the sustainable network

[...]... which the network can operate, which has no bounds Many people think of the network as the Internet While the Internet is a network and certainly its in the overall deinition, the sustainable network discussed in this book is so much more Just as there are the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system in the body, you could say there is the public Internet and then all of the other networks... how the network works or what it really is The applications tend to get all the glory because they deliver the tangible “value” to you (ranging from email to a customer relationship management web tool to the massive role-playing game World of Warcraft), but it’s the network that does the behind-thescenes work It’s playing the connector role, fostering the relationships that are essential for these... by the trafic-handling devices in the network (think of them like trucks or mail-sorting machines), ensuring that they have the right information to send the email message where it needs to go (Figure 2-2) Seattle Minneapolis Kansas Dallas Tampa Figure 2-2 The reason they call it email is because the information is sent digitally across the network and uses electricity to do so (more about the network s... second These network devices operate the same way as all the handlers in the postal system Your letter goes in steps to intermediate points, and workers at each intermediate point forward it on to the next point, which takes it closer and closer to its end destination Network devices do the same thing They are the trafic handlers in the middle of the country in Figures 2-1 and 2-2, and they are the means... use the network every day of our lives, whether we realize it or not Because of the network s pervasive and inevitable inluence on our lives, it’s important to understand how it works With greater understanding, there can be greater possibilities, which can come in handy these days Linking Things Together The network unlocks the value of all the computing devices and applications we use by linking them... simple terms, they’re distinguished by the types of information they evaluate when making their decisions on how to transport the trafic What Is the Network: How Does It Work? Download at WoweBook.Com 9 A switch on your local network typically keeps track of the host that’s connecting to the Internet The switch that is physically closest to you may be downtown at the DSL center or at the end of your... Some of these contributions have had a greater impact on our culture than others; then again, it could also depend on your perspective whether the chocolate chip cookie is more important than Viagra (I’ll stop right there) Anyway, the point is that in each of these cases, the accident solved a different problem than the one that it was actually intended to solve The genius of the inventors of these “accidents”... information over the network, your computer or device adds a header to the package, and the network devices read and add header information as necessary Each person/role in the postal system requires different information For example, the mail sorter is most interested in the zip code to make sure letters make it to the right part of the world, while the mail carrier is most interested in the speciic street... two switches on the edge of their connections to the Internet Routers make decisions about how to handle the trafic they receive by looking (very quickly) at a couple of places for information First, routers create and maintain internal tables that contain information on the availability of all the other routers they can forward packets to within their purview Second, they look at the headers that... by which the network inds you among the billion-and-a-half network users across the world At the most fundamental level, routers and switches are responsible for making sure trafic packets get from point A to point B on the network, by reading the header information and passing the packets on The differences between routers and switches are starting to blur, as functionality converges and network layers . the network can operate, which has no bounds. Many people think of the network as the Internet. While the Internet is a network and certainly fits in the overall definition, the sustainable network. more. Just as there are the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system in the body, you could say there is the public Internet and then all of the other networks in the world, which. evening. They were like signposts telling me that I was on the right track, that I wasn’t just theorizing the sustainable network, but rather documenting its existence. And as I went through the