We are aware how the Internet works, atleast the basic working! For the information to reach us, it should travel a long way from the Servers. As a medium between us and the servers, there is Internet Service Provider(ISP). Across the globe, these ISPs may be connected to some higher level ISP that is with higher bandwidth. But what is the top of all these from where the data is actually transmitted from? The answer is Internet Backbone.

Alike the functionality of human backbone sending the instincts or responses or guidelines, this Internet backbone helps in the transmission. The definition goes this way… Internet Backbone is one of the connections between the larger interconnected networks. These are generally owned by Tier 1 (T1) companies such as AT&T, Reliance, Tata Communications, CenturyLink, Cogent Communications, Global Telecom and Technology (GTT), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Communications, Sprint, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telia Carrier, and Verizon, etc.

Heads up!! History ahead.

In the earlier days, there were only a few supercomputers that assist scientists for their research in U.S. But there were no sufficient funding to provide supercomputers to all the scientists who require those. They thought of a way to share the resources and the articles published by scientists to coordinate and promote the researches. So, as a step to solve their discomfort, U.S. (Dennis Jennings) had developed an Internet backbone known as NSFNET since it was funded by U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). This backbone connected five supercomputer centers:

• John Von Neumann Computing Center at Princeton University
• San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University
• Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), joint projects operated by Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh and Westinghouse.

NSFNET was upgraded to 1.5 Mbps and recorded a traffic growth rate of 20% per month. By 1992, NSFNET transferred 12 billions packets of traffic per month, by December of the same year NSFNET was upgraded to T3. It had a capacity of 44.736 Mbps. By 1994, NSFNET recorded a monthly traffic level of 10 trillion bytes.

The NSF decided to transfer the operations of NSFNET to the private sector in the midst of the rapid growth of the network. Four Network Access Points (NAPs) were developed for commercial backbones with 155 Mbps which were operated by Sprint, Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS), Ameritech and Pacific Bell (now AT&T). NSFNET was officially dissolved on October 30, 1995, however, a very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) was already in place for the use by selected researchers.

EOH (End of History)!!

A backbone is a high-speed wide area network (WAN) connecting lower speed networks. A country typically has several backbones linking all of its Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Finally, national backbones interconnect in a mesh with other countries, usually with international trunk lines via land, undersea, or satellite. Apart from being physically connected, these backbone providers are held together by a shared network protocol, TCP/IP. 

Network in India:

India is connected to the world from Mumbai, Cochin, Chennai, and Tuticorin. Our International traffic is driven from these port cities.

The place where the international cables connect to the land is called landing stations.

• Tata Communications owns 3 landing stations at Mumbai, Chennai, and Cochin.
• Bharti Airtel owns 2 landings stations at Chennai and 1 at Mumbai.
• Reliance Globalcom owns 1 landing station at Mumbai.
• Sify Technologies owns 1 landing station at Mumbai.
• VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) owns 1 landing station at Tuticorin connecting to Srilanka.

On the eastern side, we are connected to Singapore from Chennai. On the western side, we are connected through cables connecting UAE and Mumbai. And, on the southern side, we are connected to the cables coming from South Africa.

Handing over of traffic from one network to another is called peering.

Neologism and Related Terms:

• Tier 1: These are the companies that have a global network, connecting so many cables around the world that they don’t need to pay anyone any fee to access any destination on the internet.
• Tier 2: These are companies that have regional networks and are usually connected to one or more tier-1 networks. They have to pay a fee to access the tier-1 company’s network. In India, we have many Tier 2 ISPs such as Vodafone, Easynet, etc. and they handle state or multi state level of connectivity.
• Tier 3: These are the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from whom we buy our broadband connections like Airtel, Jio, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), etc. They are the last tier, connecting the internet to the end-users.
• Supercomputer: These are the high performance computers than the one we use personally. They are usually used for faster speeds and for holding larger databases. In India, we have Pratyush and Mihir Supercomputers on the World’s Top 500.
• Undersea Cables or Submarine Internet Cables: These are the fiber optical cables that are laid on the bed of the sea, commonly under the large water bodies, to carry the telecommunication signals across the stretch of the oceans and seas.
• Wide Area Network (WAN): These are the higher level for the Local Area Networks that extend over large geographical area to provide high speed network.

References:

• More about Internet Backbone.
• Internet in India.
• India to build 11 more supercomputers- Read the News.
• Pratyush and Mihir Supercomputers.
• Submarine Cables

That is all about the backbone supporting the world. Stay connected with Internet and us for more interesting information. Have a safe and healthy learning. Reach us for any queries and suggestions!

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