Internet Research

[michael85]

Hi im new and not really sure if this i the right section but here goes anyway, im trying to do some research into the various types of network which are used to carry internet traffic within the uk does anyone have any knowledge of this kind of stuff or would they be able to point me in the right direction, cheers in advance.

Michael

[dhicks]

> im trying to do some research into the various types of network which
> are used to carry internet traffic within the uk does anyone have any
> knowledge of this kind of stuff or would they be able to point me in the
> right direction, cheers in advance.

Do you mean you need to know more about the different types of network connections available, or you want an actual statistical breakdown of each type of cable used?

For information on networking standards, Wikipedia is probably a good place to start. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol for the section on the Internet protocol. You'll be interested in the links to information about layer 1 & 2 protocols (i.e. the stuff that underpins what IP traffic is sent over). In my day, the standard introductory computer science text on networking was "Computer Networks" by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, it might be worth getting this from a library (if nothing else it'll look good in your appendix of references). You might also want to look up the OSI networking model, just for completeness.

A statistical breakdown of each connection and what type of cabling/protocol it uses might be tricky to come by. I reckon your best bet is to check Google Images for "intenet map" or similar, I know I've seen a couple of projects where people have attempted to render "the Internet" in 2D or 3D.

--
David Hicks