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History of TCP / IP

The history of TCP/IP is basically also the history of the Internet. For the simple reason is that since the beginning of ARPANet TCP/IP has been the most widely used protocol. And also has the most experience being changed and worked on.

ARPANET 1969 the scene was set and the Internet began its way into the world. The military and other private funding organizations funded ARPANET. The basis of the Internet was leased lines using a packet-switching scheme.

1980’s other organizations begin to see how they could benefit from this large network and took over. The organizations were NSF (National Science Foundation) and DDS (Defense Data Nework). Their primary focus was being able to exchange information and keep up to date with the ease of using existing technology such as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

1984 The network was split into 2, MILNET was dedicated to UN-classified military information, where ARPANET was left to non-military and casual use of the fast growing network.

1995 NSFNet began to withdrawal from the Internet and turn the power over to PSINet, UUNET,ANS/AOL, Sprint, MCI, and AGIS-Net99. From this the backbone of the Internet was formed. These companies formed the backbone at very high speeds, with Fiber Optics. The name of the backbone that has been in place is called vBNS.

Reasons why you would use TCP/IP? TCP/IP is the most widely used protocol and also has the most experience being tested and altered. Also TCP/IP is used with an Open System, anybody can have the source and be able to alter or improve this protocol suite.

Cerf and Kern two very popular names you will hear associated with the early developments of the ideas and concepts behind end-to-end acknowledgments.

1971: ARPANET 1822L Host Access Protocol was used to connect ARPANET together. Over the coming years issues such as Security and Utilities were recognized. FTP, NCP and E-mail were soon developed. This protocol introduced logical addressing and is able to assign IP address to computers.

(RFC: 878 12/1983)

1973: NCP wasn’t able to handle large volumes of traffic that the network was producing so they had to ditch it due to its lacking abilities to handle large volumes.

(RFC: 1332)

1982: TCP/IP was showing that it was able to reliable to handle large volumes of traffic and still be able to communicate in an efficient manner.

1983: The Center of UNIX was UCB and was working great with TCP/IP. They released a altered and updated version of TCP/IP which was available as domain software.

1986: TCP/IPBCD4.3 was released on public domain, this copy included more utilities and security.

1988: 4.3BCD/Tahoe was released, today almost every version of TCP/IP contains some of these roots.

Present: In the present day, you are required to use TCP/IP to connect to the Internet. TCP/IP is a stack that is added, you not installing software. TCP/IP as been chosen over the years because of its history and its reliability. The reason that its take so long for the improvements of TCP/IP is because of the government is really the control of what is done. One main factory when using TCP/IP is addressing which we will talk about a little later. This is the scheme of things.

Other organizations and groups that handles the Internet Include:

[RFC: 1605]IRTF Internet Research Task Force

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

[RFC:1052]IAB Internet Advisory Group

FNC Federal Networking Council: Works between the government and IAB and manages the governments use of the Internet.

[Figure 1-1] Timeline of TCP/IP

Introduction to Protocols and Open System Model

The Internet Suite consists of a protocol stack. That stack is known as TCP/IP. TCP/IP are actually 2 separate protocols used. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) basically handles reliable connections and error/flow control from IP. IP (Internet Protocol) handles the routing and information passing up to TCP (with exceptions).

What is a protocol and why do we need them? A protocol is a set of rules on a way to communicate. Most commonly used over the Internet. So when you are using the Internet you have set rules on using TCP/IP. You need to use them so you can both communicate with the same rules.

If you were to use other protocols you wouldn't be able to communicate because you would have different rules and conflict.

Open System is best defined as a system that is not secret. Unix is a open system, this is why we have Linux and flavors of Unix available to the public. Having a open system is great, this allows people to exchange ideas and be more open. This will also more importantly allow software and hardware vendors to make equipment that works with other peoples ideas and intonations.

Open System Networking is what TCP/IP is considered. If you didn't know what protocol your ISP was using or it was unavailable to you, you wouldn't be able to communicate with them.

[Figure 2-1 Internet Suite]

[Figure 2-2 OSI Model]

TCP (Transmission Control Protocal)

[RFC:793 10/1981] Transmission Control Protocol handles the messaging flow control and error corrections. TCP is above IP and below Application. It lies in the Transport layer of the Internet Suite. Most applications require that TCP use IP, but some utilities such as FTP and SMTP don’t require IP at all.

