A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices,

such as printers and smart phones. Today, almost all computers are connected to a
computer network, such as the Internet. Many computer applications have only
limited functionality unless they are connected to a computer network. Early
computers had very limited connections to other devices, but perhaps the first
example of computer networking occurred in 1940 when George Stibitz connected a
terminal at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire to his Complex Number
Calculator at Bell Labs in New York.

In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by a physical

medium that supports transmission of data. A variety of technologies have been
developed for the physical medium, including wired media, like copper cables and
optical fibers, and wireless radio-frequency media. The computers may be connected
to the media in a variety of network topologies. In order to communicate over the
network, computers use agreed-on rules, called communication protocols, over
whatever medium is used.[1][2]

The computer network can include personal computers, servers, networking hardware,
or other specialized or general-purpose hosts. They are identified by network
addresses and may have hostnames. Hostnames serve as memorable labels for the nodes
and are rarely changed after initial assignment. Network addresses serve for
locating and identifying the nodes by communication protocols such as the Internet
Protocol.

Computer networks may be classified by many criteria, including the transmission

medium used to carry signals, bandwidth, communications protocols to organize
network traffic, the network size, the topology, traffic control mechanisms, and
organizational intent.[citation needed]

Computer networks support many applications and services, such as access to the
World Wide Web, digital video and audio, shared use of application and storage
servers, printers and fax machines, and use of email and instant messaging
applications.

History
Computer networking may be considered a branch of computer science, computer
engineering, and telecommunications, since it relies on the theoretical and
practical application of the related disciplines. Computer networking was
influenced by a wide array of technological developments and historical milestones.

