a local level, then on a more spread out level, could bring a faster exchange of information but also a sharing of resources. Thus was born the concept of a network.

In order to make such networks possible, it was necessary to develop 2 aspects:

• the physical aspect: how to connect 2 computers physically ?
• the data-processing aspect: how these 2 computers dialogue?

Concerning the first aspect, the installation of physical connections, it did not initially pose too many problems. Installations, if expensive at the beginning, undergo only little deterioration in the course of time (at least on a data-processing scale).

On the other hand, the installation of dialogue protocols (as today's TCP/IP) was done gently and laboriously. Indeed, several parallel networks existed and it was necessary to await the end of 1980's so that a single network, Internet, resting on a set of protocols of dialogue could emerge. It is because it federated the efforts of various actors as regards of data-processing communication that Internet is today called "Mother of all networks".

But, even if the technologies developed to connect logically the terminals to each other are difficult and advanced, they nonetheless depend on a physical architecture, in other words: pipes. There are henceforth a multitude of different types: optical fibres, telephone lines, networks cables, and even satellites, Hertzian, infra-red or ultrasounds... All the mini-networks that can be found on a local scale are connected to each other by backbones (transatlantic, intercontinental cables), and the interconnections are ensured by exchanges nodes: GIXs.