How the Internet Works

15-110 – Friday 04/03

Learning Goals
• Define core terms related to the internet, including: browsers,
routers, ISPs, IP addresses, DNS servers, protocols, packets, cloud

• Understand at a high level the internet communication process that

happens when you click on a link to a website in your browser.

• Understand at a high level that the internet is fault tolerant due to

being distributed

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Internet Overview

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What is the Internet?
The Internet is a network of
computer networks all across the
world that are connected. The
purpose of the internet is to send
data between different
computers.

It's like a graph, where the nodes

are computers and the edges are
different methods of transmitting
information.

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The Internet
Router

Router

Router
ISP

Router
Router

ISP

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Routers are the Core
The core of the internet is a
collection of devices called routers. Router
These devices act like switches –
they take in data and send it to one Router
of many possible outputs based on
the end destination of the data and Router
the current connections on the
internet.
Router
There are thousands of routers Router
spread across the world to help
move data around from one place to
another.
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Connections Between Routers
Routers are commonly connected by
cables, which are used to send data
across a long distance. That data is
usually represented using bits.
Cables range from telephone wires
to coaxial cable to fiberoptic cable.
All of these systems convert bits to
different real-world representations
(analog signal, electricity, light, etc.).
Computers can also send data to
routers over Wi-Fi. In this
connection, data is sent over a short
distance via radio waves.
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Sidebar: International Internet
How does the internet connect
across continents?

Giant fiberoptic cables have been

laid on the ocean floor. Most
international internet traffic is
transmitted through these cables.

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/
10/technology/internet-cables-oceans.html

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ISPs Manage Local Connections
Internet Service Providers Router
(ISPs) connect a user's
computer to the core of Router
the internet.
Router
ISP
Verizon, Comcast, etc.
are all ISPs.
Router
Router
Organizations can be
their own ISP – CMU is its ISP
own ISP, for example.

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The Modern Internet is Huge!
The internet today is used widely across
the world, and contains millions of
computers and connections.
The picture to the right (from the Opte
Project) illustrates the connections of
the internet in 2005 – it's even more
widely connected now!
How is it possible for us to make a
request for a specific website in this
massive web and get the result back so
quickly?

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Journey of a Website

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Browsers Display Data
Your browser (Firefox, Chrome,
Safari, etc.) is an application that
receives data from the internet and
organizes it into a webpage that you
can read.
Browsers receive webpages as text,
and turn that text into visual content
using a protocol called HTML
(HyperText Markup Language).
You can view the HTML of any
webpage by right-clicking and
selecting 'View Page Source'.
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URLs are Website Nicknames
Find www.google.com
At the beginning, you have to
make a request to access a
specific website.

You generally do this by clicking

on a link on a webpage or typing
out a URL (Uniform Resource
Locator). The URL is like a
nickname for the website you
want to access.

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IP Addresses are Real Names
Find www.google.com
If a URL is a nickname for a website,
an IP Address is its real name.

Google
Every computer on the internet is
assigned a series of numbers, like
172.217.9.206. That series of
numbers uniquely identifies the
computer that hosts a website. 172.217.9.206

The first step in finding a website is

to translate the URL into the
equivalent IP Address.
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IP Address Assignment
IP Addresses aren't a core part of a computer; they aren't built into the
hardware or software. But they aren't entirely random either.
An organization called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers) assigns groups of addresses to different organizations (like ISPs
and companies). The organizations then assign their numbers to individual
computers when they connect to the internet.
Some IP Addresses are static. Many of these are the addresses of specific
websites (like Google, or CMU).
Other IP Addresses are dynamic. They get assigned to different computers at
different times. This is used for computers that go online and offline
regularly (like your computer).
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IP Address Meaning
The core standard for IP Addresses consists of four numbers, each
between 1-255. In other words, each number is a byte.

Some numbers contain geographic information (country); some

numbers contain information about the organization that owns the
address.

But an IP Address does not say who owns the associated computer, or
what kind of machine it is. This makes it possible for internet
communication to be private.

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IP Addresses at Scale
Question: if every computer needs to have a unique IP Address, and an
IP Address is 4 bytes long, how many computers can be on the internet
at the same time?
Answer: (28)4, or about 4.3 billion.
This seems like a lot, but it's still less than the world's population, and
that doesn't count all the websites on the internet.
ICANN now has a new system for IP Addresses that contains 16 bytes;
that can handle 1038 addresses. We're good for now!

