Laudon_ch03B

THE LARGER INTERNET II TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT

The Internet2 project is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to near-term futureenhancements to the Internet. In fact, we believe that a whole new era is about tobegin that we call Internet II. For instance, NGI (Next Generation Internet) isanother project initiated and sponsored by the federal government that is focused ondeveloping advanced applications and networking capabilities needed by U.S. gov-ernment agencies such as NASA and the Department of Energy. In addition, othergroups mostly private corporations and industries are making extraordinaryefforts to expand Internet capacity in order to support new services and products thatthey believe the public will demand in the near future.

Fiber Optics and the Bandwidth Explosion. Total Internet bandwidth supply has beengrowing at nearly 150% each year for the past several years in response to increasingdemand from more than 400 million worldwide users of the Internet. Improvementsare being driven primarily by fiber optic technology companies and large telecom-munications companies, many of whom currently operate the backbone of the Inter-net. Fiber-optic cable consists of up to hundreds of strands of glass or plastic that uselight to transmit data. It is frequently replacing existing coaxial and twisted paircabling because it can transmit much more data at faster speeds, with less interfer-ence and better data security. Fiber-optic cable is also thinner and lighter, taking upless space during installation. The hope is to use fiber optics to expand network band-width capacity in order to prepare for the expected increases in Web traffic once Inter-net2 services are widely adopted. Figure 3.15 shows actual and projected growth ratesfor the fiber-optic market. By 2003, there is expected to be 120 million kilometers(74.5 million miles) of fiber-optic cable installed globally.

Network providers are currently using fiber optics to enhance bandwidth by:

replacing older transmission lines with fiber-optic cable; improving fiber-optic-based communications technology; and improving fiber-optic switching speeds.

Some of the major photonics (the study of communicating with light waves)technologies that will make the dream of Internet II a reality in the future includeDense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), optical and fiber switches, opticalswitching components, optical integrated circuits, and optical networks (see Table3.5).

Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is an optical technologyused to increase bandwidth over existing fiber-optic backbones. DWDM works bycombining and transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at different wave-lengths on the same fiber. In effect, a single strand of fiber is transformed into mul-tiple virtual fibers.

I n t e r n e t I I : T h e F u t u r e I n f r a s t r u c t u r e 137

NGI (Next GenerationInternet)another project initiatedand sponsored by thefederal governmentfocused on developingadvanced applications andnetworking capabilitiesneed by U.S. governmentagencies

fiber-optic cableconsists of up to hundredsof strands of glass orplastic that use light totransmit data

photonicsthe study ofcommunicating with lightwaves

Dense WavelengthDivision Multiplexing(DWDM)an optical technology usedto increase bandwidth overexisting fiber opticbackbones

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Optical switches and transmission equipment will enable capacity expansion andtransmission speed increases, along with reduced service costs.

Gigabit Ethernet using fiber switches is another technological jump that will per-mit access to larger Metropolitan Regional Networks, with greater bandwidth anda shorter connection to the Internet backbone.

Optical service accounting platforms will impact how data transmission fees arecharged, by fostering packet-sized metering and billing.

Optical switching components will form the building blocks for all optical systems,such as switches and transmission equipment, as well as circuits and networks.

Optical integrated circuits are powerful optical chips with mirrors and lasers thatcan be built into new hardware.

Passive Optical Networks (PON) are high bandwidth fiber-optic networks that havelower cost and high performance.

138 C H A P T E R 3 T h e I n t e r n e t a n d W o r l d W i d e W e b

Worldwide demand for bandwidth is growing at about 150% per year, with fiber-optic cable sales growing ata 20% compounded annual growth rate, according to Corning, a leading supplier of fiber-optic cable.

FIGURE 3.15 WORLDWIDE OPTICAL FIBER MARKET GROWTH

1998

20% CAGRMillions of Kilometers

1999 2000 2001

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

02002 2003

Year

Kilo

met

ers

of F

iber

Opt

ic Ca

ble

Inst

alle

d (in

Mill

ions

)

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Together these improvements will allow the Internet to move from narrowbandto broadband digital services, and from stationary Web access to mobile Web access.The next step, Big Band, can accommodate upwards of 10 Gbps, enabling applica-tions such as interactive TV, HDTV, medical imaging, remote labs, multi-user videoconferencing, and tele-immersion. The work of collaborators on Internet2 will likelydetermine what comes after Big Band, as the teams develop new very high bandwidthapplications. Figure 3.16 gives a comparative look at bandwidth demand for variousapplications.

Insight on Business: Enkido A View of the Future of Networks, examines how onecompany, Enkido, is using fiber optics and new technologies to create a Big Bandnetwork on a limited scale.

Wireless Web and 3G Technologies. While Internet I is mostly a land-based technol-ogy that requires the users client machine to be attached to a cable, Internet II willincreasingly rely on wireless technology to connect users handheld telephones andpersonal organizers to the Web. The primary technology for wireless connections tothe Internet is cellular telephone technology using a variety of cellular standardssuch as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), widely used inEurope and Asia, and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), widely used in theUnited States. GSM uses narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), whichallows up to eight calls on a single radio frequency. CDMA is different in that it does


TABLE 3.5 MAJOR PHOTONICS OPPORTUNITIES AND PLAYERS

T E C H N O L O G Y O P P O R T U N I T Y P L AY E R S

Dense Wavelength Division Transform single strand of fiber-optic Cisco, Cogent CommunicationsMultiplexing cable into multiple virtual fibers

Optical switches and transmission Expand capacity, drop costs, speed BrightLink, Corvisequipment service

Gigabit Ethernet over fiber Increased access to metro regional Worldwide Packets; Zumaswitches networks

Optical service accounting Packet size metering and billing; Ellacoya Networksplatforms bytes to bucks

Optical switching components Building blocks for all optical systems Altitun; Cronos; Coretek

Optical integrated circuits Powerful optical chips with mirrors Bookham; Kymata; Nonovationand lasers

Passive Optical Networks (PON) Low cost, high performance networks LuxN, Quantum, Teraware

Fiber-optic cable The highway material Corning; ATT

Big Bandcan accommodate upwardsof 1 Gbps, enabling highbandwidth applications

GSM (Global Systemfor MobileCommunications)mobile communicationssystem widely used inEurope and Asia that usesnarrowband Time DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA)

CDMA (Code DivisionMultiple Access)mobile communicationssystem widely used in theUnited States that uses thefull spectrum of radiofrequencies and digitallyencrypts each call

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Future e-commerce applications involving streaming video and audio will require much higher levels of bandwidth to the home than Internet I.

FIGURE 3.16 BANDWIDTH DEMAND OF VARIOUS WEB APPLICATIONS

NarrowbandPeripheral sharing

TelemetryRadio e-mail

Wireless alarms,pagers, text,e-mail

1 Kbps

BroadbandVideo conferencingMultimedia distance learningFile transferWWW voice

CD transfer ratesSimulationsHigh-definition graphicsASPs/LSPs possible

1 Mbps

BigBandTV, HDTVInteractive TVHollywood on the WebInternet 2:

Extensive ASP/LSP possibleMedical imagesRemote labsMulti-person video conferencingUbiquitous netpliance computing

1 Gbps 1 Tbps

Protocol: modem vbis90 56.6Kbps Ethernet 10Mbps FDDI/Sonet 100Mbps ATM

Media: Cellular/WAP Twisted pair DSL COAX Cable Fiber Cable OC-68

not assign a specific frequency to each caller. Rather, it uses the full spectrum of radiofrequencies and digitally encrypts each call.

A secondary wireless technology that is rapidly growing is radio packet switchingthat uses radio frequencies for the connection. Called GPRS for General PacketRadio Switching, this next generation technology carries data in packets, just likethe Internet, but over radio frequencies that make wireless communication possible.Europe is in the process of establishing a GPRS network, and VoiceStream Wirelesshas stated its intention to develop one in the United States by year-end 2001.

Currently, most cellular phones can access the Web at only 9.6 Kbps and displayonly four lines of text, while most PDAs are limited to transmission speeds of up to19.2 Kbps. Two protocols are used to deliver Web pages to wireless users: WAP andiMode. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is a relatively new protocol thatenables PDA users to access the Web. WAP can support virtually any wireless networkand is supported by every operating system. Information that is sent via WAP must bewritten in Wireless Markup Language (WML). This means an existing Web sitemust rewrite its HTML pages as WML pages. On the other hand, WAP was designedspecifically for small PDAs with small screens and no keyboard. Although WAP is anew technology, it is supported by some major players in the wireless arena: Nokia,Ericsson, Motorola, and wireless software developer Unwired Planet.

