The need for networking models

One of the most frequently asked questions from many learners who are starting their journey in the field of networking is, what is a network? A network is defined as having two or more computing devices interconnected, using a set of communication protocols (rules) that allow them to share a resource between themselves. A resource can be anything, such as a file on a centralized server, a multiplayer game on an online server, and even a network-connected printer. Networks are all around us and we use them every day to communicate with each other, share information, and even deliver an online service. The largest network in the world is the internet and every day it is continuously growing as more devices are connecting to it and organizations are joining their networks to the internet.

Important note

In the 1960s, the age before the internet, the US Department of Defense (DoD) provided financial funding to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which allowed computer scientists to start developing a prototype to allow academic institutions such as universities and government-funded research centers to establish a computer network over existing telephone lines. This early generation prototype was known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). However, the ARPANET was unable to support communication as expected and crashed when a user attempted to send an input such as a string of text across the ARPANET. Therefore, the project was dismissed.

While the internet is the largest network in the world, it is not owned by a single person, organization, or government, but various organizations globally have the responsibility of ensuring its sustainability, availability, security, and scalability. The following are important organizations that play key roles on the internet:

• Internet Society (ISOC): The Internet Society is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage the open development, usage, and evolution of the internet in a way that is beneficial to everyone in the world. You can learn more about the Internet Society on their website at https://www.internetsociety.org.
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): The IETF is an organization with the responsibility of both developing and promoting internet technical standards such as protocol suites. Simply put, the IETF is responsible for ensuring the internet is a better place for all. You can learn more about the IETF on their website at https://www.ietf.org.
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB): The IAB is a committee within the IETF that serves as an advisory board for overseeing the internet standards processes and the IETF architectural designs. You can learn more about the IAB on their website at https://www.iab.org.
• Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA): IANA is responsible for coordinating, distributing, and managing domain names, number resources, and protocol assignments on the internet and networks. Additionally, IANA oversees the Autonomous System Number (ASN) allocation and Domain Name System (DNS) root zone management. You can learn more about IANA on their official website at https://www.iana.org.
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): ICANN is a non-profit organization that is responsible for the coordination, procedures, and maintenance of both namespaces and numerical spaces on the internet to ensure its stability and security. You can learn more about ICANN on their website at https://www.icann.org.

Imagine a world without computer networks; there would be so many challenges that both organizations and individuals would face each day. Imagine an employee of a company who wants to send a document to an employee of another organization. The traditional method would be to securely package the document with its contents within an envelope and use a courier service for delivery. However, using the internet and email services, the sender can attach the document file within an email message and forward it to the intended destination (recipient); the time it takes the message to be delivered between the sender and the recipient via the internet is highly reduced with the help of networking protocols compared to using traditional courier services.

Within the educational industry, there are many amazing certifications, qualifications, and study programs from various academic institutions around the world. Using the internet, educational institutions can deliver their learning content to students around the globe compared to the traditional on-campus learning method. Companies are also using networking technologies and the internet to extend their products and services beyond traditional borders. To ensure communication between networked devices such as computers works as expected, it’s vital to understand the need for vendor-neutral networking models for intercommunication.

In today’s world, many types of devices connect to our networks compared to traditional computers and servers. Some of these new devices include smart technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as smartphones and tablets, gaming consoles, and smart electronics and appliances. Connecting computers and IoT devices to a network is a seamless process and everything works as expected. However, back in the 1970s, early computer vendors started developing their proprietary networking models to allow their computers to intercommunicate and share resources over a network. For many organizations, this concept may have worked well if the company had bought computers from a specific computer vendor only. If, in the future, the company decided to purchase computers from another computer vendor, the company would not be able to create a unified network with all the computers from different vendors. This was one of the biggest issues with communication in the early days as each computer vendor developed its own proprietary networking model. As a result, companies would need to create separate networks for each vendor’s device; this concept does not support network scalability for a growing company. This intercommunication issue led to the development of a common networking model that allows different devices to communicate over a network.

In the 1970s, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) took the initiative on developing the OSI networking model for computer networks. The OSI model was designed to be a common standard for using networking protocols (rules) to allow intercommunication between devices that are connected over a network. However, the OSI model didn’t have the traction needed to be implemented as a networking protocol suite within systems. At the same time during the 1970s, the US DoD also started working on developing a vendor-neutral protocol suite for intercommunication across computer networks; this protocol suite included the research and efforts of many organizations, such as universities and government agencies, to develop the networking protocols that made up the protocol suite we all know today as TCP/IP.

Important note

A network protocol is simply the rules and guidelines that are used by a device to allow communication or the exchange of messages from one device to another. There are many network protocols, each of which has a different purpose and characteristic. During this book, you will discover and learn about their functionalities and use cases.

In the 1980s and 1990s, organizations began implementing computer systems that supported various networking models such as those that were proprietary to specific computer vendors and even TCP/IP within their companies. As mentioned previously, companies experienced the challenge of interconnecting computers that used different networking models from computer vendors. Eventually, by the early 2000s, vendors had started to fully adopt and implement TCP/IP as the preferred network protocol suite to allow intercommunication between devices from different vendors. Hence, TCP/IP is considered to be the universal language of communication within the networking industry.

Important note

AppleTalk was a short-lived proprietary networking model created by Apple in 1985 and was used on Apple devices until 1995, when the TCP/IP protocol suite was adopted. Another short-lived networking model was Novell NetWare, a proprietary model created by Novell back in 1983 using the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) networking protocol until 1995, when TCP/IP was adopted.

Having completed this section, you have gained an understanding of the importance of using a networking model to ensure devices can successfully communicate with one another over a network. In the next section, we will explore the roles and responsibilities of each layer of the OSI model.