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Finding IP Addresses
Find www.google.com
How do we go from a URL to an IP
Address? ISP
Google
First, your computer checks with
your ISP. It keeps a list of
frequently-requested websites, so
if someone has requested the 172.217.9.206
same website recently, it can send
back the IP Address immediately.

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Finding IP Addresses
Find www.google.com -> 172.217.9.206
If your ISP doesn't know the IP
Address, it sends your request on to
the nearest Domain Name System ISP
Server (DNS server). Google

Your request may need to pass Router

through several routers to get to a
DNS server. Router
172.217.9.206
A DNS server is a computer that
maintains a mapping of all URLs to IP
Addresses. It will be able to find the Router
correct address and send it back
through the routers to you.
DNS
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Requesting a Website
HTTP Get Request: 172.217.9.206
Once your computer knows what the
IP Address is, it sends a request for a ISP
specific page to the IP Address.
Google
The request is structured to match a
Router
certain protocol. For example, HTTP
(HyperText Transfer Protocol) is a Router
standard that describes how to 172.217.9.206
request information from a website.
This request is sent using something Router
called a packet.
DNS
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Packets Store Data
A packet is a small message that is sent to a particular IP Address.

It's similar to a postcard – it has a message (the data), a destination

address (IP address), and a return (sender) addresses (IP address).

Because a packet is small, it can be sent along a wire very quickly.

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A Packet Can Take Many Paths
HTTP Get Request: 172.217.9.206
Sending a packet across the internet
is like sending a postcard through the
mail. ISP
Google
Router
You don't tell the post office which Router
roads to take; you just tell it the
destination, and the post finds a Router
route to get it there. 172.217.9.206

Router Router
Similarly, you don't tell the internet ISP
which routers to visit; the internet
figures it out.
DNS Router
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A Packet Can Take Many Paths
HTTP Get Request: 172.217.9.206
Sending a packet across the internet
is like sending a postcard through the
mail. ISP
Google
Router
You don't tell the post office which Router
roads to take; you just tell it the
destination, and the post finds a Router
route to get it there. 172.217.9.206

Router Router
Similarly, you don't tell the internet ISP
which routers to visit; the internet
figures it out.
DNS Router
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A Packet Can Take Many Paths
HTTP Get Request: 172.217.9.206
Sending a packet across the internet
is like sending a postcard through the
mail. ISP
Google
Router
You don't tell the post office which Router
roads to take; you just tell it the
destination, and the post finds a Router
route to get it there. 172.217.9.206

Router Router
Similarly, you don't tell the internet ISP
which routers to visit; the internet
figures it out.
DNS Router
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Webpages are also Packets
HTTP Get Request: 172.217.9.206
When the website gets your
request, it might need to send ISP
back a response (like a webpage).
Google
Router
Since webpages are generally
large, the page is split into Router
multiple packets, and the packets Router
are sent back through the routers
to your computer. 172.217.9.206

When all the packets get to your Router Router

ISP
computer, the browser assembles
them to produce the HTML of a
website. DNS Router
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Packets Are Not Reliable
Can we rely on packets to show up properly? Not really...

• There are no guarantees that all packets will use the same route
• There are no guarantees that computer will receive the packets in the
intended order
• There are no guarantees that all the packets will arrive at your computer
• There are no guarantees that the packets will not be corrupted

So how does the internet function? It's designed to be incredibly fault tolerant.

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Sidebar: Buffering
Some webpages need a lot of packets. For example, a video takes a lot of
data to render. Packets way take a long time to reach the browser, which can
cause lag.

Your browser uses buffering to show you part of a website while the rest of
it loads. Buffering occurs when the browser receives enough of the early
packets to pre-load the initial content onto your computer. While you read or
watch the content, the browser silently loads the rest of the content as it
arrives.

If a buffer pauses for a long time, your browser is probably waiting for a few
packets that are still missing.
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Fault Tolerance

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The Internet is Fault Tolerant
The internet is designed so that when things go wrong (which they do),
there are always plenty of backups and checks in place to make it right.

This is true both in how packets are delivered, and in how computers
are networked to each other.

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Packet Fault Tolerance
Q: What happens if a packet goes missing?
A: Your browser knows how to put packets back together based on the
data they carry. It can tell if a packet is missing. If it is, the browser
simply sends another request for a new set of packets.
Q: What happens if a packet is corrupted?
A: Every packet contains a parity bit that the computer can check to
make sure it's not corrupted. If it is corrupted, the computer just send a
request for a new set of packets.