GPRS (General PacketRadio Switching)

next generation technologycarries data in packets, just

like the Internet, but overradio frequencies that

make wirelesscommunication possible

WAP (WirelessApplication Protocol)

a relatively new protocolthat can support virtuallyany wireless network and

is supported by everyoperating system

Wireless MarkupLanguage (WML)

programming languagefor devices using WAP

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INSIGHT ON BUSINESS

SOURCES: Simplicity and Power Are Driving Data Delivery; A Little-Known Company May Mirror the Future, by Seth Schiesel, New York Times, July27, 2000; Enkido Web site, www.enkido.com ;Big Apple, Big Pipes, by Mary Jander, Light Reading, August 11, 2000; From the Ether, by Bob Metcalfe,InfoWorld, May 1, 2000.

Youd think that by nowthe biggest telecommunications

providers would have brokenthrough the 10 Gbps barrier that is

limiting Internet traffic flow. With alltheir money and resources, most analystsexpected that companies such as AT&T or MCIWorldCom would be the first to offer faster con-nection speeds. But they were wrong. Enkido wasfirst.

Start-up private carrier Enkido, Inc., basedin Hackensack, New Jersey, is leading the waywith OC-768 service telecommunications jar-gon for 40 Gbps connections on an optical net-work, the fastest anywhere (OC stands for OpticalCarrier). Granted, OC-768 is currently only avail-able in New York City, but Enkido has alreadybought 20,000 miles of fiber optic cable and has20-year leases on facilities in New York, LosAngeles, and San Francisco. And some big namecustomers have signed on, showing support forthis technology leader: Deutsche Telecom, NBC,Disney, NASA, and the Department of DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Enkidos founder and majority shareholder,Nayel Shafei, is a former Qwest executive whohas a knack for development of new technologies.Perhaps his boldest pronouncement is his visionfor the future of communications networks.

Most existing communications networks are

composed of layers. Enkido aims to get rid ofsome of the layers. Today the most widely usedtechnology is Sonet, for synchronous opticalnetwork, which is commonly layered with anothertechnology called ATM, for asynchronous trans-fer mode, which packages voice, audio, or videodata into a cell. Within each ATM cell are theservices that we rely on Internet connections,telephone calls, and data transfer activities.Essentially, the ATM cell is found within theSonet layer, which runs on the fiber optic cable.

Enkido wants to do away with the Sonet andATM layers, leaving a modified Internet protocolto travel directly over the fiber optic cable. Theend result is faster speeds, even faster than the 40Gbps that Enkido already offers. A radical ideathat has merit, say many analysts. Others areskeptical. So far, however, Enkido is the onlycompany to have achieved OC-768 on a commer-cial basis.

Part of the reason Enkido has achieved such afeat is that the company has the support andresources of major networking vendors, such asCisco and Lucent, which have provided free proto-types of new technologies for Enkido to use andtest. The company gets paid by customers and ven-dors who need help developing technological solu-tions. Last year, in addition to completing its workon its high-speed network, work for its customersnetted Enkido more than $50 million in revenue.

ENKIDOA View of the Future of Networks

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The other current wireless standard, iMode, is a proprietary service of the Japan-ese company NTT DoCoMo and is widely available in Japan where it has several mil-lion subscribers. Although U.S. companies have been resistant to using iMode,analysts report that iMode is more consumer-friendly and easier to program thanWAP. It is text-based and always connected, another difference between it and WAP.iMode applications are written in cHTML which is based on HTML. Conversion ofexisting Web pages is quite easy. However, iMode is text-based currently and is not ascapable as WML at handling graphics. DoCoMo recently announced a partnershipwith AOL as a means of entering the U.S. market, potentially giving iMode the foot-ing it needs in the United States.

Whatever standard is adopted, the critical constraint will be bandwidth. A newgeneration of cellular phone standards, called 3G for third generation, is emerging.Already being installed in Japan, 3G cellular can connect users to the Web at 2.4Mbps. Another technology called W-CDMA or Wideband CDMA can connect users at2 Mbps.

These new communications technologies, coupled with far more powerful andsomewhat larger handheld phones and personal organizers, will permit users nearlycomplete access to Web services including e-mail, video, audio, and voice-drivenbrowsers. (See Table 3.6.)

Wireless LANs. The wireless revolution extends far beyond cellular phones andPDAs. It also includes connecting laptops and other computers to one another and toother digital devices such as home appliances, vending machines, and remote sensorsof all kinds (such as home heating systems). Bluetooth is a new technology standardfor short-range wireless communication under 100 meters. It constantly scans itsenvironment looking for compatible devices to connect with that are located withinabout 30 feet of it.


TABLE 3.6 WIRELESS WEB PRODUCTS AND PLAYERS

C O M P A N Y P R O D U C T

Innovative Global Solution Neopoint 1000

Mitsubishi Mobile Access 120 Series

Motorola i1000Plus

Nokia 9000il Communicator

Palm Computing Palm VII

Qualcomm PDQ Smart Phone, Thin Phone

Samsung Duette

iModewireless standard that is a

proprietary service of theJapanese company NTT

DoCoMo

3Gnew generation of cellularphone standards that canconnect users to the Web

at 2.4 Mbps

Bluetoothnew technology standard

for short-range wirelesscommunication under

100 meters

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Today, these communications are typically handled by local area networks basedon coaxial cables strung throughout buildings. Another standard is 802.11B or Wi-Fi,also known as Wireless Fidelity, which is the standard for Ethernet with greaterspeed and range than Bluetooth. Both of these new technologies rely on short rangeradio frequencies similar to garage door openers.

As the standard is sorted out, applications of the technology will broaden fromcomputing and office equipment to the home and public domain, such as shoppingmalls, doctors offices, and libraries.

Potential wireless LAN applications include:

Handheld devices can become multi-functional units, serving as a credit card,identification badge, and key all in one.

Laptops can synchronize with phones to exchange data and download neededinformation.

Vending machine purchases can be processed via a handheld device. Highway tolls can be paid via PDA. Documents can be printed by any printer within range, or faxed via a local

machine.

Internet Appliances: The Changing Client Computer. Internet II infrastructure willmake it possible to connect nearly all the electronic devices in our lives to the Inter-net and private intranets. The personal computer will still be with us as a lightweight,portable, but full-function client. But nearly half of all Internet data traffic and useswill originate with newer, much smaller clients.

With the PC or handheld device as the driver, or controller, users will be able toactivate and deactivate virtually any device that can be connected to the Internet. Byinterlinking appliances, the user can control multiple devices from one source. Theseproducts include home appliances, such as TV and stereo, telephones, games, secu-rity systems, cars. and Net PCs.

Some of these examples fit the definition of thin client computing, where thereceiving device the client relies totally on the Internet server to handle all infor-mation processing; the device itself has no processing ability. Thin client computinghas become a popular buzzword because of the market trend toward smaller, thinnerclient devices that require most data processing to be done by the server. But thinclient also refers to PCs without hard drives, and therefore no processing power; fatclients, on the other hand, are PCs with drives.

These innovations affect the hardware side of the equation, but on the softwareside, keep an eye out for software subscription rentals. Major software developmentcompanies, including Microsoft, are planning to introduce software by subscription.By purchasing a subscription, a client can be assured of always having the latest ver-sion and only need pay for the software while its needed. This service is expected to


Wi-Fi (WirelessFidelity)also referred to as802.11B. Wireless standardfor Ethernet networks withgreater speed and rangethan Bluetooth

thin client computingwhere the receiving device the client reliestotally on the Internetserver to handle allinformation processing; thedevice itself has noprocessing ability

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make larger, more expensive software packages affordable for small businesses andindividuals.

BENEFITS OF INTERNET II TECHNOLOGIES

The increased bandwidth and expanded network connections of the Internet II erawill result in benefits beyond faster access and richer communications. Enhancedreliability and quality of Internet transmissions will create new business models andopportunities. Some of the major benefits of these technological advancementsinclude IP multicasting, latency solutions, guaranteed service levels, lower errorrates, and declining costs.

