Computer Networks: A Systems Approach - 1.1 Applications

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach - 1.1 Applications

"Most people know the Internet through its applications: the World Wide Web, email, social media, streaming music or movies, videoconferencing, instant messaging, file-sharing, to name just a few examples. That is to say, we interact with the Internet as users of the network. Internet users represent the largest class of people who interact with the Internet in some way, but there are several other important constituencies.

There is the group of people who create the applications—a group that has greatly expanded in recent years as powerful programming platforms and new devices such as smartphones have created new opportunities to develop applications quickly and to bring them to a large market.

Then there are those who operate or manage networks—mostly a behind-the-scenes job, but a critical one and often a very complex one. With the prevalence of home networks, more and more people are also becoming, if only in a small way, network operators.

Finally, there are those who design and build the devices and protocols that collectively make up the Internet. That final constituency is the traditional target of networking textbooks such as this one and will continue to be our main focus. However, throughout this book we will also consider the perspectives of application developers and network operators.

Considering these perspectives will enable us to better understand the diverse requirements that a network must meet. Application developers will also be able to make applications that work better if they understand how the underlying technology works and interacts with the applications. So, before we start figuring out how to build a network, let’s look more closely at the types of applications that today’s networks support..."

Full text for this section can be found at:

Title: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach
Authors: Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie
Copyright: Elsevier, 2012
License: CC BY 4.0