Internet Hardware
Summary
TLDRThis video script offers a comprehensive overview of the Internet's hardware infrastructure, explaining how networks are interconnected through physical systems. It clarifies that the Internet is a vast network of routers, not a single entity, and delves into how data is transmitted via electricity, light, and radio waves. The script also touches on crucial concepts like bandwidth, bitrate, and latency, which are essential for understanding data transmission speeds and delays. By simplifying complex technical details, the script aims to make the functioning of the Internet more accessible.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The Internet is a network of networks, connecting individual networks through a vast system of routers.
- 💻 A network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together for data exchange.
- 🔌 To scale networks beyond simple connections, routers are used as middlemen to manage data traffic.
- 🏠 For small networks like homes or schools, a single router can manage connections, but for larger networks, multiple routers are required.
- 🌐 The Internet is not a single router but a massive network of interconnected routers, each only connected to a few others.
- 📡 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide the routers that individual networks connect to, like Comcast or AT&T.
- 🔢 Data is transmitted across the Internet as digital information, represented as a series of zeros and ones.
- 💡 The physical representation of these zeros and ones can be through electricity (Ethernet cables), light (fiber-optic cables), or radio waves (Wi-Fi, cellular).
- 🚀 Fiber-optic cables are used for long-distance data transmission due to their ability to cover vast distances with minimal signal degradation.
- 📶 Radio waves facilitate wireless communication, used in Wi-Fi and cellular networks, but are limited by short transmission distances.
- 🕒 Latency is a critical factor in network performance, referring to the time it takes for a bit to travel from sender to receiver, with fiber-optic cables offering the lowest latency.
Q & A
What is the Internet?
-The Internet is a network that connects individual networks, allowing for the exchange of information between devices.
What is a network?
-A network is a group of two or more computer systems that are linked together, enabling the sharing of information.
Why is it impractical to connect every device directly to every other device?
-Directly connecting every device to every other device is not scalable due to the exponential increase in connections required as the number of devices grows.
What is a router and how does it simplify network connections?
-A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between devices connected to it. It simplifies connections by allowing each device to connect to a single router instead of every other device.
How does the Internet handle connections between many local networks?
-The Internet connects many local networks by using a vast network of interconnected routers, where each router is connected to only a few others.
What is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and what role do they play?
-An Internet Service Provider is a company that provides access to the Internet by offering routers for individual networks to connect to. Examples include Comcast and AT&T.
How is information represented and sent across the Internet?
-Information is represented as binary code, using zeros and ones, which are then sent across the network using various physical methods.
What are the three main methods used to send information from one computer to another?
-The three main methods are using electricity (e.g., Ethernet cables), light (e.g., fiber optic cables), and radio waves (e.g., Wi-Fi and cellular networks).
Why is it necessary to use a clock in digital communication?
-A clock is used to synchronize the sending and receiving of bits, ensuring that the sender and receiver agree on the timing of bit transmission to avoid data corruption.
What is bandwidth and how is it measured?
-Bandwidth is the capacity of data transfer in a system, measured by bitrate, which is the number of bits that a system can send in one second.
What is latency and why is it important in networks?
-Latency is the time it takes for a single bit to travel from the sender to the receiver. Low latency is desirable for fast and efficient network communication.
Outlines
🌐 Understanding the Internet's Hardware
This paragraph introduces the concept of the Internet as a network of networks, connecting individual computer systems through various hardware systems. It explains the scalability issue with direct connections between computers and how routers act as middlemen to efficiently manage data transmission. The discussion then moves to the Internet's structure, which is a vast system of interconnected routers rather than a single entity. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the role of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in providing access points for local networks to connect to the global Internet. The core functionality of the Internet is described as the transmission of digital information, encoded as binary data (zeros and ones), highlighting the use of electricity, light, and radio waves as the primary methods for sending bits across the network.
🚀 Exploring Data Transmission Methods
This paragraph delves into the three main methods of data transmission over the Internet: electricity, light, and radio waves. It explains how Ethernet cables use electrical signals to represent binary data, with high and low voltages for zeros and ones, respectively. The use of fiber optic cables for long-distance data transmission through light signals is discussed, emphasizing their high cost and effectiveness over vast distances. The paragraph also covers the use of radio waves for wireless communication, as seen in Wi-Fi and cellular networks, which have the advantage of wireless connectivity but are limited by short transmission ranges. The concept of a 'clock' is introduced to synchronize bit transmission and reception, ensuring data integrity. The importance of bandwidth and bitrate in determining data transfer speed is highlighted, with examples provided to illustrate the difference between low and high bandwidth scenarios. Lastly, the paragraph introduces the concept of latency, which is the time taken for a bit to travel from sender to receiver, and how it varies with the transmission medium used.
