In a sense, the internet can be said to be the product of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The origin of this huge network can be traced back to the early 1960s. At that time, the U.S. Department of Defense believed that it was necessary to design a decentralized command system in order to ensure that American domestic defense forces and overseas defense forces still had certain survival and counterattack capabilities after the first nuclear attack in the former Soviet Union. It consists of scattered command points. When some command points are destroyed, others can still work normally, and these points can keep in touch by bypassing those destroyed command points. In order to verify this idea, in 1969, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD/DARPA) of the US Department of Defense funded the establishment of a network called ARPANET (ARPANET), which connected the host computers of the University of California in Los Angeles, the University of California in Santa Barbara, Stanford University and Utah State University in Salt Lake City, and placed large computers at each node. This ARPANET is the earliest prototype of the Internet.
By 1972, the number of nodes on ARPANET has reached 40. These 40 nodes can send small text files (then called e-mail, that is, our current e-mail) and large text files, including data files (that is, FTP on the Internet) to each other. At the same time, it is found that a computer can be used on a remote computer by simulating it as the terminal of another remote computer. Thus, E-mail, FTP and Telnet are important tools that appeared earlier on the Internet, and E-mail and FTP are still the most important applications on the Internet.
1972, experts and scholars in the computer and communication industries all over the world held the first international computer communication conference in Washington, USA, and reached an agreement on communication between different computer networks. The meeting decided to set up an internet working group, which is responsible for establishing a standard specification that can ensure communication between computers, that is, "communication protocol." From 65438 to 0973, the United States Department of Defense also began to study how to realize the interconnection between different networks.
By 1974, IP (Internet Protocol) and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) came out, collectively known as TCP/IP protocol. These two protocols define the method of transmitting messages (files or commands) between computer networks. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to provide TCP/IP to the world unconditionally and free of charge, that is, to announce the core technology to solve the communication between computer networks to the world. The disclosure of the core technology of TCP/IP protocol has finally contributed to the great development of the Internet.
By 1980, there are both ARPA networks using TCP/IP protocol by the US military and many other communication protocols in the world. In order to connect these networks, American Winton CERF put forward an idea: each network uses its own communication protocol and uses TCP/IP protocol when communicating with other networks. This idea eventually led to the birth of the Internet and established the position of TCP/IP protocol in network interconnection.
In the early 1980s, ARPANet was a great success, but schools that didn't get contracts from American federal agencies still couldn't use it. In order to solve this problem, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began to establish a computer science network (CSNet) for the computer departments of universities. CSNet is a logical network formed by adding a unified protocol layer to other basic networks. It uses the communication capabilities provided by other networks, and it is also an independent network from the user's point of view. CSNet adopts centralized control mode, and all information exchange is carried out through CSNet-Relay (a relay computer).
All these networks have merged into the Internet and become a part of it, so the Internet has become a large collection of all kinds of networks in the world.
The rapid development of Internet stems from the intervention of National Science Foundation (NSF), that is, the establishment of NSFNET. In the early 1980s, a large number of scientists in the United States called for the popularization of computer and network resources in order to improve the infrastructure construction in the fields of education and scientific research and resist the challenges and competition of advanced education and scientific and technological progress in Europe and Japan. In the mid-1980s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) encouraged universities and research institutes to enjoy their four expensive supercomputers, and hoped that the computers of universities and research institutes would be connected with these four supercomputers. At first, NSF tried to use ARPANet as the communication trunk of NSFNET, but due to the military nature of ARPANet and the control of government agencies, this decision was unsuccessful. So they decided to use the TCP/IP communication protocol developed by ARPANET to build a WAN named NSFNET.
1986, NSF invested in the establishment of five supercomputing centers, namely Princeton University, Pittsburgh University, University of California, San Diego, University of Illinois and Cornell University, and the prototype of NSFNET was formed through 56Kbps communication lines. 1987 NSF open tender upgrade operation management NSFNxT. As a result, IBM, MCI and Merit, a non-profit organization composed of several universities, won the NSr contract. 1In July 1989, the communication line speed of NSFNET was upgraded to T 1( 1.5MbpS), and 13 backbone nodes were connected. Communication lines provided by MCI and routing equipment provided by IBM are adopted, and Merit is responsible for the operation and management of NSFNET. Encouraged and funded by NSF, many universities, government agencies and even private research institutions have merged their local area networks into N5FNET. From 1986 to 199 1, the number of subnets of NSFNET has rapidly increased from 100 to more than 3,000. The official operation of NSFNET and its connection with other existing and new networks have really become the foundation of the Internet.
The expansion of the Internet in 1980s not only brought quantitative changes, but also brought some qualitative changes. Due to the entry of various academic groups, enterprise research institutions and even individual users, Internet users are no longer limited to pure computer professionals. New users find communication between computers more attractive to them. Therefore, they gradually regard the Internet as a tool for communication, rather than just enjoying the computing power of NSF supercomputers.
In the early 1990s, the Internet has actually become an "Internet": each subnet is responsible for its own erection and operation costs, and these subnets are interconnected through NSFNET. NSFNET connects tens of millions of computers in the United States and has tens of millions of users. It is the most important member network of the Internet. With the expansion and popularization of computer networks in the world, networks outside the United States are gradually connected to the backbone network or its subnets of NSFNET.