In 1940, George Stibitz of Bell Labs connected a teletype at Dartmouth to a Bell

Labs computer running his Complex Number Calculator to demonstrate the use of
computers at long distance.[3][4] This was the first real-time, remote use of a
computing machine.[3]
In the late 1950s, a network of computers was built for the U.S. military Semi-
Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) radar system[5][6][7] using the Bell 101 modem.
It was the first commercial modem for computers, released by AT&T Corporation in
1958. The modem allowed digital data to be transmitted over regular unconditioned
telephone lines at a speed of 110 bits per second (bit/s).
In 1959, Christopher Strachey filed a patent application for time-sharing in the
United Kingdom and John McCarthy initiated the first project to implement time-
sharing of user programs at MIT.[8][9][10][11] Strachey passed the concept on to J.
C. R. Licklider at the inaugural UNESCO Information Processing Conference in Paris
that year.[12] McCarthy was instrumental in the creation of three of the earliest
time-sharing systems (the Compatible Time-Sharing System in 1961, the BBN Time-
Sharing System in 1962, and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System in 1963).
In 1959, Anatoly Kitov proposed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union a detailed plan for the re-organization of the control of the
Soviet armed forces and of the Soviet economy on the basis of a network of
computing centers.[13] Kitov's proposal was rejected, as later was the 1962 OGAS
economy management network project.[14]
In 1960, the commercial airline reservation system semi-automatic business research
environment (SABRE) went online with two connected mainframes.
In 1962 and 1963, J. C. R. Licklider sent a series of memos to office colleagues
discussing the concept of the "Intergalactic Computer Network", a computer network
intended to allow general communications among computer users. This ultimately
became the basis for the ARPANET, which began in 1969.[15]
In 1965, Western Electric introduced the first widely used telephone switch that
implemented computer control in the switching fabric.
Throughout the 1960s,[16][17] Paul Baran and Donald Davies independently invented
the concept of packet switching for data communication between computers over a
network.[18][19][20][21] Baran's work addressed adaptive routing of message blocks
across a distributed network, but did not include routers with software switches,
nor the idea that users, rather than the network itself, would provide the
reliability.[22][23][24][25] Davies' hierarchical network design included high-
speed routers, communication protocols and the essence of the end-to-end principle.
[26][27][28][29] The NPL network, a local area network at the National Physical
Laboratory (United Kingdom), pioneered the implementation of the concept in 1968-69
using 768 kbit/s links.[30][28][31] Both Baran's and Davies' inventions were
seminal contributions that influenced the development of computer networks.[32][33]
[34][35]
In 1969, the first four nodes of the ARPANET were connected using 50 kbit/s
circuits between the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research
Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of
Utah.[15][36] Designed principally by Bob Kahn, the network's routing, flow
control, software design and network control were developed by the IMP team working
for Bolt Beranek & Newman.[37][38][39] In the early 1970s, Leonard Kleinrock
carried out mathematical work to model the performance of packet-switched networks,
which underpinned the development of the ARPANET.[40][41] His theoretical work on
hierarchical routing in the late 1970s with student Farouk Kamoun remains critical
to the operation of the Internet today.[42][43]
In 1972, commercial services were first deployed on experimental public data
networks in Europe.[44][45]
In 1973, the French CYCLADES network, directed by Louis Pouzin was the first to
make the hosts responsible for the reliable delivery of data, rather than this
being a centralized service of the network itself.[46]
In 1973, Peter Kirstein put internetworking into practice at University College
London (UCL), connecting the ARPANET to British academic networks, the first
international heterogeneous computer network.[47][48]
In 1973, Robert Metcalfe wrote a formal memo at Xerox PARC describing Ethernet,[49]
a local area networking system he created with David Boggs.[50] It was inspired by
the packet radio ALOHAnet, started by Norman Abramson and Franklin Kuo at the
University of Hawaii in the late 1960s.[51][52] Metcalfe and Boggs, with John Shoch
and Edward Taft, also developed the PARC Universal Packet for internetworking.[53]
In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn published their seminal 1974 paper on
internetworking, A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication.[54] Later that
year, Cerf, Yogen Dalal, and Carl Sunshine wrote the first Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) specification, RFC 675, coining the term Internet as a shorthand for
internetworking.[55]
In July 1976, Metcalfe and Boggs published their paper "Ethernet: Distributed
Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks"[56] and in December 1977, together
with Butler Lampson and Charles P. Thacker, they received U.S. patent 4063220A for
their invention.[57][58]
Public data networks in Europe, North America and Japan began using X.25 in the
late 1970s and interconnected with X.75.[19] This underlying infrastructure was
used for expanding TCP/IP networks in the 1980s.[59]
In 1976, John Murphy of Datapoint Corporation created ARCNET, a token-passing
network first used to share storage devices.
In 1977, the first long-distance fiber network was deployed by GTE in Long Beach,
California.
In 1979, Robert Metcalfe pursued making Ethernet an open standard.[60]
In 1980, Ethernet was upgraded from the original 2.94 Mbit/s protocol to the 10
Mbit/s protocol, which was developed by Ron Crane, Bob Garner, Roy Ogus,[61] and
Yogen Dalal.[62]
In 1986, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the National Science
Foundation Network (NSFNET) as a general-purpose research network connecting
various NSF-funded sites to each other and to regional research and education
networks.[15]
In 1995, the transmission speed capacity for Ethernet increased from 10 Mbit/s to
100 Mbit/s. By 1998, Ethernet supported transmission speeds of 1 Gbit/s.
Subsequently, higher speeds of up to 800 Gbit/s were added (as of 2025). The
scaling of Ethernet has been a contributing factor to its continued use.[60]
In the 1980s and 1990s, as embedded systems were becoming increasingly important in
factories, cars, and airplanes, network protocols were developed to allow the
embedded computers to communicate. In the late 1990s and 2000s, ubiquitous
computing and an Internet of Things became popular.[63][64]
Use
Computer networks provide services to users that leverage multiple interconnected
computers to enhance how users communicate with each other and to permit shared
access to resources. Distributed computing is the field of computer science that
studies how programs can interact over a network to perform tasks collaboratively.

Communication services enabled by networks include email, instant messaging, online

chat, voice and video calls, and video conferencing. Networks also enable the
sharing of computing resources. Resources that can be shared over a network include
peripheral devices such as printers, computational resources, and data in files or
databases. For example, a user can print a document on shared printer or use shared
storage devices. For another example, authorized users can access data stored on
other computers.

Network packet
Further information: Network packet

Network Packet
Most modern computer networks use protocols based on packet-mode transmission. A
network packet is a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-switched network.