IP Multicasting. IP multicasting is a set of technologies that enables efficient deliv-ery of data to many locations on a network. Rather than making multiple copies of amessage intended to be distributed to multiple recipients at the point of origin of amessage, multicasting initially sends just one message and does not copy it to theindividual recipients until it reaches the closest common point on the network,thereby minimizing the bandwidth consumed. (See Figure 3.17.) Network perform-ance is significantly improved because it isnt bogged down with the processing andtransmission of several large data files; each receiving computer doesnt have to querythe transmitting server for the file. Multicasting technologies are already making theirway into todays Internet through the use of Mbone (a special-purpose backbone fordelivering video data).

Latency Solutions. One of the challenges of packet switching, where data is dividedinto chunks and then sent separately to meet again at the destination, is that theInternet does not differentiate between high-priority packets, such as video clips, andthose of lower priority, such as self-contained e-mail messages. Because the packetscannot yet be simultaneously reassembled, the result is distorted audio and videostreams.

Internet II, however, holds the promise of diffserve, or differentiated quality ofservice a new technology that assigns levels of priority to packets based on the typeof data being transmitted. Videoconference packets, for example, which need to reachtheir destination almost instantaneously, would receive much higher priority thane-mail messages. In the end, the quality of video and audio will skyrocket withoutundue stress on the network. Live and on-demand TV and video will be possible onceInternet II is completed.

Guaranteed Service Levels. In todays Internet, there is no service-level guaranteeand no way to purchase the right to move data through the Internet at a fixed pace.The Internet is democratic it speeds or slows everyones traffic alike. With InternetII, it will be possible to purchase the right to move data through the network at a guar-anteed speed in return for higher fees.


IP multicastinga set of technologies that

enables efficient delivery ofdata to many locations on

a network

diffserve(differentiated quality

of service)a new technology that

assigns levels of priority topackets based on the typeof data being transmitted

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IP multicasting is a method for efficiently sending high bandwidth video files to clients without causingInternet congestion and delay for other traffic.Source: www.Internet2.edu

FIGURE 3.17 IP MULTICASTING

A Unicast Streaming

B Multicast Streaming

Video camera(or otherdata source)

Multiple data streams,one per recipient

Multiple copies acrossthe network createcongestion

Routers along the way direct streamsto each user

Video camera(or otherdata source)

Initially a single streamof data for all recipients

Single copy across thenetwork conserves capacity

Routers along the way make copies forindividual recipientsonly as necessary

Lower Error Rates. Improved capacity and packet switching will inevitably impactquality of data transmissions, reducing error rates and boosting customer satisfac-tion.

Declining Costs. As the Internet pipeline is upgraded, the availability of broadbandservice will expand beyond major metropolitan areas, significantly reducing the costsof access. More users means lower cost, as products and technology catch on in themass market. Higher volume usage enables providers to lower the cost of both accessdevices, or clients, and the service required to use such products. Both broadband and

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wireless service fees are expected to decline as geographic service areas increase, inpart due to competition for that business.

Without the World Wide Web, there would be no e-commerce. The invention of theWeb brought an extraordinary expansion of digital services to millions of amateurcomputer users, including color text and pages, formatted text, pictures, animations,video, and sound. In short, the Web makes nearly all the rich elements of humanexpression needed to establish a commercial marketplace available to nontechnicalcomputer users worldwide.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEB

While the Internet began to evolve starting in the 1960s, the Web was not inventeduntil 19891991 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Laboratory,better known as CERN (Berners-Lee et al., 1994). Several earlier authors such asVannevar Bush (in 1945) and Ted Nelson (in the 1960s) had suggested the possibil-ity of organizing knowledge as a set of interconnected pages that users could freelybrowse (Bush, 1945; Ziff Davis Publishing, 1998). Berners-Lee and his associates atCERN built on these ideas and developed the initial versions of HTML, HTTP, a Webserver, and a browser, the four essential components of the Web.

First, Berners-Lee wrote a computer program that allowed formatted pages withinhis own computer to be linked using keywords (hyperlinks). Clicking on a keywordin a document would immediately move him to another document. Berners-Lee cre-ated the pages using a modified version of a powerful text markup language calledSGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).

He called this language HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. Berners-Leethen came up with the idea of storing his HTML pages on the Internet. Remote clientmachines could access these pages by using HTTP (introduced earlier in Section 3.2and described more fully below). But these early Web pages still appeared as blackand white text pages with hyperlinks expressed inside brackets. The early Web wasstill based on text only: The original Web browser only provided a line interface.

Information being shared on the Web remained text-based until 1993, when MarcAndreesen and others at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applica-tions at the University of Illinois) created a Web browser with a graphical user inter-face (GUI) called Mosaic that made it possible to view documents on the Webgraphically using colored backgrounds, images, and even primitive animations.Mosaic was a software program that could run on any graphically based interfacesuch as Macintosh, Windows, or UNIX. The Mosaic browser software read the HTML

3.4 THE WORLD WIDE WEB


MosaicWeb browser with a

graphical user interface(GUI) that made it possibleto view documents on the

Web graphically

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text on a Web page and displayed it as a graphical interface document within a graph-ical user interface operating system such as Windows or Macintosh. Liberated fromsimple black and white text pages, HTML pages could now be viewed by anyone inthe world who could operate a mouse and use a Macintosh or PC.

Aside from making the content of Web pages colorful and available to the worldspopulation, the graphical Web browser created the possibility of universal comput-ing, the sharing of files, information, graphics, sound, video, and other objects acrossall computer platforms in the world, regardless of operating system. A browser couldbe made for each of the major operating systems, and the Web pages created for onesystem, say, Windows, would also be displayed exactly the same, or nearly the same,on computers running the Macintosh or UNIX operating systems. As long as eachoperating system had a Mosaic browser, the same Web pages could be used on all thedifferent types of machines and operating systems. This meant no matter what kindof computer you used, anywhere in the world, you would see the same Web pages.The browser and the Web have introduced us to a whole new world of computing andinformation management that was unthinkable prior to 1993.

In 1994 Andreesen and Jim Clark founded Netscape, which created the first com-mercial browser, Netscape Navigator. Although Mosaic had been distributed free ofcharge, Netscape initially charged for its software. In August 1995, Microsoft Corpo-ration released its own version of a browser, called Internet Explorer (IE). In theensuing years, Netscape would falter, falling from a 100% market share to less than20% in 2001. The fate of Netscape illustrates an important e-commerce business les-son: Innovators usually are not long-term winners, whereas smart followers oftenhave the assets needed for long-term survival.

HYPERTEXT

Web pages can be accessed through the Internet because the Web browser softwareoperating your PC can request Web pages stored on an Internet host server using theHTTP protocol. Hypertext is a way of formatting pages with embedded links thatconnect documents to one another, and that also link pages to other objects such assound, video, or animation files. When you click on a graphic and a video clip plays,you have clicked on a hyperlink. For example, when you type a Web address in yourbrowser such as http://www.sec.gov, your browser sends an HTTP request to thesec.gov server requesting the home page of sec.gov.

HTTP is the first set of letters at the start of every Web address, followed by thedomain name. The domain name specifies the organizations server computer that ishousing the document. Most companies have a domain name that is the same as orclosely related to their official corporate name. The directory path and documentname are two more pieces of information within the Web address that help thebrowser track down the requested page. Together, the address is called a UniformResource Locator, or URL. When typed into a browser, a URL tells it exactly where to

T h e W o r l d W i d e W e b 147

universal computingthe sharing of files,information, graphics,sound, video, and otherobjects across all computerplatforms in the world,regardless of operatingsystem

Netscape Navigatorthe first commercial Webbrowser

Internet Explorer (IE)Microsofts Web browser

Hypertexta way of formatting pageswith embedded links thatconnect documents to oneanother, and that also linkpages to other objects suchas sound, video, oranimation files

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look for the information. For example, in the following URL: http://www.megacorp.com/content/features/082602.html

http=the protocol used to display Web pages

www.megacorp.com = domain name

content/features=the directory path that identifies where on the domain Webserver the page is stored

082602.html=document name and its format (an html page)

The most common domain extensions currently available and officially sanc-tioned by ICANN are shown in the list below. Countries also have domain names suchas .uk, .au, and .fr (United Kingdom, Australia, and France). Also shown in the listbelow are recently approved top-level domains .biz and .info, as well as new domainsunder consideration. In the near future, this list will expand to include many moretypes of organizations and industries.

.com Commercial organizations/businesses

.edu Educational institutions

.gov U.S. government agencies

.mil U.S. military

.net Network computers

.org Nonprofit organizations and foundations

New Top-Level Domains approved May 15, 2001:

.biz business firms

.info information providers

New Top-Level Domains proposed:

.aero Air transport industry .