1993 is a very important year in the development of internet. In this year, the Internet completed all the most important technological innovations to date. The application of WWW and browser has given the Internet a refreshing platform: people see not only words, but also pictures, sounds and animations, and even movies on the Internet. Internet has evolved into a new world in which words, images, sounds, animations, movies and other media complement each other, and it has swept the world at an unprecedented speed.
By the end of 2000, the number of Internet users in the world had exceeded 400 million, and it is expected to reach 700 million in 2004.
The rapid rise of the Internet has attracted worldwide attention, and China also attaches great importance to the construction of information infrastructure and its connection with the Internet. At present, the information network that has been built and is under construction has a far-reaching impact on the development of science and technology, economy and society in China and the information exchange with the international community.
The Internet has experienced two stages of development in China.
The period from 1987 to 1993 was the initial stage of the Internet in China, and domestic scientific and technological workers began to contact Internet resources. During this period, a group of scientific research institutes headed by Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with foreign institutions to carry out some scientific research projects connected with the Internet, and provided Internet e-mail services for some key universities and scientific research institutions in China through dial-up using the Internet e-mail system.
1986, an international internet project named CANET (Chinese academic network) was jointly launched by Beijing Institute of Computer Application Technology (then Institute of Computer Application Technology of National Machinery Committee) and Karlsruhe University in Germany.
1In September, 987, the first Internet e-mail node in China was formally established in Beijing Institute of Computer Application Technology, and connected with the Internet e-mail system. Subsequently, with the support of the State Science and Technology Commission, CANET began to provide Internet e-mail services to scientific research, academia and education in China.
During the period of 1989, the Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the forwarding of international mail through its international partner, Stanford Accelerator Center. Thanks to the private line, the communication capacity has been greatly improved and the cost has been reduced, which has promoted the application and spread of the Internet in China.
1990, 15 electronic departments, China Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and other units cooperated with German GMD to connect the Internet e-mail system. TUNET, a campus network in Tsinghua University, also cooperated with UBC to realize MHS system. Therefore, domestic science and technology educators can use Internet e-mail service through public telephone network or public packet switching network.
1990 10, China officially registered the top domain name "CN" with the International Internet Information Center (InterNIC), thus opening up Internet e-mail using its own domain name. After CANET, some other universities and research institutes in China have also opened Internet e-mail links.
1994 65438+ 10, the National Science Foundation of the United States accepted China's request for formal access to the Internet. 1In March, 1994, China opened and tested a 64Kbps dedicated line, and China was allowed to join the Internet. In early April, Academician Hu Qiheng, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences, formally requested the National Science Foundation (NSF) to access the Internet on behalf of the China government at the China-US Joint Commission on Science and Technology Cooperation, and was recognized. At this point, China finally got through the last joint. On April 20th, marked by the NCFC project's international dedicated line to access the Internet, China was in full contact with the Internet. In May of the same year, the networking in China was completed. China government approved Internet access to China. The domain name of China Network was finally determined as cn. This activity was rated as one of the top ten scientific and technological news in China in 1994 by the China press and listed as one of the major scientific and technological achievements in China in 1994 by the national statistical bulletin.
Since 1994, China has realized the TCP/IP connection with the Internet, thus gradually opening up the full-featured service of the Internet; The large-scale computer network project was officially launched, and the Internet entered a period of rapid development in China.
1995 1 In June, China Telecom set up 64K dedicated lines in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, and began to provide Internet access services to the society through telephone network, DDN dedicated line and X.25 network. In March, the Chinese Academy of Sciences completed the remote connection of four branches in Shanghai, Hefei, Wuhan and Nanjing, and began the first step of Internet expansion to the whole country. In April, the Chinese Academy of Sciences started the networking project of units outside Beijing (commonly known as the "Hundred Networking Project") and named it "CSTNet". Its goal is to expand the network to 24 cities across the country, realize the computer interconnection of domestic academic institutions and connect with the Internet. The network has gradually become a national network serving technology users, technology management departments and technology-related government departments. 1May, 1995, the construction of ChinaNET national backbone network began. In July, the 128K international dedicated line connecting CERNET with the United States was opened. 65438+February, 100 The networking project of Chinese Academy of Sciences was completed. Just this month, the first phase of CERNET was completed one year ahead of schedule and passed the acceptance organized by the State Planning Commission.
1996 1 month, ChinaNET national backbone network was built and officially opened, and the national public computer internet began to provide services. On September 6th, China Jinqiao Information Network announced that it would start providing Internet services. 1996, 165438+ 10. In October, CERNET launched the 2M international channel. In February, 65438+,the China public multimedia communication network (169 network) was fully launched, and Guangdong Vision, Tianfu Hotline and Shanghai Hotline were officially opened as the first sites.
1On May 30th, 997, the Office of the State Council Informatization Leading Group issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Domain Name Registration in China, authorizing China Academy of Sciences to establish and manage China Internet Information Center (CNNIC), and authorizing China Education and Research Computer Network Network Center to sign a contract with CNNIC and manage secondary domain names. 1997 On June 3rd, China Academy of Sciences was entrusted by the Office of the State Council Informatization Leading Group to set up China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) in the Computer Network Information Center to perform the duties of the National Internet Information Center. On the same day, the China Internet Information Center Working Committee was announced. 1997165438+10 In October, China Internet Information Center released the first Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. According to the report, by the end of June1997 65438+1October 3 1, there were 299,000 computers in China, with 620,000 Internet users, 4,066 domain names registered under CN, 0/500 WWW sites, and international export bandwidth/kloc-.