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Network Fault Tolerance
Q: What happens if your computer goes down?
A: This happens all the time! When your ISP sees that your computer
has gone offline, it holds any data you've received until you come back.
Q: What happens if a company's website (a server) goes down?
A: Most companies have many servers that can all handle traffic to the
same website, so traffic to the server that is down gets re-routed.
If all of a company's servers go down, then the website goes down too.

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Network Fault Tolerance
Q: What happens if a router goes down?

A: This is fine – traffic will just be sent to other routers instead. The
core of the internet is heavily connected, so this will not disturb traffic.

Q: What happens if a DNS Server goes down?

A: There are lots of DNS Servers spread across the world. If one goes
down, your request gets sent to a different one.
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Network Fault Tolerance
Q: What happens if your ISP goes down?

A: This is finally the place where you get into trouble. If your ISP goes
down, you lose your connection to the entire internet, because the ISP
is the only place you can connect to.

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The Internet is Hard To Control
It's hard for one Router
organization to
control the whole Router
internet, because
the core of the
internet contains Router
no bottlenecks. ISP
There's no one
point of control.
Router
That's not true for Router
your local
connection – your ISP
ISP is a bottleneck
to the rest of the
internet.
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Sidebar: How Do Governments Turn Off
Internet?
When a government shuts off the internet for an entire country, it's
generally possible because they control the ISPs.

If all the ISPs shut down traffic, local computers have no way to access
the broader internet. It's still there – it's just not connected.

If there is only one main connection between the core of the internet
and a country (like a single router that serves as the general entry
point), the government can also shut down the internet if they shut
down that router.

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Miscellaneous Internet

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Other Internet Buzzwords
Finally, let's go over a few internet buzzwords you've probably heard
before.

We'll talk about three bigs ideas: net neutrality, the Cloud, and IoT.

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Net Neutrality
You may have heard the term net neutrality used in various political
debates.

Net Neutrality is a principle which states that ISPs must treat all
internet traffic equally. Packets should not be prioritized or de-
prioritized based on who sent them, who is receiving them, or what is
in them.

In terms of policy, Net Neutrality states that internet access should be

considered a utility, like phoneline connections.

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Net Neutrality Effects
Without Net Neutrality, an ISP could ask a website that sends a lot of packets
(like Youtube) to pay them for the extra work. If the company refused, the
ISP could de-prioritize that website's traffic, to make it appear slower to the
user. This is called throttling. If the company pays, maybe they get prioritized
instead.
The ISP could also offer deals to their customers based on the websites they
visit. For example, Verizon might make your monthly bill cheaper if you only
visit websites on a Verizon-approved list. In an extreme example, ISPs could
entirely block your access to a website it doesn't approve of.
Net Neutrality is currently not a law in the United States (though California
has an act that's going through the courts). It is law in some other countries,
like India.

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The Cloud is Other People's Computers
When a company says that they store things in "the cloud",
they're referring to other computers that are connected to
the internet. This is just distributed computing!
Companies use the cloud because it makes storage cheap,
can scale at need, and is available on demand. It's generally
easier to access computers that are provided by another
company than to maintain a set of servers yourself.
You probably use the cloud too. If you store data online (like
in Google Drive, or Gmail), you're storing data in the cloud.
The Cloud is designed to be exceptionally fault-tolerant, to
avoid losing any data.
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IoT is Objects with Computers
If you have a 'smart' device of some kind in your
home (like a smart thermostat, or watch, or a device
like Alexa), you already own an IoT device. IoT stands
for Internet of Things.

A smart device is an everyday object (like a

thermostat) that has a computer inside of it. That
computer connects to your home's Wi-Fi network. It
can then send data to another machine in your home
network, or back to its company's server.

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Smart Devices Use Sensors and Actuators
Smart devices are different from passive devices because they tend to have
sensors that collect data about the real world, like the temperature. They
can use that sensed data to make decisions.
They also have actuators that let them do real-world actions, like adjusting
the temperature in your house. They use a combination of sensed data and
requests received over the internet to decide which actions to take.
By combining sensors, actuators, the internet, and programming, we can
make devices that make their own decisions without us telling them what to
do.
IoT devices are really interesting, but they also have a large number of
security flaws.

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Learning Goals
• Define core terms related to the internet, including: browsers,
routers, ISPs, IP addresses, DNS servers, protocols, packets, cloud

• Understand at a high level the internet communication process that

happens when you click on a link to a website in your browser.

• Understand at a high level that the internet is fault tolerant due to

being distributed

43