What is the Internet?

What is the Internet?‍

‍A Brief History

‍In October 1957, in the midst of the cold war, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, into space. This event brought into question the technological superiority of the United States and sparked the “Space Race”, a competition between the US and the Soviet Union to achieve space superiority. The onset of the Space Race forced the US to focus on science and technology with renewed vigor, catalyzing the formation of multiple new scientific organizations, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1958.

ARPA focused on advancing space technology, ballistic missile defense, and solid propellants. One of its key initiatives was developing a resilient communication system that could withstand disruption, even in the event of a ballistic missile attack (DARPA). The solution came in the form of ARPANET, a network of computers that could communicate and use different routes to build redundancies if one node was destroyed. New technologies and protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) were developed in order to help these computers understand each other, and in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee proposed the idea of the World Wide Web.

While it is often conflated with the internet, The Web is the way of organizing and accessing information via hyperlinks and web pages that we use today (History). Today, TCP/IP remains the backbone of web browsing, email, file transfer, and even streaming services.

‍Who Owns the Internet?

‍Since its inception, the internet has grown away from its roots in government and universities into a privately owned network of networks. A computer network is a group of two or more computing devices that can exchange data and share resources (AWS). You can think of the internet as a massive interconnected web of infrastructure with a government, internet service provider (ISP), university, or company each owning pieces and connecting to each other.

To operate your own network inside of this web, an entity must register with the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) and prove that it needs a unique external routing policy, is a certain size, and has more than one connection to other networks. If successful, the network operator will be given an Autonomous System Number (ASN) allowing them to control routing within their network and exchange data with other connected networks. Using this ASN as a proxy for network operators, the internet has grown from a single network of four schools in 1969 to over 100k networks worldwide (BNN / DARPA, IANA).

Once connected, these networks utilize the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a set of rules that determine the best routes for data to take when navigating different networks. The BGP considers factors such as network congestion, location, and cost. While companies without an ASN are at the whim of their service providers to determine how their data moves across the internet, a company with an ASN can make agreements with other networks and dictate the movement of their data, influencing the BGP and potentially reducing cost and improving speed (Internet Society).

ISPs such as AT&T, content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Cloudflare, and Cloud Providers such as AWS will typically apply for an ASN in order to have maximum control over how their data is routed throughout the internet. Other medium-to-large businesses may instead apply to allow for redundancies in their internet connectivity, making sure that if one provider goes down, they will continue to have access.

This web of networks is responsible for passing information across the internet; each owns a small portion of the infrastructure required to pass data around the globe. While large telecom companies such as Level3 (owned by CenturyLink since 2017) and AT&T have historically owned a significant amount of the underlying infrastructure composing the internet (the internet backbone), large tech companies are increasingly becoming more involved. For example, Meta is expected to spend $10bn on undersea cables in an attempt to speed up installation and maintain maximum control over their data pipeline (TechCrunch).

‍Future Infrastructure Developments

‍Despite its inception over 50 years ago, the internet backbone continues to morph and adapt to the growing demands of society. New technology and ideas are constantly being developed in order to improve the existing infrastructure and expand access to the internet. Below are a few exciting technologies for the future of the internet and gaming over the next few years:

• Edge Computing (Improving Speed): Edge computing is the process of placing servers and processing data closer to the end user. While not a new development, edge computing has gained a renewed importance with the developments in AI and inference requirements. Keeping compute close to (or on) the end devices reduces latency and allows for the integration of AI into applications that require speed, including most consumer-facing applications (Local AI’s Impact on Gaming). Reduced latency is also crucial for multiplayer games and real-time applications. As an example, Edgegap (Konvoy portfolio company) is helping game studios reduce latency by managing deployments to edge infrastructure globally.
• Starlink (Improving Reach): Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a “satellite constellation using a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to deliver broadband internet” to users all over the world. In September, Starlink announced that it connects over four million people across 100 countries. Equally important is that Starlink averages a latency of 25-60 milliseconds (ms) making it suitable for things such as streaming, video calls, and gaming (Starlink). This has the potential to help expand internet usage and games to the entire 8bn people on earth compared to the 5.5bn people using the internet today (Statista).
• Software-Defined Networking (SDN) (Improving Efficiency): SDN could help to improve the efficiency of internet exchange points (IXPs) by allowing for more dynamic routing policies that can adapt to changing network conditions in real-time (123.Net). This could help improve data exchange efficiency and minimize latency. Ideally, this type of networking software evolves to prioritize traffic in a way that enhances the gaming and other latency sensitive experiences. For instance, it could recognize that gaming data is more timely than emails and coordinate with all other networks and network participants to ensure this prioritization. This is similar to how a central processing unit (CPU) prioritizes tasks through CPU scheduling, which optimizes the user experience by allocating resources to specific tasks based on priority.
• 6G (Enhanced Mobile Experience): While still a few years out, with some developers pointing to 2030, 6G will enable faster upload and download speeds (with some estimates coming in at 100x faster than 5G), and lower latency with more stable connections. This will continue to unlock new user applications and benefit latency-sensitive applications such as multiplayer gaming (HP).

Takeaway: The internet has come a long way from its roots as a government-led communication experiment during the Cold War, now connecting >100,000 networks used by >5.5bn people worldwide. Despite being over 50 years old, the internet infrastructure and software are continuously changing. Innovations such as edge computing, Starlink, software-defined networking, and 6G are continuing to improve speed, reach, and efficiency. As the internet continues to ingest new technologies, gaming will continue to benefit by accessing new players and the ability to provide faster and more unique experiences to players around the world.