.coop Cooperatives

.museum Museums

.name Individuals

.pro Professionals

MARKUP LANGUAGES

Although the most common Web page formatting language is HTML, the conceptbehind document formatting actually had its roots in the 1960s with the developmentof Generalized Markup Language (GML).

SGML. In 1986, the International Standards Organization adopted a variation ofGML called Standard Generalized Markup Language, or SGML. The purpose of


Standard GeneralizedMarkup Language

(SGML)a early version of

Generalized MarkupLanguage (GML)

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SGML was to help very large organizations format and categorize large collections ofdocuments. The advantage of SGML is that it can run independent of any softwareprogram but, unfortunately, it is extremely complicated and difficult to learn. Proba-bly for this reason, it has not been widely adopted.

HTML HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a GML that is relatively easy touse. HTML provides Web page designers with a fixed set of markup tags that areused to format a Web page (see Figure 3.18). When these tags are inserted into a Webpage, they are read by the browser and interpreted into a page display. You can seethe source HTML code for any Web page by simply clicking on the Page Source com-mand found in all browsers. In Figure 3.18, the HTML code in the first screen pro-duces the display in the second screen.

HTML functions to define the structure and style of a document, including theheadings, graphic positioning, tables, and text formatting.5 Since its introduction, the


HTML is a text markup language used to create Web pages. It has a fixed set of tags that are used to tell the browser software how topresent the content on screen. The HTML shown in Figure 3.18 (a) creates the Web page seen in Figure 3.18 (b).

FIGURE 3.18 EXAMPLE HTML CODE (A) AND WEB PAGE (B)

(a) (b)

5A detailed discussion of how to use HTML is beyond the scope of this text. The reader isreferred to The Web Wizards Guide to HTML by Wendy Lehnert (Addison-Wesley, 2002).

HTML (HyperTextMarkup Language)one of the next generationof GMLs that is relativelyeasy to use in Web pagedesign. HTML providesWeb page designers with afixed set of markup tagsthat are used to format aWeb page

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two major browsers Netscapes Navigator and Microsofts Internet Explorer havecontinuously added features to HTML to enable programmers to further refine theirpage layouts. Unfortunately, many of the enhancements only work in one companysbrowser, and this development threatens the attainment of a universal computingplatform. Worse, building browsers with proprietary functionality adds to the costs ofbuilding e-commerce sites. Whenever you build an e-commerce site, special caremust be taken to ensure the pages can be viewed by major browsers, even outdatedversions of browsers.

HTML Web pages can be created with any text editor, such as Notepad or Word-pad, using Microsoft Word (simply save the Word document as a Web page) or any oneof several Web page editors (See Table 3.7).

XML. Extensible Markup Language (XML) takes Web document formatting agiant leap forward. XML is a new markup language specification developed by theW3C (the World Wide Web Consortium). XML is a markup language like HTML, butit has very different purposes. Whereas the purpose of HTML is to control the lookand feel and display of data on the Web page, XML is designed to describe data andinformation. For example, consider the sample XML document in Figure 3.19. Thefirst line in the sample document is the XML declaration, which is always included.It defines the XML version of the document. In this case, the document conforms tothe 1.0 specification of XML. The next line defines the first element of the document(the root element): . The next four lines define four child elements of the root(to, from, heading, and body). The last line defines the end of the root element. Noticethat XML says nothing about how to display the data, or how the text should look onthe screen. HTML is used for information display in combination with XML, which isused for data description.


TABLE 3.7 HTML TOOLS

S O F T W A R E T O O L C O M M E N T S

Text editor, e.g. Notepad or Wordpad Suitable for creating simple Web pages, text.

PageMill Solid basic page editor.

FrontPage Strong candidate for Web page creation, design,and site management tools. Good at creatingand integrating graphics and other objects.

DreamWeaver Professional Web page and site developmenttool. Good at creating graphics, animations, andother special effects.

Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML)

a new markup languagespecification developed bythe W3C (the World WideWeb Consortium) that is

designed to describe dataand information

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For instance, if you want to send a patients medical record including diagnosis,personal identity, medical history information, and any doctors notes from a data-base in Boston to a hospital in New York over the Web, it would be impossible usingHTML. However, with XML, these rich documents (database records) for patientscould be easily sent over the Web and displayed. For example, Figure 3.20 shows howXML can be used to define database records. Tags such as can bechanged to be appropriate for a single firm or an entire industry. This flexibility willenable organizations to put most of their information processing functions into anInternet processing environment.

As can be seen in Figure 3.20, XML is extensible, which means the tags used todescribe and display data are defined by the user, whereas in HTML the tags are lim-ited and predefined. XML can also transform information into new formats, such as


Source: www.xml101.com/xml

FIGURE 3.19 SAMPLE XML CODE

Sample XML Code

GeorgeCarolJust a ReminderDont forget to order the groceries from WebVan!

FIGURE 3.20 SAMPLE XML CODE FOR A MEDICAL RECORD

John Q. Williams52 Oregon RoadAnn ArborMichigan45678Frank Lucretis

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by importing information from a database and displaying it as a table. With XML,information can be analyzed and displayed selectively, making it a more powerfulalternative to HTML. This means that business firms, or entire industries, candescribe all of their invoices, accounts payable, payroll records, and financial infor-mation using a Web-compatible markup language. Once described, these businessdocuments can be stored on intranet Web servers and shared throughout the corpo-ration.

XML is not yet a replacement for HTML. Currently, XML is fully supported onlyby Microsofts Internet Explorer 5, and is not supported by Netscape (although thismay change). Whether XML eventually supplants HTML as the standard Web for-matting specification depends a lot on whether it is supported by future Webbrowsers. Currently, XML and HTML work side by side on the same Web pages.HTML is used to define how information should be formatted, and XML is being usedto describe the data itself.

WEB SERVERS AND CLIENTS

We have already described client/server computing and the revolution in computingarchitecture brought about by client/server computing. You already know that aserver is a computer attached to a network that stores files, controls peripheraldevices, interfaces with the outside world including the Internet and does someprocessing for other computers on the network.

But what is a Web server? Web server software refers to the software thatenables a computer to deliver Web pages written in HTML to client machines on anetwork that request this service by sending an HTTP request. The two leadingbrands of Web server software are Apache, which is free Web server shareware thataccounts for about 60% of the market, and Microsofts NT Server software, whichaccounts for about 20% of the market.

Aside from responding to requests for Web pages, all Web servers provide someadditional basic capabilities such as the following:

Security services These consist mainly of authentication services that verify thatthe person trying to access the site is authorized to do so. For Web sites that processpayment transactions, the Web server also supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL),the Internet protocol for transmitting and receiving information securely over theInternet. When private information such as names, phone numbers, addresses,and credit card data need to be provided to a Web site, the Web server uses SSL toensure that the data passing back and forth from the browser to the server is notcompromised.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) This protocol allows users to transfer files to andfrom the server. Some sites limit file uploads to the Web server, while others restrictdownloads, depending on the users identity.


Web server softwaresoftware that enables a

computer to deliver Webpages written in HTML to

client machines on anetwork that request this

service by sending anHTTP request

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Search engine Just as search engine sites enable users to search the entire Webfor particular documents, search engine modules within the basic Web server soft-ware package enable indexing of the sites Web pages and content, and permit easykeyword searching of the sites content. When conducting a search, a searchengine makes use of an index, which is a list of all the documents on the server..The search term is compared to the index to identify likely matches.

Data capture Web servers are also helpful at monitoring site traffic, capturinginformation on who has visited a site, how long the user stayed there, the date andtime of each visit, and which specific pages on the server were accessed. Thisinformation is compiled and saved in a log file, which can then be analyzed by auser log file. By analyzing a log file, a site manager can find out the total numberof visitors, average length of each visit, and the most popular destinations, or Webpages.

The term Web server is sometimes also used to refer to the physical computer thatruns Web server software. Leading manufacturers of Web server computers are IBM,Compaq, Dell, and Hewlett Packard. Although any personal computer can run Webserver software, it is best to use a computer that has been optimized for this purpose.To be a Web server, a computer must have the Web server software described aboveinstalled and be connected to the Internet. Every Web server machine has an IPaddress. For example, if you type http://www.aw.com/laudon, in your browser, thebrowser software sends a request for HTTP service to the Web server whose domainname is aw.com. The server then locates the page named laudon on its hard drive,sends the page back to your browser, and displays it on your screen.