🌌 The Physical Backbone of the Internet
In this concluding paragraph, the focus is on the physical infrastructure that enables the Internet to function. It summarizes the key points discussed in the previous paragraphs, emphasizing that the Internet relies on a combination of electrical, optical, and wireless technologies to transmit data across the globe. The paragraph reiterates that the Internet is built on a foundation of physical hardware, which includes the various methods of sending bits—through electrical currents in Ethernet cables, light pulses in fiber optic cables, and radio waves in Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The summary reinforces the idea that the Internet's global reach is made possible by the sophisticated interplay of these technologies, which work together to send and receive data across vast distances.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Internet
💡Network
💡Router
💡Bandwidth
💡Bitrate
💡Latency
💡Electricity
💡Light
💡Radio Waves
💡Encoding
Highlights
The Internet is a network that connects individual networks.
A network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together.
Connecting every pair of computers in a network is not scalable for large numbers of devices.
Routers act as middlemen to forward requests in a network.
The Internet is a massive network of interconnected routers.
Routers in the Internet are not connected to every single other router, only a few.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide routers for individual networks to connect to the Internet.
Data transmission in the Internet involves encoding information into zeros and ones.
Electricity is used to send bits through Ethernet cables.
Light is used in fiber optic cables for long-distance data transmission.
Radio waves enable wireless data transmission through Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
A clock is introduced to synchronize bit sending and recording to prevent data loss.
Bandwidth is the capacity of data transfer in a system, measured by bitrate.
Latency is the time it takes for a bit to travel from sender to receiver.
Fiber optic cables offer the best latency due to the speed of light.
Ethernet connections are typically shorter and have higher latency compared to fiber optics.
The physical systems of the Internet include hardware for sending bits using electricity, light, and radio waves.
Transcripts
hi in this video we'll be learning about
the hardware of the Internet
the physical systems that the Internet
is built on so what is the Internet well
the Internet is a network that connects
individual networks what do I mean when
I say network
well introducing networks so a network
is a group of two or more computer
systems that are somehow linked together
so let's look at a simple network here
we have two computers and they share a
link that just means we can get
information from this computer send it
over the link and it is received on this
computer so that's great that's a simple
network it's two computers that are
connected now what happens when we have
four computers how can we connect all of
these well one solution is to simply
connect every pair of computers so now
each computer shares a link with every
other computer now this works but the
problem is this is not scalable when we
get to the point where we have hundreds
thousands millions of devices it's not
realistic for every device to have a
link to every single other device so the
solution is to introduce a middleman we
call it a router so in this scenario
each device only needs one connection it
needs to connect to the router then the
router takes care of actually forwarding
each request to the intended recipient
so if the top left computer wanted to
send a message to the bottom left
computer it would tell the router that
and the router would forward along that
message and this system is great for
small simple networks a single router
can connect computers that are close
together either in one room or in one
building now the problem is there exists
several of these small simple networks
and we need to be able to connect them
to each other so let's say one of these
is your home one of these is your school
and one of these is a coffee shop and we
need the ability for two computers in
separate local networks to send messages
to each other so the solution there is
to add another router that connects each
of the routers now there exists a path
from a computer in one network all the
way to a computer in a separate Network
now this solution is good for a small
number of simple networks but the
problem is once we have too many simple
networks one router can't handle it it's
too much so now we get to the Internet
now the Internet is not one big router
that connects all the individual
networks the internet is actually itself
massive network of routers and each
router is not connected to every single
other router it's only connected to a
few of them so it ends up being this
complicated interconnected system of
routers so that way when these
individual tiny networks say a house or
a coffee shop wants to connect to the
Internet it just needs to pick one
router and connect to it and so these
routers that the individual networks
connect to are provided by what's called
an Internet service provider so someone
like Comcast or AT&T now we don't really
have to worry about what's going on
inside this crazy network of routers
right now we're only worried about how
data is being transmitted in the
individual networks so for now let's
just abstract all that away call it the
Internet and just know that it is a
massive network that connects these
individual simple networks so that's
what we mean when we say that the
Internet is a network connecting
individual networks it is a big network
of routers that just has these endpoints
that you can connect to so really what
we're concerned with is sending
information that is the core
functionality of the Internet we want to
be able to get this smiley face from the
computer on the left all the way to the
computer on the right but what's
actually happening there we're not
actually sending a physical smiley face
across the network instead we're gonna
use the power of digital information
we're gonna use the power of encoding to
represent any information we want to
send as zeros and ones and that's what
we send across the network so what a
symbolic level the Internet is really
just a way to get zeros and ones from
point A to point B but the physical
level how is that actually happening how
can we represent a zero and one inside
the network this is where the internet
hardware comes in so we mainly use three
methods to send information from one
computer to the other and those three
methods are electricity light and radio
so how do we send bits with electricity
so you may have seen Ethernet cables and
Ethernet cables are simply copper wires
