introduction and the general overview of web systems and technologies

1. The Internet
Dr. Hawa Nyende
hawa.nyende@mak.ac.ug

2.  The Internet, its definition, history and how it
works
 Define protocols and standards
 Define Internet standards, explain how they
are developed
 Discuss the Internet administration bodies
 DefineWeb standards, and explain how they
are developed and cite some examples;

4.  A network is a group of connected, communicating devices.
 An internet is two or more networks that can communicate
with each other. The most notable internet is called the
Internet.
 The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer
networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP)
to serve billions of users worldwide.
 It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private,
public, academic, business, and government networks, of local
to global scope.
 It carries a range of information resources and services, e.g.
 the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and
 the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

5. • Was developed as a network
between government research
laboratories and participating
departments of universities.
Today
• The Internet consists ofWANS
&
LANS
• It is run by private companies –
Internet service providers, not
the government.

6.  A protocol is a set of rules that governs
communication.
 E.g. in a telephone conversation, rules to follow
include
 to make a connection – punch in the telephone number and place a
call,
 to respond to the call - press/slide the answer button,
 to greet, - say ‘hello’
 to let the communication flow smoothly - listen when the other party
is talking,
 and finally to end the communication – say ‘bye’ and hanging up.
 Any other examples of protocol in our day-to-day lives?

7.  In computer networks, communication
occurs between entities in different systems.
 They do not understand each other
 For communication to occur, the entities
must agree on (or ‘observe’) protocol.
 A protocol defines what is communicated,
how it is communicated, and when it is
communicated.

8. The key elements of a protocol are syntax,
semantics, and timing.
1. Syntax - the structure or format of the data,
 i.e. the order in which they are presented.
 E.g. in a simple protocol
 first 8 bits of data are the address of the sender,
 the second 8 bits to be the address of the receiver,
and
 the rest of the stream is the message itself.

9. 2. Semantics - refers to the meaning of each
section of bits.
 How is a pattern to be interpreted, and what
action should be taken based on that
interpretation?
 E.g. does an address identify the route to be
taken or the final destination of the message?

10. 3. Timing – refers to when data should be sent
and how fast it can be sent.
 E.g. if a sender produces data at 100
megabits per second (100 Mbps) but the
receiver can process data at only 1 Mbps, the
transmission will overload the receiver and
data will be largely lost.

11.  Standards are agreed-upon rules , or
technical guidelines that
 Enable compatibility and interoperability
between data, software, hardware,
telecommunications technology and processes.
 Create and maintain an open and competitive
market for equipment manufacturers
 Examples – CSS, HTML, SQL;

12.  De facto standards –
 meaning “by fact” or “by convention”
 they have not been approved by an organized
body
 They are standards because of their widespread
use.
 They are often established originally by manufacturers
that seek to define the functionality of a new product or
technology.
 Examples are Microsoft Office, QWERTY Keyboard,

13.  De jure standards
 meaning “by law” or “by regulation”
 these have been legislated by an officially recognized
body.
 Examples
 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) – common format for text files on PC
and the Internet – American National Standards
Institute
 TCP/IP is the IETF endorsed standard communication
protocol of the Internet
 Any other examples??

14.  Standards are developed through the
cooperation of
 standards creation committees,
 forums, and
 government regulatory agencies.

15.  International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) is a multinational body
whose membership is drawn mainly from the
standards creation committees of various
governments throughout the world.
 InternationalTelecommunications Union–
Telecommunications Standards Sector (ITU-T)
was formed by the United Nations for the
research and establishment of internationally
compatible standards for telecommunications
in general and phone and data systems in
particular.

16.  Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) - oversees the development
and adoption of international standards for
computing and communication.
 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – was
founded byTim Berners-Lee to develop
protocols & standards to sustain the growth
of the web.
 ETC..

17.  Forums are special-interest groups that facilitate
the standardization process.
 They constitute representatives from interested
corporations.
 They work with universities and users to test,
evaluate, and standardize new technologies.
 They concentrate on a specific technology to
accelerate its acceptance and use in the
telecommunications community.
 Forums present their conclusions to the standards
bodies.

18.  The Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Forum
- is a computer network forum
 that supported and promoted simplifying the
implementation of networks by creating zero-
configuration networking devices.
 A UPnP-compatible device can join a network
without any configuration.
 Since 2016, all UPnP efforts are now
managed by the Open Connectivity
Foundation (OCF)

19.  The Broadband Forum is a non-profit
industry consortium dedicated to
developing broadband network specifications.
 Members include telecommunications networking
and service provider companies, broadband device
and equipment vendors, consultants and
independent testing labs (ITLs).
 Service provider members are primarily wire-line
service providers (non-mobile) telephone
companies.