Aside from the generic Web server software packages, there are actually manytypes of specialized servers on the Web, from database servers that access specificinformation with a database, to ad servers that deliver targeted banner ads, to mailservers that provide mail messages, and video servers that provide video clips. At asmall e-commerce site, all of these software packages might be running on a singlemachine, with a single processor. At a large corporate site, there may be hundreds ofdiscrete machines, many with multiple processors, running specialized Web serverfunctions described above. We discuss the architecture of e-commerce sites in greaterdetail in Chapter 4.

A Web client, on the other hand, is any computing device attached to the Inter-net that is capable of making HTTP requests and displaying HTML pages. The mostcommon client is a Windows PC or Macintosh, with various flavors of UNIX machinesa distant third. However, the fastest growing category of Web clients are not comput-ers at all, but personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the Palm and HP Jornada, andcellular phones outfitted with wireless Web access software. In general, Web clients canbe any device including a refrigerator, stove, home lighting system, or automobileinstrument panel capable of sending and receiving information from Web servers.


database serverserver designed to accessspecific information with adatabase

ad serverserver designed to delivertargeted banner ads

mail serverserver that provides mailmessages

video serverserver that serves videoclips

Web clientany computing deviceattached to the Internetthat is capable of makingHTTP requests anddisplaying HTML pages,most commonly a WindowsPC or Macintosh

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WEB BROWSERS

The primary purpose of Web browsers is to display Web pages, but browsers also haveadded features, such as e-mail and newsgroups (an online discussion group or forum).

Currently 94% of Web users use either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator,but recently some new browsers have been developed that are beginning to attractattention. The browser Opera is becoming very popular because of its speed it iscurrently the worlds fastest browser and because it is much smaller than existingbrowsers (it can almost fit on a single diskette). It can also remember the last Webpage you visited, so the next time you surf, you can start where you left off. And likethe big two, you can get it for free; the catch is that you have to watch blinking ads inone corner, or pay $40 for the ad-free version of Opera.

The browser NeoPlanet is also gaining new fans, primarily because of the 500+skins, or design schemes, that come with it. Using skins, you can design the browserto look and sound just the way youd like it to, rather than being limited to the stan-dard look provided by Navigator and Internet Explorer. However, NeoPlanet requiresInternet Explorers technology in order to operate, so you must also have IE installedon your computer.

The Internet and the Web have spawned a number of powerful new software appli-cations upon which the foundations of e-commerce are built.

E-MAIL

Since its earliest days, electronic mail, or e-mail, has been the most-used applicationof the Internet. An estimated 3.5 billion business e-mails and 2.7 billion personal e-mails are sent every day in the United States (McGrane, 2001). Worldwide, more than8 billion e-mails are sent each day. E-mail uses a series of protocols to enable mes-sages containing text, images, sound, and video clips to be transferred from one Inter-net user to another. Because of its flexibility and speed, it is now the most popularform of business communication more popular than the phone, fax, or snail mail(the U.S. Postal Service).

In addition to text typed within the message, e-mail also allows attachments,which are files inserted within the e-mail message. The files can be documents,images, or sound or video clips.

Although e-mail was designed to be used for interpersonal messages, it can alsobe a very effective marketing tool. E-commerce sites purchase e-mail lists from listproviders and send mail to prospective customers, as well as existing customers. Theresponse rate from targeted e-mail campaigns can be as high as 20%, extraordinary

3.5 THE INTERNET AND THE WEB: FEATURES


electronic mail(e-mail)

the most-used applicationof the Internet. Uses aseries of protocols to

enable messagescontaining text, images,

sound, and video clips tobe transferred from oneInternet user to another

attachmenta file inserted within the

e-mail message

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when compared to banner ad response rates of less than 1%. Most e-commerce sitesalso have a Contact Us section that includes an e-mail contact, to make requests andcomments easier for customers.

However, in addition to this acceptable practice of communicating with peoplewho have requested such contact, some companies also use e-mail as a mass mailingtechnique, also known as spam, or unsolicited e-mail. There are a number of statelaws against spamming, but it is still the bane of the Web.

SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines can be Web sites themselves, such as Google and AltaVista, or a serv-ice within a site that allows users to ask for information about various topics. A searchengine identifies Web pages that appear to match keywords, also called queries, typedby the user and provides a list of the best matches. A query can be a question, a seriesof words, or a single word for the search engine to look for.

How exactly individual search engines work is a proprietary secret, and at timesdefies explanation. Some search engines among them Alta Vista seek to visitevery Web page in existence, read the contents of the home page, identify the mostcommon words or keywords, and create a huge database of domain names with key-words. Sometimes the search engines will just read the meta tags and other keywordsections of the home page. This is faster, but Web designers often stuff an extraordi-nary number of keywords into their meta tags. The program that search enginesunleash on the Web to perform this indexing function is called a spider or crawler.Unfortunately, as the number of Web pages climbs to over two billion, more and morepages are missed by the search engines. Google, perhaps the most complete searchengine, contains references to only about half (one billion) of all Web pages. And theengines do not always overlap, which means you may miss a page on one engine, butpick it up on another. Its best therefore to use multiple search engines.

Other search engines use different strategies. As you learned in Chapter 2,Google uses a collaborative filtering technique: It indexes and ranks sites based on thenumber of users who request and land at a site. This method is biased by volume: Yousee the Web pages others have asked to see. Yahoo, on the other hand, uses a staff ofhuman indexers to organize as many pages as they can. It is very difficult to get yoursite registered on Yahoo because of the limitations of their method, which is biasedtoward sites that somehow come to the attention of Yahoo staff. Once again, the bestadvice is to use several different search engines.

Figure 3.21 lists the top search engines, based on the percentage of users esti-mated to have visited them during February 2001.

One of the newest trends in search engines is focus; instead of trying to coverevery possible information need that users have, some search engines are electing tospecialize in one particular area. By limiting their coverage to such topics as sports,

T h e I n t e r n e t a n d t h e W e b : F e a t u r e s 155

spamunsolicited e-mail

search engineidentifies Web pages thatappear to match keywords,also called queries, typedby the user and provides alist of the best matches

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news, medicine, or finance, niche search engines are hoping to differentiate them-selves from the crowd and provide better quality results for users. FindLaw.com, asearch engine and directory of legal information, has seen its searches rising steadily.The same is true of Moreover.com, a search engine that specializes in collecting andreporting news headlines from more than 1,800 news sites.

Although the major search engines are used for tracking down general informa-


Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, Feburary 2001

FIGURE 3.21 KEY PLAYERS: TOP SEARCH ENGINES

Yahoo

MSN

AOL

Lycos

Go

Netscape

NBCi

Excite

AskJeeves

Alta Vista

Google

LookSmart

GoTo

Iwon

Direct Hit

DogPile

Sear

ch E

ngin

e

Percent of Market Held

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

63%

56%

30%

41%

23%

21%

16%

15%

12%

11%

11%

10%

10%

4%

9%

4%

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tion of interest to users, such as a site for buying beer-making supplies, or statistics onInternet usage in Barbados, they have also become a crucial tool within e-commercesites. Customers can more easily search for the exact item they want with the help ofa search program; the difference is that within Web sites, the search engine is limitedto finding matches from that one site. Sites without search engines are asking visitorsto spend lots of time exploring the site something few people are willing to do when most sites offer a quick-and-easy way to find what theyre looking for.

INTELLIGENT AGENTS (BOTS)

Intelligent agents, or software robots (bots for short) are software programs thatgather and/or filter information on a specific topic, and then provide a list of resultsfor the user. Intelligent agents were originally invented by computer scientists inter-ested in the development of artificial intelligence (a family of related technologiesthat attempt to imbue computers with human-like intelligence). However, with theadvent of e-commerce on the Web, interest quickly turned to exploiting intelligentagent technology for commercial purposes. Today, there are a number of differenttypes of bots used in e-commerce on the Web, and more are being developed everyday. See Table 3.8.

For instance, as previously noted, many search engines employ web crawlers orspiders that crawl from server to server, compiling lists of URLs that form the databasefor the search engine. These web crawlers and spiders are actually bots.

The shopping bot is another common type of bot. Shopping bots search onlineretail sites all over the Web and then report back on the availability and pricing of arange of products. For instance, you can use MySimon.coms shopping bot to searchfor a Sony digital camera. The bot provides a list of online retailers that carry a par-ticular camera model, as well as report about whether it is in inventory and what theprice and shipping charges are.