Packets consist of two types of data: control information and user data (payload).
The control information provides data the network needs to deliver the user data,
for example, source and destination network addresses, error detection codes, and
sequencing information. Typically, control information is found in packet headers
and trailers, with payload data in between.

With packets, the bandwidth of the transmission medium can be better shared among
users than if the network were circuit switched. When one user is not sending
packets, the link can be filled with packets from other users, and so the cost can
be shared, with relatively little interference, provided the link is not overused.
Often the route a packet needs to take through a network is not immediately
available. In that case, the packet is queued and waits until a link is free.

The physical link technologies of packet networks typically limit the size of
packets to a certain maximum transmission unit (MTU). A longer message may be
fragmented before it is transferred and once the packets arrive, they are
reassembled to construct the original message.

Network topology
Further information: Network topology
Common network topologies
The physical or geographic locations of network nodes and links generally have
relatively little effect on a network, but the topology of interconnections of a
network can significantly affect its throughput and reliability. With many
technologies, such as bus or star networks, a single failure can cause the network
to fail entirely. In general, the more interconnections there are, the more robust
the network is; but the more expensive it is to install. Therefore, most network
diagrams are arranged by their network topology which is the map of logical
interconnections of network hosts.

Common topologies are:

Bus network: all nodes are connected to a common medium along this medium. This was
the layout used in the original Ethernet, called 10BASE5 and 10BASE2. This is still
a common topology on the data link layer, although modern physical layer variants
use point-to-point links instead, forming a star or a tree.
Star network: all nodes are connected to a special central node. This is the
typical layout found in a small switched Ethernet LAN, where each client connects
to a central network switch, and logically in a wireless LAN, where each wireless
client associates with the central wireless access point.
Ring network: each node is connected to its left and right neighbor node, such that
all nodes are connected and that each node can reach each other node by traversing
nodes left- or rightwards. Token ring networks, and the Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI), made use of such a topology.
Mesh network: each node is connected to an arbitrary number of neighbors in such a
way that there is at least one traversal from any node to any other.
Fully connected network: each node is connected to every other node in the network.
Tree network: nodes are arranged hierarchically. This is the natural topology for a
larger Ethernet network with multiple switches and without redundant meshing.
The physical layout of the nodes in a network may not necessarily reflect the
network topology. As an example, with FDDI, the network topology is a ring, but the
physical topology is often a star, because all neighboring connections can be
routed via a central physical location. Physical layout is not completely
irrelevant, however, as common ducting and equipment locations can represent single
points of failure due to issues like fires, power failures and flooding.

Overlay network
Further information: Overlay network

A sample overlay network

An overlay network is a virtual network that is built on top of another network.
Nodes in the overlay network are connected by virtual or logical links. Each link
corresponds to a path, perhaps through many physical links, in the underlying
network. The topology of the overlay network may (and often does) differ from that
of the underlying one. For example, many peer-to-peer networks are overlay
networks. They are organized as nodes of a virtual system of links that run on top
of the Internet.[65]

Overlay networks have been used since the early days of networking, back when
computers were connected via telephone lines using modems, even before data
networks were developed.

The most striking example of an overlay network is the Internet itself. The
Internet itself was initially built as an overlay on the telephone network.[65]
Even today, each Internet node can communicate with virtually any other through an
underlying mesh of sub-networks of wildly different topologies and technologies.
Address resolution and routing are the means that allow mapping of a fully
connected IP overlay network to its underlying network.
Another example of an overlay network is a distributed hash table, which maps keys
to nodes in the network. In this case, the underlying network is an IP network, and
the overlay network is a table (actually a map) indexed by keys.

Overlay networks have also been proposed as a way to improve Internet routing, such
as through quality of service guarantees achieve higher-quality streaming media.
Previous proposals such as IntServ, DiffServ, and IP multicast have not seen wide
acceptance largely because they require modification of all routers in the network.
[citation needed] On the other hand, an overlay network can be incrementally
deployed on end-hosts running the overlay protocol software, without cooperation
from Internet service providers. The overlay network has no control over how
packets are routed in the underlying network between two overlay nodes, but it can
control, for example, the sequence of overlay nodes that a message traverses before
it reaches its destination[citation needed].