20.  Regulatory agencies protect the public
interest by regulating radio, television, and
wire/cable communications
 They are typically government agencies
 Examples in Uganda??

21.  An Internet standard is a tested specification that is useful to and
adhered to by those who work with the Internet.
 There is a strict procedure by which a specification attains Internet
standard status.
1. A specification begins as an Internet draft - a working document (a
work in progress) with no official status, and a six-month lifetime.
2. Upon recommendation from the Internet authorities, a draft is
published as a Request for Comment (RFC).
3. Each RFC is edited, assigned a number, and made available to all
interested parties.
 RFCs go through maturity levels and are categorized according to their
requirement level.

22.  A Proposed Standard is a specification that is stable, well
understood, and of sufficient interest to the Internet
community
 the specification is usually tested, but doesn’t require implementation
or operational experience.
 Internet Standard - A standard reaches Internet standard
status after demonstrations of successful implementation.
 Has a high degree of technical maturity
 Significant benefit to the community
 Should cover interoperability of systems through protocols, message
formats, languages etc. E.g. the Internet Protocols

23.  A Historic RFCs are significant from a historical
perspective.
 They either have been superseded by later specifications or
have never passed the necessary maturity levels to become an
Internet standard.
 An Experimental RFC describes work related to an
experimental situation that does not affect the operation
of the Internet.
 Such an RFC should not be implemented in any functional
Internet service.
 An Informational RFC contains general, historical, or
tutorial information related to the Internet.
 It is usually written by someone in a non-Internet organization,
such as a vendor.

25.  Required - An RFC is labeled required if it must be
implemented by all Internet systems to achieve minimum
conformance. E.g. IP
 Recommended - An RFC is labeled recommended because of
its usefulness.
 Elective - An RFC is labeled elective if a system can use it for
its own benefit.
 Limited Use - An RFC labeled limited use should be used only
in limited situations. Most of the experimental RFCs fall
under this category.
 Not Recommended - An RFC labeled not recommended is
inappropriate for general use. Normally a historic
(deprecated) RFC may fall under this category.

27.  The Internet Society (ISOC) is an
international, nonprofit organization formed
in 1992 to provide support for the Internet
standards process.
 It accomplishes this through maintaining and
supporting other Internet administrative bodies
 It also promotes research and other scholarly
activities relating to the Internet.

28.  The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is the
technical advisor to the ISOC.
 They oversee the continuing development of the
TCP/IP Protocol Suite,
 serve in a technical advisory capacity to research
members of the Internet community.
 IAB accomplishes this through its two primary
components, the Internet EngineeringTask Force
(IETF) and the Internet ResearchTask Force (IRTF).
 Another responsibility of the IAB is the editorial
management of the RFCs.

29.  The Internet EngineeringTask Force (IETF) is a
forum of working groups managed by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).
 It is responsible for identifying operational
problems and proposing solutions for them.
 It also develops and reviews specifications
intended as Internet standards.
 researchers concerned with the evolution of
the Internet architecture and the smooth
operation of the Internet.
 The working groups are collected into areas, and
each area concentrates on a specific topic.

30.  The Internet ResearchTask Force (IRTF) is a
forum of working groups managed by the
Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG).
 It focuses on long-term research topics
related to Internet protocols, applications,
architecture, and technology.
 Comprised of a number of focused and long-
term Research Groups.

31.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private
nonprofit corporation responsible for the
management of Internet domain names and
addresses.
 The Network Information Center (NIC) is
responsible for collecting and distributing
information aboutTCP/IP protocols.

32.  TCP/IP protocol suite by Behrouz A. Forouzan.
4th ed. McGraw-Hill, 2010 -
https://vaibhav2501.files.wordpress.com/2012/0
2/tcp_ip-protocol-suite-4th-ed-b-forouzan-
mcgraw-hill-2010-bbs.pdf
 https://computersciencewiki.org/index.php/Prot
ocols_and_standards_on_the_web
 http://networkandprotocols.blogspot.ug/2011/1
0/protocols-and-standards-organizations.html

33. 1. Discuss the differences between a standard and a
protocol
2. Identify an example of a standard at each
requirement level
3. Explain the importance of
1. protocols,
2. Standards
4. Cite any other two (2) examples of Forums set-up to
support the development of computer/network
technologies; clearly stating their roles and
composition
5. Discuss the differences between standards creation
committees and forums

34. 6. Review theW3C Consortium Process document
and answer the following questions:
a. Define a w3c recommendation or web standard, cite
some examples
b. Briefly discuss the process of developing a web
standard, clearly stating and defining the different
maturity levels.
c. Clearly define the four possible categories of w3c
recommendations
 NB. Use the resource at
https://www.w3.org/2019/Process-20190301/#Reports

35. hawa.nyende@mak.ac.ug