Another type of bot, called an update bot, allows you to monitor for updated mate-rials on the Web, and will e-mail you when a selected site has new or changed infor-mation. News bots will create custom newspapers or clip articles for you innewspapers around the world.

Read Insight on Technology: Chatterbots at Work, to see how a bot with academicroots has morphed into an e-commerce tool.

INSTANT MESSAGING

E-mail messages have a time lag of several seconds to minutes between when mes-sages are sent and received, but instant messaging (IM) displays words typed on acomputer almost instantaneously. Recipients can then respond immediately to thesender the same way, making the communication more like a live conversation thanis possible through e-mail.


intelligent agents(software robots orbots)software programs thatgather and/or filterinformation on a specifictopic and then provide alist of results for the user

instant messaging(IM)displays words typed on acomputer almostinstantaneously. Recipientscan then respondimmediately to the senderthe same way, making thecommunication more like alive conversation than ispossible through e-mail

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TABLE 3.8 TYPES OF WEB BOTS

T Y P E E X A M P L E

Search Bot Altavista.comWebcrawler.com

Shopping Bot MySimon.comJango.comDealTime.com

Update Bot UrlyWarning.com

News Bot WebClipping.comSportspider.net

Chatter Bot Lucy (ArtificialLife.com)Eve (eGain.com)Nicole (NativeMinds.com)

America Online (AOL) was the first to introduce a widely accepted Instant Mes-saging system several years ago, which is credited with the companys sudden surgein users. AOLs system is proprietary. One of the key components of an IM service isa buddy list, as AOL called it. The buddy list is a private list of people with whom youmight want to communicate. If a person is on your buddy list, AOL will alert youwhen that individual signs on, enabling an IM to be sent.

The downside is that IM systems are proprietary no standard has been set yet so that competing sites have created their own IM services. Yahoo has IM, as doesMSN, but neither works in conjunction with the others.

Interestingly, despite the wild popularity of such services, no one seems to knowyet how to make money from it. AOL, Yahoo, and MSN have all offered IM free totheir users and have no immediate plans to start charging a fee. True, it is a market-ing draw that brings in new users, but that doesnt necessarily translate into profits.

Nevertheless, some companies have added IM to their Web sites as a means ofoffering instant access to customer service. For example, Sothebys, an auction house,encourages visitors to chat live with a Sothebys representative online. The hope isthat by encouraging consumers need for immediate gratification whether in theform of a question answered or product ordered IM will boost revenues and cus-tomer satisfaction.

CHAT

Like IM, chat enables users to communicate via computer in real time, that is, simul-taneously. However, unlike IM, which can only work between two people, chat canoccur between several users.

chatenables users to

communicate via computerin real time, that is,

simultaneously. Unlike IM,chat can occur among

several users.

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For many Web sites, developing a community of like-minded users has been crit-ical for their growth and success. Just look at eBay.com, which would probably havebeen unsuccessful without its corps of auction fans, or About.com, which exists toserve communities of consumers with similar interests. Once those communitymembers come together on a site, chat can be a service that enables them to furtherbond and network, endearing them further to the Web site.

Chat is also used frequently in distance learning, for class discussions and onlinediscussions sponsored by a company. When a celebrity appears on an entertainmentWeb site, for example, they use chat software in order to see and respond to questionsfrom audience members out in cyberspace.

MUSIC, VIDEO, AND OTHER STANDARD FILES

Although the low bandwidth of Internet I era connections has made audio and videofiles more difficult to share, with Internet II, these files will become more common-place. Today it is possible to send and receive files containing music or other audioinformation, video clips, animation, photographs, and other images, although thedownload times can be very long, especially for those using a 56 Kbps modem.

Video clips, Flash animations, and photo images are now routinely displayedeither as part of Web sites, or sent as attached files. Companies that want to demon-strate use of their product have found video clips to be extremely effective. And audioreports and discussions have also become commonplace, either as marketing materi-als or customer reports. Photos, of course, have become an important element ofmost Web sites, helping to make site designs more interesting and eye catching, notto mention helping to sell products, just as catalogs do.

STREAMING MEDIA

Streaming media enables music, video, and other large files to be sent to users inchunks so that when received and played, the file comes through uninterrupted.Streamed files must be viewed live: They cannot be stored on client hard drives.RealAudio and RealVideo are the most widely used streaming tools. Streaming audioand video segments used in Web ads or CNN news stories are perhaps the most fre-quently used streaming services.

Macromedias Shockwave is commonly used to stream audio and video forinstructional purposes. Macromedias Flash vector graphics program is the fastestgrowing streaming audio and video tool. Flash has the advantage of being built intomost client browsers; no plug-in is required to play Flash files.

COOKIES

Cookies are a tool used by Web sites to store information about a user. When a visitorenters a Web site, the site sends a small text file (the cookie) to the users computer

streaming mediaenables music, video, andother large files to be sentto users in chunks so thatwhen received and played,the file comes throughuninterrupted

cookiea tool used by Web sites tostore information about auser. When a visitor entersa Web site, the site sends asmall text file (the cookie)to the users computer sothat information from thesite can be loaded morequickly on future visits. Thecookie can contain anyinformation desired by thesite designers

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INSIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY

CHATTERBOTS AT WORK

(continued)

In the early 1960s, JosephWeizenbaum, a professor of com-puter science at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, created asoftware program known as Eliza.

Eliza was one of the first software pro-grams to allow a computer to converse with ahuman in natural language. Weizenbaum pro-grammed Eliza so that it was able to recognizecertain key words in a statement or question.Eliza would then respond based on a set of pre-programmed rules. Sometimes Eliza was able tocarry on a passable conversation for a shortperiod of time. More often than not, though, theconversation quickly degenerated into somethingno person would mistake for a human interaction.

From this rudimentary beginning sprang chat-terbots: intelligent agents that can converse with auser over the Web. Since the early days of Eliza,tremendous advances have been made in artificialintelligence and natural language processing. Chat-terbots today have become surprisingly articulateand responsive, and in many cases are representedgraphically as animated characters that respondwith facial expressions and gestures that are linkedto a huge database of words. For instance, bots cre-ated by Artificial Life, one of the leaders in intelli-gent agent technologies, can smile, laugh, wink,blink, and scowl, all in context-specific situations.The most sophisticated bots also learn as theyinteract and remember the actions users took andthe preferences they expressed.

Chatterbots are being viewed as one possibleanswer to the customer service difficulties plagu-

ing many e-commerce sites, problems that coste-tailers billions of dollars in 2000. For instance,one study found that the response times of For-tune 100 companies to simple e-mail queries leftmuch to be desired, with only 13% respondingwithin 24 hours. Another study found that over65% of those who start to fill up a shopping cartabandon it before going through the check-outprocess, for a variety of reasons, including poorWeb site design, a confusing check-out process,or questions that were unanswered.

Chatterbots can handle a number of func-tions that real-world sales assistants might nor-mally handle greeting you when you visit a site,engaging you in chat, remembering your prefer-ences. They can serve as a virtual tour guide tothe site, whisking you to the page you need with-out drill-down menus, click-throughs, or sitemaps. In addition, the cost of a chatterbot ismuch less than that of a representative workingvia the telephone less than $1 per incident fora chatterbot compared to $20$35 per incidentfor a telephone representative.

Chatterbots are already starting to maketheir presence known on a variety of e-tail sites.For instance, Artificial Lifes animated sales rep-resentative, Kim, sells cellular phones online forthe German telecom company MobilCom. A chat-terbot created by Extempo represents Proctor &Gambles Mr. Clean character at the www.mrclean.com Web site. And Ford Motor Companyhas recently announced plans to deploy VirtualRepresentatives created by NativeMinds to pro-vide online technical and support assistance to

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so that information from the site can be loaded more quickly on future visits. Thecookie can contain any information desired by the site designers, including customernumber, pages visited, products examined, and other detailed information on thebehavior of the consumer at the site. Cookies are useful to consumers because the sitewill recognize returning patrons and not ask them to register again. Cookies can alsohelp personalize a site by allowing the site to recognize returning customers andmake special offers to them based on their past behavior at the site. Cookies can alsopermit customization and market segmentation the ability to change the product orthe price based on prior consumer information (described more fully in later chap-ters). As we will discuss throughout the book, cookies also can pose a threat to con-sumer privacy, and at times they are bothersome. Many people clear their cookies atthe end of every day. Some disable them entirely.

