Internet and Computer Networks. Introduction

This text helps readers to take their first steps in the world of computer networks and Internet in particular. The reader’s understanding of its technical content is facilitated by the so-called “top-down” description of communication protocols. After presenting the basic networking concepts, the applications are described, such as e-mail and World wide web, followed by a gradual introduction of the other protocols required for transporting information through Internet. Access networks, which allow “the entrance doors” to the Internet world to be reached, are finally introduced. The text is proposed as a tool for knowledge and systematic study of Internet and computer networks in general; it is accompanied by more than one hundred numerical examples which express the operations carried out by the various protocols in terms of network performance parameters. The methodological tools necessary to understand the mechanisms that regulate the operations of a network are presented under the “Protocol theory” section.