Why was the internet created?

Posted on 23. Mar, 2010 by Iwind in Technology

The Internet is a bludgeoning behemoth of computers interlinked via a global system of electrical and optical cables, criss-crossing the earth globally. This global system of interconnected computer networks makes use of a worldwide standard as a means of communication – the TCP/IP suite. And why was the internet created?

The predecessor to the internet was the ARPA net. With the space race gaining maximum press exposure, the United states of America plunged into various other ways of gaining technological dominance over the Soviet Union. This led to the emergence of a research wing called the ARPA or the Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA called for research and exploration of various methods of communication. Before the internet, most communication networks between computers were local in nature, predominantly allowing file transfer between computers located within the locality, with the prevalent method of communication being the use of a centralized mainframe model which connected all these computers together.

Massive research was underway, with methods being devised to enhance modes of communication and to facilitate file transfer between computers spanning many miles in distance. The research led to several new developments. Circuit switching which had been the communication method of choice gave way to packet-switched networking, now the de-facto standard used over the internet. Packet switching led to the creation of the ARPANET and additional protocols were also put in place, the X.25. These networks were however disjointed, each being independent. There was limited scope for communication between independent networks. This called for further research. Ways to apply packet switching concepts over long distances were being devised to develop a standard way of communicating between networks.

Packet switching was used to unite several different networks through a standard protocol called the internet protocol suite. This finally led to the formation of a super-framework of networks. The Internet Protocol suite was developed with the belief that the network could exist separately from its physical form of implementation, over a virtual, theoretical data transfer model. Over the years, this network was fine tuned, spreading the idea of an inter-networked domain of computer systems globally, eventually spilling out into a massive system that we now call as the Internet.

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