New Computer Network Paradigms and Virtual Organizations

Abstract

A computer network consists of computers that communicate via any physical media through a network formed by links and nodes, the nodes being the computers. Computer networks have evolved along their short history. Computer networks have changed drastically in mission and implementation from the early projects supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and from other organizations, tracing back the origins to 1962. The ARPA network (ARPANET) consisted initially of a small set of nodes at research centres and universities, connected with links at 56 kbps across the United States. ARPANET was the core of the early Internet, a network for research centres and universities. Computer networks are based on the concept of packet switching within a shared communication medium, as opposite to circuit switching, the dominant paradigm for the precedent telegraph and telephone networks. In 1968 Paul Baran proposed a network system based on nodes that forward datagrams or packets from different users over a common line between computer systems from origin to destination. The packet switching paradigm provides resiliency of network against network node failures, the independent routing of datagrams per node makes possible that the datagrams reach their destination even in presence of multiple node failures.