For example, Akamai Technologies manages an overlay network that provides reliable,
efficient content delivery (a kind of multicast). Academic research includes end
system multicast,[66] resilient routing and quality of service studies, among
others.

Network links
Further information: Data transmission
The transmission media (often referred to in the literature as the physical medium)
used to link devices to form a computer network include electrical cable, optical
fiber, and free space. In the OSI model, the software to handle the media is
defined at layers 1 and 2 — the physical layer and the data link layer.

A widely adopted family that uses copper and fiber media in local area network
(LAN) technology are collectively known as Ethernet. The media and protocol
standards that enable communication between networked devices over Ethernet are
defined by IEEE 802.3. Wireless LAN standards use radio waves, others use infrared
signals as a transmission medium. Power line communication uses a building's power
cabling to transmit data.

Wired
Bundle of glass threads with light emitting from the ends
Fiber-optic cables are used to transmit light from one computer/network node to
another.
The following classes of wired technologies are used in computer networking.

Coaxial cable is widely used for cable television systems, office buildings, and
other work-sites for local area networks. Transmission speed ranges from 200
million bits per second to more than 500 million bits per second.[citation needed]
ITU-T G.hn technology uses existing home wiring (coaxial cable, phone lines and
power lines) to create a high-speed local area network.
Twisted pair cabling is used for wired Ethernet and other standards. It typically
consists of 4 pairs of copper cabling that can be utilized for both voice and data
transmission. The use of two wires twisted together helps to reduce crosstalk and
electromagnetic induction. The transmission speed ranges from 2 Mbit/s to 10
Gbit/s. Twisted pair cabling comes in two forms: unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and
shielded twisted-pair (STP). Each form comes in several category ratings, designed
for use in various scenarios.
World map with red and blue lines
2007 map showing submarine optical fiber telecommunication cables around the world
An optical fiber is a glass fiber. It carries pulses of light that represent data
via lasers and optical amplifiers. Some advantages of optical fibers over metal
wires are very low transmission loss and immunity to electrical interference. Using
dense wave division multiplexing, optical fibers can simultaneously carry multiple
streams of data on different wavelengths of light, which greatly increases the rate
that data can be sent to up to trillions of bits per second. Optic fibers can be
used for long runs of cable carrying very high data rates, and are used for
undersea communications cables to interconnect continents. There are two basic
types of fiber optics, single-mode optical fiber (SMF) and multi-mode optical fiber
(MMF). Single-mode fiber has the advantage of being able to sustain a coherent
signal for dozens or even a hundred kilometers. Multimode fiber is cheaper to
terminate but is limited to a few hundred or even only a few dozens of meters,
depending on the data rate and cable grade.[67]
Wireless
Black laptop with the router in the background
Computers are very often connected to networks using wireless links.
Main article: Wireless network
Network connections can be established wirelessly using radio or other
electromagnetic means of communication.

Terrestrial microwave – Terrestrial microwave communication uses Earth-based

transmitters and receivers resembling satellite dishes. Terrestrial microwaves are
in the low gigahertz range, which limits all communications to line-of-sight. Relay
stations are spaced approximately 40 miles (64 km) apart.
Communications satellites – Satellites also communicate via microwave. The
satellites are stationed in space, typically in geosynchronous orbit 35,400 km
(22,000 mi) above the equator. These Earth-orbiting systems are capable of
receiving and relaying voice, data, and TV signals.
Cellular networks use several radio communications technologies. The systems divide
the region covered into multiple geographic areas. Each area is served by a low-
power transceiver.
Radio and spread spectrum technologies – Wireless LANs use a high-frequency radio
technology similar to digital cellular. Wireless LANs use spread spectrum
technology to enable communication between multiple devices in a limited area. IEEE
802.11 defines a common flavor of open-standards wireless radio-wave technology
known as Wi-Fi.
Free-space optical communication uses visible or invisible light for
communications. In most cases, line-of-sight propagation is used, which limits the
physical positioning of communicating devices.
Extending the Internet to interplanetary dimensions via radio waves and optical
means, the Interplanetary