Needless to say, how important and useful internet is to us. According to a Study, 82% of the people accepted that they can't imagine their life without the Internet.
WE ALL KNOW HOW TO USE INTERNET BUT DO WE KNOW HOW IT WORKS?
If you read this Blog completely I can guarantee that you will be among the few who knows how it works.
Many people think that the internet works because of satellites. I am sorry to say but this is not the complete truth
The internet that we use at our homes is definitely not coming to us via satellite. Internet can be accessed using satellite but it’s less than 5% of the total internet traffic. It is used mainly by intelligence bureau, research and analysis wing, top institutions like NASA, ISRO also It is used in military operations where there is no network available in the area for example in the deep Forest, Mountains, Deserts etc but our normal phones can’t connect to satellite to make calls or browse the internet we need satellite phones for that.
SO HOW DOES IT WORK FOR MAJORITY OF US?
Before going ahead, we will talk a little bit about what is a network and how a network is created.
A network is made up of more than one computer connected to each other in such a way that they can share their resources. So more than one computer connected together make a network and many networks connected together is the Internet.
HOW DO WE CREATE A NETWORK?
Computers are connected together using a switch and the switch is connected to a router and the router is connected to an ISP and the ISP is connected to the Optical fiber Internet superhighway.
The reason why this topic becomes complex is when we have to study Switches, Routers, ISP, Client, Servers. How to connect many computers together securely, routing path of the packets, network congestion I don’t want to go into these things in detail otherwise we will have to write many books on this topic. we will understand on a high-level how the entire thing is working
SO, LET’S START.. HOW DOES IT WORKS
Entire Internet is divided into 3 Tiers:
Tier 1: Connects continents and countries
Tier 2: Connects different states of the country
Tier 3: From states to end users (me and you)
Tier 1 Network: There is a site called (submarinecablemap.com) which shows us the optical superhighway that is laid under the ocean to connect different continents and countries.
Tier 1 companies Create the necessary infrastructure and they connect different continents and countries
LIST OF TIER 1 COMPANIES IN THE WORLD
IMAGE OF OPTICAL FIBER CROSSING THROUGH THE SEA
Maintenance of these cables is not a very easy thing as we have encountered many incidents when sharks and other animals have damaged the cable, once by mistake a ship anchor got stuck in it, which ended by breaking 70 percent of the middle east(Gulf countries) internet .
TIER 2 NETWORK
Once Tier 1 companies connect the continents and countries, Tier 2 companies give a fee to Tier1 company and spread connectivity in different states of the country.
Many times, Tier 2 and Tier 3 networks are provided by the same company, for example, Airtel in India buy internet from Tata Communications India Limited which is the Tier 1 company and it provides connectivity to different states of India and also connects to end users also with a Tier 3 network.
TIER 3 Network: Takes the connectivity to the end user. But most of the times Tier2 companies only provide Tier 3 network.
NOW LETS TEST THIS:
For example, I am in Bangalore and I typed www.google.com in my browser, How does my computer get connected to Google? which path it follows because it has to connect from INDIA to the US because Google has its data center In US.
To find this for any site open command prompt (cmd) > Type tracert and site address> it will tell us path it followed to connect to the server where the required information is stored.
There is a site to track the location of the IP: https://www.iplocation.net/
From the above screenshot which shows us result of tracert command we see that when we type www.google.com it connected to my router at home IP:192.168.1.1 and then went to come another router in Bangalore and then moved around to few routers in Mumbai and finally sent to California using Optical fiber which is laid under the ocean by Tier 1 network companies and then we got to the google home page.
From Bangalore to Mumbai connectivity is provided by Tier 2 Network
From Mumbai to California connectivity is provided by Tier 1 Network
Here is my example Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies are same.
So this is how internet works for all of us.
TAKEAWAY:
- Internet is not largely provided to us using satellites, less than 5% Internet access is via satellite.
- More than one computer connected together make a network and many networks connected together is the Internet.
- More than 95% of the internet is accessed using optical fiber cables laid under the sea.
- Internet Infrastructure is divided into 3 parts
-- Tier 1 Network: Connects continents and countries
-- Tier 2 Network: Connects different states of the country
-- Tier 3 Network: Brings the internet to end users( you and me)
PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS TOPIC, IF ANY ONE WANTS TO ADD ANY POINT THEY ARE MOST WELCOME!!
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