that were able to hook up to a computer
and send electricity through so the pros
of sending bits of electricity is that
it's cheap and the cons in that it only
covers medium distances we're not able
to send bits very far on an electric
cable before the signal starts to fade
it's the physical way that we send bits
using electricity is we just set the
wire to be a high voltage to represent
a1 and we set the wire to have a low
voltage
to represent zero and just switching off
between high and low voltages these
computers are able to tell whether a
zero or a one is being sent how about
sending bits with light well to do that
we use fiber optic cables and these are
the big guns these are the connections
that are going across oceans going
across continents most of the distance
covered on the Internet is through fiber
optic cables so the pros to fiber optic
cables is they can travel very long
distances they can travel across the
floor of the ocean the cons is that very
expensive this is why you're not really
going to use it for your home network or
for your coffee shop instead this is
what the Internet service providers are
using to transfer information between
the Internet routers so how do we
physically send bits with light well all
we have to do is set the connection to
have a bright light for one and a dim
light or no light for zero so the
computers can simply look at the state
of the connection and if it's bright
it's a 1 and if it's dim it's a zero how
about radio waves so how do devices send
bits using radio waves well real life
examples of sending bits with radio
waves include a Wi-Fi router which you
probably have in your home or your
school and a cell tower so this is what
cell phones are using to send bits
through the air using radio waves so the
pros with radio waves are that it's
wireless the cons are that it only
covers a very short distance you have to
be pretty close to a cell tower or to a
Wi-Fi router in order for your signal to
be picked up so how do radio waves
physically send zeros and ones well if a
computer wants to send a 1 it just
produces a high frequency wave so the
wave is very tight and close together if
it wants to send a 0 produces a low
frequency wave so the wave is really far
apart so those are the three main ways
that we send bits using computers let's
look an example of how a short message
is sent over a connection this
connection is purely symbolic
it could be just light it could be just
radio wave it could be a combination of
them in some way these two computers are
connected and they are able to set the
state of that connection to a 1 or a 0
so let's send the one that could either
mean a high frequency wave or a high
voltage but this computer sends the 1
and computer notices and says hey I see
a 1 then it sends a 0 it notices and
sees a zero changes it to 1 the computer
on the right notices and receives a 1
and then it sends a 0 and the computer
on the right receives a 0 perfect
we have a message that was reliably sent
from one computer to another what
happens though if we have three zeros in
a row in this case we can set the wire
to a one and the computer notices and
records a one now we set it to a zero
and then we set it to zero again and
then we set it to zero again since there
was no change in the wire the computer
didn't know to record any bit finally we
send that last one and the message
received is different from the message
sent this is a problem so to fix this we
introduce a clock with this clock both
computers can agree to send and record
bits at the same rate so let's say we're
gonna send a bit per second now one
second goes by and we set it to a one
another second goes by and the wire is
set to a zero another second and it's
still zero it records a new bit another
second goes by records a new bit and
lastly sets it to a one and we are able
to receive the full message now the
problem is one bit per second is
incredibly slow
luckily computers can move a lot faster
than one bit per second so if we want to
download a song or a video or a program
in a matter of seconds or minutes we
need to increase our bandwidth so
introducing bandwidth bandwidth is the
capacity of data transfer in a system
and it is measured by bitrate so you can
think of bandwidth as the speed of data
transfer in the network and it's
measured by bitrate bitrate is the
number of bits that a system can send in
one second so an example of low
bandwidth might be something like we
just saw one bit per second if we want a
really high bandwidth we got to increase
it up to five megabits per second and
that's actually pretty reasonable
several networks have at least five
megabits per second as a bitrate there's
one more important term when we're
talking about networks and sending data
and that is latency so latency is the
time it takes for a single bit to get
from sender to receiver now when it
comes to late and see we want low
latency if we have a low latency that is
a very fast connection now fiber optic
cable has the best latency because it's
using light and so it's traveling close
to the speed of light using a fiber
optic cable one bit can travel a full
kilometer in only five microseconds
with Ethernet on the other hand takes
about 300 microseconds to travel one
kilometer and we should note that
Ethernet connections are typically
shorter than one kilometer but should
the connection be one kilometer that
is how long a bit would take to travel
so to recap a network is simply a group
of two or more computers that are
somehow connected and they're typically
connected through routers and what do
these connections look like how do
computers actually send bits from one
computer to the other well one way is
electricity for example Ethernet another
way is light for example two fiber-optic
cables and lastly we can use radio and
this is what's being used in Wi-Fi and
cellular no matter the connection all
you're doing is sending bits and it can
be through radio waves it can be through
voltages it can be through lights but
that is what it boils down to is that
you are encoding the information you
want to send in bits sending it over the
network and then the zeros and ones will
be reconstructed to produce the original
data at the other end also to recap
three important terms we have bandwidth
and that is the capacity of data
transfer in a system and that is
measured by bitrate bitrate is the
number of bits that a system can send in
one second and that can range from bits
per second to kilobits per second
megabits per second even gigabits per
second and last we have latency and
latency is the time it takes for a bit
to get from a sender to the receiver and
that largely depends on the material
that is being sent through and so these
are the physical systems that the
internet is built upon this is the
physical hardware that is used to send
bits across the globe
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