Chapter 1. Internetworking Models

 

Before we begin our trek into the world of networking, let us take a quick look back on how it began. In 1962 J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark coined the Galactic Network concept that encompasses social interaction.

It wasn't until 1969 that the first version of Arpanet (internet) went online. It connected four devices from for different universities; University of Utah, Stanford Research Institute, UCLA and the UCSB.

So in our world of Information Technology we have been trying since the 60's to communicate with each other using different types of networks.

The Defense Department was one of the first to develop a system, in which we can communicate across the world in case some major catastrophe occurred. Yes we had the phone system, post office, even though air and sea we could send information across the globe but, we were not satisfied with the scalability, interoperability, the efficiency of how these particular networks operated and you basically had to have Doctorate degree to even get close to one those so called monstrosities called computers.

Not until the mid-1980's, is when computer networks started to appear more in small to large businesses, this was due to the powers that be, that created the TCP/IP network suite and allowed the rest of world be able to transmit information, throughout their business, making them more efficient in getting the information into the hands of the people that need it fairly quickly and with little effort.

Let me explain that last line "with little effort", you could simply share a file, folder or drive on your network and people can navigate to it and access that information without leaving the comfort of their desk.

Imagine how it would be before networks were implemented in companies. You work in a building that has twelve floors, with multiple offices in each floor. Now, you must take a document from your desk on the first floor, to the twelve floor, you could have used vacuum tubes, but that's a lot of tubing you would need for a building that size, not to mention that each office would have to need a tube into the office or have a central location on that floor, where someone would be in charge of taking all those documents to the appropriate office. You could use the elevator or stairs and hand deliver the document yourself to the department or office itself, not very efficient and was called "The sneaker network". This was a reality, back in the good old days.

So, networks come to the rescue, using a cabling system, internetworking devices, and protocols we could do the same work at lightning speed and not have to leave the comfort of our desk.

With all that said, let's begin by talking about Internetworking devices and the role they play on the network.