INTERNET II AND E-COMMERCE: EMERGING FEATURES AND SERVICES

The Internet II infrastructure will permit the rapid deployment of new services andgreatly expand e-commerce opportunities. New technologies, increased bandwidth,and greater reliance on the Internet for communications will create new e-commerceproduct and service opportunities and potentially replace existing modes of commu-nication. Telephone communication is one area destined for change.

Internet Telephony. Internet telephony is not entirely new. IP telephony is a gen-eral term for the technologies that use the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)and the Internets packet-switched network to transmit voice, fax, and other forms of

over 5,000 Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealershipsin the United States and Canada.

The use of chatterbots does present someissues. According to Extempo, 90% of the cus-tomers who click on one of its bots will chat forover 10 minutes, and more than 90% of customersasked a personal question by a bot will respondwith an answer. According to Robert Pantaro, chieffinancial officer of Artificial Life, Small talkcapability gets people comfortable. People start

talking about themselves, volunteering a lot ofimportant stuff thats beneficial to companies name, age, occupation. No offense to people min-ing click data or cookie data, like DoubleClick, butwere taking online marketing to the next level.People find cookies intrusive and are more apt toturn them off. Not so for our agents. What a sitedoes with the information extracted by a chatterbotis obviously a privacy concern that has to beaddressed as chatterbots become more prevalent.

Sources: To Bot or Not to Bot, by Kristin Zhivago, Business 2.0, March 6, 2001; Recruiting the Chatterbots, by Michael Leaverton, C/Net TechTrends, October 2, 2000; Invasion of the Virbots, by Dolly Setton, Forbes, September 11, 2000; Talk to the Bot, by Jenny Oh, Industry Standard, June 12,2000.

IP telephonya general term for thetechnologies that use VOIPand the Internets packet-switched network totransmit voice and otherforms of audiocommunication over theInternet

Voice Over InternetProtocol (VOIP)protocol that allows fortransmission of voice andother forms of audiocommunication over theInternet

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audio communication over the Internet. The major advantage, of course, is the cost:Its free. VOIP avoids the long distance charges imposed by phone companies.

The problem with VOIP has been that breaking calls into packets in order totransmit them via the Internet often results in poor voice quality. However, with newhigh bandwidth connections, quality problems will diminish; use of VOIP is expectedto rise dramatically. New communications services will also be introduced that com-bine voice and computer functioning, such as call forwarding on Internet lines thatcan send callers to voice mail or e-mail, or the ability to click on a buddy list memberand initiate voice chat, rather than text-based Instant Messaging. Because of thesenew capabilities, analysts are expecting major increases in the amount and type ofVOIP usage in the very near future.

Although VOIP accounted for just 1.4% of all phone calls in the year 2000, by2004 that percentage will hit close to 14%, according to analysts. In revenue terms,Internet voice traffic yielded $1.6 billion in 2000, versus a projected $18.7 billion in2004. (See Figure 3.22.)

In the past, voice and fax were the exclusive provenance of the regulated tele-phone networks. With the convergence of the Internet and telephony, however, thisdominance is already starting to change, with local and long distance telephoneproviders and cable companies becoming ISPs, and ISPs getting into the phone mar-ket (see Table 3.9). Part of the attraction to this market may be that, unlike traditionalphone services, IP telephony is currently free of governmental oversight, with theFCC (Federal Communications Commission) stating that it has no immediate inten-tion of stepping in.

Digital Libraries. As bandwidth capabilities of the Internet increase, distribution ofsoftware applications by Application Service Providers (ASPs) over the Internet isalso expected to increase. Digital libraries of software applications will emerge ascompanies and individuals elect to rent software rather than buy it. Accessing a Webserver will enable a user to download the desired software, paying a subscription feeinstead of a purchase price. This service will be especially useful for expensive soft-ware packages, such as graphic design or software development tools, that few indi-viduals could afford. Multimedia digital libraries, with automated video and audioindexing, navigation, and search and retrieval, will also be available.

Distributed Storage. ASPs can assist both in processing data and in storing it, dis-persing it to multiple servers rather than having it reside on one. Although compilinginformation from multiple sources used to be a challenge for computers, it hasbecome commonplace today. Sophisticated software, such as XML, can now extractpieces of data from various sources, analyze it, and report the results in a predeter-mined fashion.


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Source: Sweeny, 2000

FIGURE 3.22 THE GROWTH OF INTERNET TELEPHONY

2000

In Tr

illio

ns o

f Min

utes

Year

2001 2002 2003

150

120

90

60

30

02004

TABLE 3.9 KEY TELEPHONY PLAYERS

C O M P A N Y S P E C I A LT Y

Cisco Equipment

VocalTec Equipment

3Com Equipment

Netspeak Equipment

Nortel Equipment

Lucent Equipment, service provider

ITXC Service provider

Comcast Service provider

AT&T Service provider (in trial period)

IBasis Service provider

3758 P-03 10/18/01 9:43 PM Page 163

Distance Learning. Perhaps one of the biggest educational initiatives in recent years,the distance learning opportunity has pushed schools, colleges, and universitiesworldwide to make courses and whole degree programs available online. The stickingpoint has been the lack of interactivity available through the Internet. Some schoolshave tried to get around this by providing videos of actual lectures and encouragingregular chat sessions as class supplements, but two-way communication between stu-dent and teacher had a significant time lag. Now, through videoconferencing, stu-dents can watch in real time as professors give lectures. Student interactions andquestions can also incorporate a visual image of the student in action, rather than atext-only message.

Development of the application software required to merge video, audio, andvoice at once is a prime opportunity for an ASP, rather than for the schools them-selves. Distributing the software from the companys server will also reduce the dataload on school computing systems and place the burden for reliability on the ASP(Center for Media Education, 2000).

Digital Video. Ted Hanss, Internet2 Director for Applications Development, consid-ers digital video to be the killer app for Internet II. Future digital video networks willbe able to deliver better-than-broadcast quality video over the Internet to computersand other devices. High quality interactive video and audio will make sales presenta-tions and demonstrations more effective and lifelike and enable companies to developnew forms of customer support. New video, audio, and presentation approaches couldalso dramatically change the nature of the media and news business.

Video Teleconferencing. Although video teleconferencing has been available foryears, few companies and individuals have made use of it simply because both thecost of equipment and rental fees have been high. Internet II will significantly reducethat cost, making it affordable for most workers to use video conferencing to shareinformation that involves either an image or audio component. Meetings of geo-graphically dispersed workers or colleagues will be easy to arrange, using VOIP tech-nology, and the quality of image and audio transmission will be much higher.

Tele-immersion. One of the newest services to come onto the market will be tele-immersion, a merger of virtual reality and video conferencing, where participants cansee each other and collaborate on visual projects. For instance, at the University of Illi-nois at Chicago, researchers are working on CALVIN, a testbed for using virtual real-ity in architectural design. Researchers believe high-speed connectivity, collaborativedesign systems that allow customers and vendors to interactively design and developnew products, coupled with virtual reality modeling and simulation such as this coulddramatically reduce the time required for new product development.


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M-commerce Applications. Combining voice, data, images, audio, and video on onewireless device will become possible during Internet II. As one commentator noted,when high-bandwidth wireless and the fiber-optic based Internet2 converge, thatswhen we go from e-business to e-life (McGarr, 2000). We will describe many m-com-merce applications in later chapters.


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Into Networks was founded in 1996 by Ric Fulop, then a 21-year-old Internet wun-derkind who had already founded and sold two companies; Derek Atkins, an MITMedia Lab computer scientist; and Rouzeh Yassini, the inventor of the cablemodem. Originally named Arepa, Inc., Into Networks goal was to create a way todeliver high-bandwidth CD-ROM content over the Internet, while eliminating theneed to actually download and install the software on a users PC. Their vision wasreal-time delivery of software-on-demand users would be able to click and playany one of thousands of software titles with no wait for access.

But how could they hope to achieve this goal when it can take up to 18 hours todownload a 450 MB CD using a 56k modem connection?

The answer rests in part in the broadband distribution networks that were begin-ning to be developed in the mid-1990s: Cable, DSL, and satellite networks all offeredfatter pipes that promised to increase throughput on the Internet. Although a nec-essary ingredient, the existence of fat broadband pipes was not sufficient in and ofitself. Even with a broadband connection and a cable modem, it still takes over anhour to download a 450 MB CD-ROM. Delays in transmission (latency) that resultfrom the packet-switching nature of the Internet also can interfere with the seamlessdelivery of software over the Net. There were a number of other problems that alsoneeded to addressed, such as developing a payment mechanism for software-on-demand as well as the security concerns of the software creators.

