The Internet: Over Half a Century of Constant Adaptation as a Network of Global Connections

An overview of the evolution of networking in Latin America and the four pillars that have made it an inevitable presence

LaknikThe Internet Address Registry of Latin America and the Caribbean is an international non-governmental organization. Founded in Uruguay in 2002 whose function is Allocation and management of Internet numbering resources (IPv4, IPv6; code that identifies each device connected to the Internet), autonomous numbers, and reverse resolution for the region. In addition, it protects the technical principles of the Internet and promotes its development as a tool for economic and social inclusion.

within the mention 20 years of Lacnic, Carlos MartinezThe unit’s technology manager made a technical report Reasons for the success of the Internet as a global interconnection networkwho “officially” – he noted – “has 51 years of life”.

“The features of the Internet that persist today, such as file transfer, the TCP/IP protocol, are from the 1980s, but their gestation began some time ago,” he explained.

Martinez emphasized Why the internet has been successful socially And for this purpose he cited the publication A study of Internet technical success factors Where the four technical aspects that led to its massive consolidation are deepened: Scalability, adaptability, flexibility and resilience.

The Internet, in fact, It’s not the first network to try to go global. “None of it took off. why Because they were highly centralized, for example the case of X.25. “What’s revolutionary about the Internet is that we’ve been able to agree to speak the same language and that its technical heart continues to adapt,” he said.

The specialist believes that other networks had, on the one hand, technological limitations (for example, there were “single application” networks such as the telephone network or the telex network, unlike the Internet, which transports ones and zeros without knowing what they will be used for) and The costs of using them were very high (due to the way they communicate, for example using circuit switches instead of packets).

“Mostly other networks and other protocol creation processes had barriers to entry that prevented innovation. While Internet protocols evolved into an environment where anyone could propose and implement improvements and new applications, other networks remained stagnant,” he emphasized.

Nor will we lose sight of the social, political and cultural context of the late 60s, 70s and 80s. in During the Cold War, there was a lot of money to invest in research and development projects. And the countercultures that emerged in the 60s in universities motivated some to take certain “shortcuts” and do things without permission, that is, to try new things; For example, introducing small incremental improvements to the software and protocols that were part of this proto-Internet.

“In my opinion, aspects related to openness in innovation, open participation of stakeholders and low usage costs were fundamental to the success of the Internet,” he concluded.

four factors

Returning to the four relevant technical aspects, Martinez pointed out that one of them is scalability. “It’s constantly growing. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 4% used the Internet in the 2000s, 27% in 2008, and 74% in 2020.Of course, with strong asymmetry in the region, but always growing on average slightly above the world average,” he explained.

Although the dotcom crisis questioned whether the Internet was a passing phenomenon, neither it nor the post-2008 crisis affected the growth of the “network of networks.”

In the dotcom crash of 2000, what suffered was the venture capital funding of many of them, as most of them failed to deliver on the exaggerated promises of return on investment that they had made.

By then, however, broadcasters and companies in more traditional lines of business, as well as the general public, had realized that It was valuable to be able to connect to the internet.

“Instant messaging is coming on strong at this time, file sharing is also starting to come to life thanks to the first services we now call Fartozol, and that’s why people’s interest in connectivity hasn’t waned. Although many “dotcoms” “then went bankrupt”, he noted.

for that It was 2008 and the Internet was an established element in society. No one has disputed its usefulness, nor the need for people to be online. “At this time, the first recognizable social networks appear, and I think that even this crisis did not affect the growth of the number of connected users,” he noted.

As for the region’s infrastructure capabilities, It is clear that growth is very slow compared to the world average. “This is related to installed capacity and also investments, it may be a problem in the future,” says the specialist.

Lacnic explains that other technical features that have led to the success of the Internet are related Flexibility and adaptability system. The layer model is what makes it possible for everything to work with the IP protocol as a node.

At the top of the model is the entire social layer: the tools we know and use every day, such as the web, VoIP, email or P2P; And below, IP sits and works on technologies such as submarine cables, fiber or wireless connections, among others. “It is worth noting that these technologies came after the Internet Protocol (IP), but IP had and has the ability to adapt. From now on, usage is also evolving: if in 2010 e-commerce was widespread and it was an environment where rich text prevailed, today 80% of traffic is video and voice; However, the model continues and adapts with skill Endurance Against the backdrop of changes in the environment, which is constant on both sides of the model,” the specialist noted.

In addition to the mentioned 4 factors, Martinez emphasized that the guiding ideals should not be forgotten: “The Internet was developed and worked openly; It made simple decisions and was decentralized. The layer model, I think, is essential in the structure of the Internet. This is a way of breaking down the problem of connecting computers over long distances. What always changes are the specific protocols that solve problems at a certain layer. For example, Today, the most common protocol at the “network” layer or “layer 3” is still IPv4But the Internet is moving to IPv6″.

How the next big interaction will affect the digital world (Metaverse) layered model? According to Martinez, the metaverse worlds are another application of this layered model. “If that application needs a more specific communication protocol, it will live in higher layers, closer to the user and its social uses, and will use TCP and IP (the Internet’s basic protocols) like the others.” In short, I believe that the layer model as a conceptual construct will persist for a very long time, which does not mean that the protocols that implement each function will be the same.”