TCP Provides:

Host to Host communication

Reliable Transfer of Data

Able to work with current and advancing technology.

Multiplexing ("To allow for many processes within a single Host to use TCP communication facilities simultaneously")

Connection-Oriented (Meaning that it provides guaranteed and reliable transfer of information)

TCP needs to be reliable in transferring data, because it is communicating with user information such as file transfers and e-mail. If you receive only half of the e-mail or file transfer its worthless.

It is also important for TCP to know the port number. A better explanation is you web browser will use port 80. This is for HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). When you open a web site, the data is transferred through port 80.

[Figure 3-1 HTTP Port Used on TCP/IP]

IP (Internet Protocol)

[RFC 791 10/1981] The Internet Protocol the other part of TCP and sites on the Internet layer of the Internet Suite Stack. This provides the logical addressing and continues passing of datagrams through the network.

TCP. The Internet Protocol is also able to manipulate data by fragmenting into smaller blocks and then reassembles on the receiving side.

Internet routing how does it work? Routing is provided by the IP layer, at least logical routing is.

This is what identifies you on the Internet. When you download information or transfer information your IP address are embedded in the Datagram that is send or received. IP addresses are classified as A-B-C-D or E. IP address most commonly used are A, B, and C.

IP addresses are broken into 3 parts. Network address (which is your base address of your network), Subnet Address (which can be a division of your network), and Host Address (which is a single computer).

Routing IP address between networks and determining paths that can be taken. This is done with a group of protocols that work mostly at the network layer. Here is a small list of those protocols.

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Using Link-State Algorithm determines the best route based on several things, such as hops or status of the link.

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) Uses Distance-Vector Algorithm this only cares about the amount of hops it must take, it doesn't care about the time or the status of the links.

EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol) Used between two autonomous systems to transfer information from router to router.

IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) used between two routers that are autonomous.

[Figure 4-1, a table of classes]

Figure 4-1

Class A 1-126 (1bytes)

Class B 128-191 (2bytes)

Class C 192-223 (3bytes)

Router is a device that works at the network layer of the Internet suite. This provides logical routing of datagrams from LAN-LAN or over larger networks such as WANs. Your IP address can be acquired from a HOST or LMHOST file. Or you can also get a IP address more commonly today using a protocol called DHCP. When you boot your computer up, a protocol called BOOTP

DHCP is the most effect and common way to assign IP addresses.

[Figure 4-2 DHCP handling process]

1. Bootup the computer

2. Bootp broadcast message

3. Check see if IP is in use

3b. If no get new IP

4. Received IP Acknowledgment

5. Acknowledgment marks usage IP.

6. Renegotiate IP every x hours

7. Register Time to Negioate.

Glossary

ARPANET: Advanced Research

TCP: Transmission Control Protocol

IP: Internet Protocol (handles the message forwarding and logical address routing).

Protocol: A set of rules for machines to agree on.

Packet Switching: Types of network where the packets are broken up and take various paths. At the end of these paths they meet at one and are assembly.

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, currently using 2.0 this is the protocol that runs on browsers that load web pages using HTML.

Datagram: A packet of information self contained that travels over packet-switched networks.

Connection Oriented: This is a type of service that provides reliable data transfer and also does error checking.

Connectionless: This type of service is unreliable, much faster and relies on the higher layer to provide error checking.

LAN: Local Area Network
WAN: Wide Area Network

Works Sited:

[1] http://www.whatis.com/tour.htm%20">http://www.whatis.com/tour.htm (Take a tour of the Internet Backbone)
[2] http://sql.cc.foi.hr/rfc">http://sql.cc.foi.hr/rfc (RFC Search Engine)
[3] TCP/IP Exam Prep (Coriolis)

Excellent TCP/IP References:

[1] http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/misc/tcp_ip/ (history of tcp/ip wouldn't be complete without this excellent mailing list dating back to 1982 through 1991).
[2] http://www.rfc-editor.org/history.html (Internet Archaeology: Documents from Early History).
[3] http://www.livinginternet.com/ (The Living Internet)