With early funding from Yassinis YAS Corporation, Fidelity Ventures, VenrockAssociates, and Intel, a team of MIT-trained engineers at Into Networks began bydeveloping a patent-pending system, which it calls briqing, to encode CD-ROM con-tent. The briqing process essentially breaks existing software into small pieces thatcan be delivered efficiently over a broadband network without affecting the underly-ing source code. In addition to being broken apart and then compressed, briqing alsoencrypts each CD-ROM file so that it can be delivered in a secure manner.

The second part of Into Networks solution addressed the latency issue. Oncebriqued, a copy of the encoded content is stored on each of Into Networks last-mile,RAFT (Random Access File Transfer) content servers located throughout the countryat broadband network head ends. This allows Into Networks to more efficientlystream software in real time. When an end user requests a particular CD-ROM title,the request goes to the local RAFT. Only executable and any other necessary files aredelivered at that time. Then, when the user has additional requirements, such as

I n t o N e t w o r k s

3 . 6 C A S E S T U D Y

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advancing to the next level of a game or utilizing a particular feature of a piece of soft-ware, that file is delivered. If a user repeats a request, the file is delivered either fromthe cache on the users machine or from the cache at the broadband head end. To theuser, the software appears to be running seamlessly.

Into Networks coupled its distributed content network with a centrally hostedsystem located on a secure server at its headquarters in Massachusetts. The centrallyhosted system provides a storefront that serves as the point of initial interaction withan end user, provides access to software titles, handles the authorization of end-useraccess to requested titles, and provides the e-commerce billing solution.

Even though it now has its technology in place, Into Networks faces many chal-lenges before its vision becomes a viable reality. It has inked alliances with most ofthe major distributors of cable and DSL broadband services. However, broadband serv-ice, though growing, is still only a very small piece of the overall Internet pie. Forinstance, as of 2001, there were only about 6 million homes in the United States withbroadband access, compared to 40 million with 56.6k or less dial-up service. Com-mentators point to a chicken and egg problem: It is hard to attract new broadband sub-scribers unless they can be offered content that is compelling and different, but untilbroadband achieves a higher penetration rate, it does not make economic sense to cre-

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SOURCES: Monetizing the Bits,by Vincent Grosso, InternetIndustry Magazine, Fall/Winter2000/2001; Games and Software:Flowing Streams, by Greg Frame,Streaming Media, October 12,2000; ASP Makes Play forConsumer Market, by Eric Ladley,ISP Business News, October 16,2000; A Software Tryout Servicefor Broadband Customers,Internet World, August 1, 2000;Subscription Software ServicesCould Reshape the Industry, WallStreet Journal, June 19, 2000.

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ate broadband content. Into Networks hopes to be a partial solution to that problemby allowing content providers to utilize existing content.

Convincing content providers to sign up is another challenge. The software rentaland subscription revenue models are new to the software industry. Software subscrip-tion prices are very low in order to attract subscribers, and about 20% of the monthlysoftware subscription revenue goes to the local broadband service owner. This does notleave much left over for the content providers. Software providers also must be assuredthat they will not cannibalize existing distribution channels by offering their softwareon a pay-per-play, rental, or subscription basis via Into Networks. So far, only around30 software publishers have signed up with Into Networks and have made approxi-mately 700 software titles available to subscribers, a mere drop in the bucket.

Attracting customers and getting them to pay is another issue. Overcoming the Iwant it free mentality is perhaps the greatest challenge Into Networks faces.

Case Study Questions

1. Why does Intro Networks need RAFT servers for interactive software content?

2. If you were a software content owner, would you sign up for the Into Networksolution? Why or why not?

3. Would you be willing to use Into Networks for software services such as wordprocessing or spreadsheet programs? How much would you be willing to paymonthly for access to a word processing or spreadsheet program?

4. If you were a venture capital investor, what factors would encourage you toinvest in Into Networks? What factors would discourage your investment?

K E Y C O N C E P T S

Discuss the origins of the Internet.

The Internet has evolved from a collection of mainframe computers located on afew U.S. college campuses to an interconnected network of thousands of networksand millions of computers worldwide.

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The history of the Internet can be divided into three phases: During the Innovation Phase (19611974), its purpose was to link researchers

nationwide via computer. During the Institutional Phase (19751995), the Department of Defense and

National Science Foundation provided funding to expand the fundamental build-ing blocks of the Internet into a complex military communications system andthen into a civilian system.

During the Commercialization Phase (1995 to the present), government agen-cies encouraged corporations to assume responsibility for further expansion ofthe network and private business began to exploit the Internet for commercialpurposes.

Relate the key technology concepts behind the Internet.

The Internets three key technology components are: Packet switching, which slices digital messages into packets, routes the packets

along different communication paths as they become available, and thenreassembles the packets once they arrive at their destination.

TCP/IP. TCP establishes the connections among sending and receiving Webcomputers and handles the assembly of packets at the point of transmission, aswell as their reassembly at the receiving end. IP provides the addressingscheme, enabling messages to arrive at the proper destination computer.

Client/server technology, which makes it possible for large amounts of informa-tion to be stored on Web servers and shared with individual users on their clientcomputers.

Describe the role of Internet protocols and utility programs.

Internet protocols and utility programs make the following Internet servicespossible: HTTP delivers requested Web pages, allowing users to view them. STMP and POP enable mail to be routed to a mail server and then picked up by

the recipients server, while IMAP enables mail to be sorted before being down-loaded by the recipient.

FTP is used to transfer files from servers to clients and vice versa. SSL ensures that information transmissions are encrypted. Telnet is a utility program that enables work to be done remotely. Finger is a utility program that allows you to find out who is logged onto a

remote network. Ping is a utility program that allows users to verify a connection between client

and server. Tracert lets you track the route a message takes from a client to a remote

computer.

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Explain the structure of the Internet today.

The main structural elements of the Internet are: The backbone, which is composed primarily of high-bandwidth fiber optic cable

operated by a variety of providers. NAPs and MAEs, which are hubs that use high-speed switching computers to

connect the backbone with regional and local networks. Campus networks, which are local area networks operating within a single organ-

ization that connect directly to regional networks. Internet Service Providers, which deal with the last mile of service to homes and

offices. ISPs offer a variety of types of service, ranging from dial-up service tobroadband DSL, cable modem, T1 and T3 lines, and satellite link service.

Understand the limitations of todays Internet.

To envision what the Internet of tomorrow Internet II will look like, we mustfirst look at the limitations of todays Internet. Bandwidth limitations: Todays Internet is slow and incapable of effectively shar-

ing and displaying large files, such as video and voice files. Quality of service limitations: Data packets dont all arrive in the correct order, at

the same moment, causing latency; latency creates jerkiness in video files andvoice messages.

Network architecture limitations: Servers cant keep up with demand. Futureimprovements to Internet infrastructure will improve the way servers processrequests for information, thus improving overall speed.

Language development limitations: The nature of HTML restricts the quality ofrich information that can be shared online. Future languages will enableimproved display and viewing of video and graphics.

Describe the potential capabilities of Internet II.

Internet2 is a consortium working together to develop and test new technologies forpotential use on the Internet. Internet2 participants are working in a number ofareas, including advanced network infrastructure; new networking capabilities; middleware; and advanced applications that incorporate audio and video to create new services.

In addition to the Internet2 project, other groups are working to expand Internetbandwidth via improvements to fiber optic technologies and through photonicstechnologies such as Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, optical and fiberswitches, optical switching components, optical integrated circuits, and optical net-works. Wireless Web and 3G technologies will provide users of cellular phones andPDAs with increased access to the Internet and its various services. The increased


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bandwidth and expanded connections of the Internet II era will result in a numberof benefits, including IP multicasting, which will enable more efficient delivery of data; latency solutions such as diffserve (differentiated quality of service), which

assigns levels of priority to packets based on the type of data being transmitted; guaranteed service levels; lower error rates; and declining costs.

Understand how the World Wide Web works.

The Web was developed during 19891991 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee, who created acomputer program that allowed formatted pages stored on the Internet to be linkedusing keywords (hyperlinks). In 1993, Marc Andreesen created the first graphicalWeb browser, which made it possible to view documents on the Web graphically andcreated the possibility of universal computing. The key concepts you need to befamiliar with in order to understand how the Web works are the following: Hypertext, which is a way of formatting pages with embedded links that connect

documents to one another and that also link pages

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