An Introduction to IP Networks The Internet is believed by many to have initiated a revolution that will be as far reaching as the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, as the collapse of many ‘’ companies has proven, it is not easy to predict what impact the Internet will have on the future. In part, these problems can be seen to be those normally associated with such a major revolution. | IP for 3G Networking Technologies for Mobile Communications Authored by Dave Wisely Phil Eardley Louise Burness Copyright 2002 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-471-48697-3 Hardback 0-470-84779-4 Electronic 3 An Introduction to IP Networks Introduction The Internet is believed by many to have initiated a revolution that will be as far reaching as the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. However as the collapse of many companies has proven it is not easy to predict what impact the Internet will have on the future. In part these problems can be seen to be those normally associated with such a major revolution. Or perhaps the collapses were simply triggered by the move of the Internet from primarily a government funded university research network to commercial enterprise and the associated realisation that the Internet is not free . Thus whilst the Internet is widely acknowledged to have significantly changed computing multimedia and telecommunications it is not clear how these technologies will evolve and merge in the future. It is not clear how companies will be able to charge to cover the costs of providing Internet connectivity or for the services provided over the Internet. What is clear is that the Internet has already changed many sociological cultural and business models and the rate of change is still increasing. Despite all this uncertainty the Internet has been widely accepted by users and has inspired programmers to develop a wide range of innovative applications. It provides a communications mechanism that can operate over different access technologies enabling the underlying technology to be upgraded without impacting negatively on users and their applications. The Inter-Networking functionality that it provides overcomes many of the technical problems of traditional telecommunications which related to inter-working different network technologies. By distinguishing between the network and the services that may be provided .
