A Review of Internet Technologies Part 2: Internet Infrastructure

Most of us remember the crackling of trying to connect to the internet with our dial-up modems only to have someone pick up the phone 30 seconds later after making a connection.  Great advancements have been made in internet infrastructure in the US and abroad in the past 10 years.

A study by the Pew research group shows broadband internet adoption is now up to 60% in the US.  An even more interesting number is that 93% of teens report to regularly using the internet which will create an even stronger demand for broadband access in the US.  Notwithstanding the US, huge growth in international markets and the massive growth of internet connected mobile devices here, abroad, and especially emerging markets in Africa will fuel more and higher quality mobile and desktop client applications.

One adverse side effect of the growth in devices is that we have begun to run out of IP addresses for them.  Each device aka host requires an IP address to communicate.  The current format of IP addresses (IPv4) is running out of unique possibilities.  Internet Protocol (IPv6) should permanently address this problem by providing a larger address space and optimizing how IP addresses are assigned.

Gone are the days of going to a store to buy a CD to install a software package.  The access to quality bandwidth has dramatically reduced the barrier to entry and is super charging innovation on the internet.