How the Internet works… and why!

Asia Pacific Internet Leadership Program Delhi

3 August 2014

Internet Fundamentals

• What is the Internet?

• Layers and standards

• Internet Addressing

• … Naming

• … Governance

• … Issues and Challenges

What is the Internet?

• “A network of networks”– … using IP, the Internet Protocol?

• A collection of useful online applications– … connected by competing service providers?

• A platform for innovation– … and for social and economic development?

• A borderless “Cyberspace”– … inhabited by free-roaming netizens?

• A critical global infrastructure– … and enabler of e-commerce, e-governance, e-citizenship… ?

How did we get here…

• Initially, research project (70-80s)– Open, cooperative, public domain– Highly collaborative environment– “Rough consensus and running code”

• Then, product of liberalisation (90s)– Also, catalyst for deregulation– Highly competitive environment– Still free to join and use

• Now, public utility and critical infrastructure (2000 and beyond)– Internet governance (re-regulation?) is a recent afterthought

4

5

– and many more: Novell, Microsoft etc etc etc

• User choices determined by vendor

• Proprietary systems

• Limited interconnection

Before the Internet…

Applications

Network

OS

Hardware

Applications

Network

OS

Hardware

Applications

Network

OS

Hardware

So, Why is the Internet?

• Global– “End-to-End”– Uniform

• “Dumb”– Lightweight and efficient– Intelligence at the edges, in applications and devices

• Neutral– By default

• Open– No/Low barrier to entry– Free standards– Multistakeholder governance (MOTL)

LayersandStandards

Layers – in the telephone network

Wires

Exchanges

Devices

Layers – according to ISO OSI

7: Application

6: Presentation

5: Session

4: Transport

3: Network

2: Link

1: Physical

Layers – in practice

Phone/Fax/SMSTV/VOD/conf“The Internet”

Applications

Fixed, Dialup/ISDNMobile/2G

Cable/ADSLInfrastructure

Vo

ice

Vid

eoD

ataNetwork

Layers – in the Internet

11

Voice, email, IMVideo, TV, conf

WWW, +++DNS

Applications

802.11x/WiMaxMobile/4G/LTECable/xDSLxFTTH, ETTH

InfrastructureIn

tern

et

Network

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So, what is a standard?

• Standards operate at different levels of the protocol stack– In fact they define the protocol stack

• A standard (or protocol) is simply an agreement– among members of a community,– on a set of guidelines or rules,– which allow cooperation (interoperability), – and often, agreed by a recognised standards body such as ISO, ITU,

W3C or IETF.

• An open standard is a standard which is– Developed through open and accessible processes – Freely accessible, implementable and usable– Available without barriers such as licenses and fees.– … “ideally”, at least.

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Communications standardsMust agree on:language, medium…

The Internet

Telco

Telco

TelcoTelco

ISP ISPISP

DNS

RIR

DNS

Let’s use the Internet!

?

More layers…

Internet Addresses

What’s an IP Address?

• The fundamental Internet address– Every address must be unique within the network– Every device must have an address– Every network must have a block (or more) or addresses

• A finite “Common Resource”– Managed in the common interest– According to openly-defined policies

• Please learn to distinguish:– Domain names (eg rigf.asia)– Email addresses (eg pwilson@apnic.net)– and IP and Intellectual Property

IP Addresses in use…

Traffic202.12.29.0/24

The InternetGlobal Routing Table

4.128/960.100/1660.100.0/20135.22/16…

Global Routing Table

4.128/960.100/1660.100.0/20135.22/16

202.12.29.0/24…

Announce202.12.29.0/24 202.12.29.0/24

R

Internet Address Routing

The Internet

Net

Net

Net

NetNet

NetNet

Net

Net

Net

Net

Global Routing Table

4.128/960.100/1660.100.0/20135.22/16…

Global Routing Table – IPv4

http://bgp.potaroo.net/as1221/bgp-active.html

Where do IP Addresses come from?

Definition

Allocation

Allocation

Assignment End user

RIRs

Regional Internet Registries

Issues

IPv4 vs IPv6

• IPv4 – 32-bit* number: 232 = ~4 billion addresses– Example: 202.12.29.142– Existing supply is very nearly exhausted

• IPv6– 128-bit* number: 2128 = 340 billion billion billion billion – Example: FE38:DCE3:124C:C1A2:BA03:6735:EF1C:683D– Existing supply should/must last for many decades

• The transition– Underway since 2000– Much slower than expected– Not really necessary while IPv4 addresses available

* bit = binary digit

Why IPv6?

• IPv4 address supply is exhausted– New networks require addresses– Stop-gap measures are damaging

• The Internet is growing fast– Broadband, mobile, Internet of Things

• IPv6 is the only viable option we have now– Much larger address space than IPv4– Enable sustainable growth of the Internet– Support the emergence of new technologies

IPv4 exhaustion

http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/

Private addresses and NAT

10.0.0.1 ..2 ..3 ..4

ISP202.12.29.0/24

The Internet

202.12.29.1 … .2 … .3 … .4

*AKA home router, hotspot, etc

NAT*202.12.29.32

Private addresses and NAT

Internet

10.0.0.202

202.12.29.32

NAT

?Extn 202

Phone Network

02 6262 9898

PABX

IPv6 Deployment (Google)

https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html

Global Routing Table – IPv6

http://bgp.potaroo.net/v6/as2.0/

IPv6 readiness

http://6lab.cisco.com/stats/index.php

Global IPv6 deployment leaders

ASN Entity Economy IPv6 preferred rate

22394 Cellco Verizon Wireless US 63.396848 Telenet N.V BE 45.7310091 StarHub Cable Vision Ltd SG 43.4818126 CTCX Chubu Telecommunications Company; Inc. JP 37.7231334 Kabel Deutschland Vertrieb und Service GmbH DE 34.782516 KDDI KDDI CORPORATION JP 30.293303 Swisscom Ltd CH 27.0029562 Kable BW GmbH DE 25.8855430 STARHUBINTERNET-AS-NGNBN Starhub Internet Pte Ltd SG 24.9321928 T-Mobile USA US 24.8141164 GET Norway NO 20.387018 AT&T US 20.3612322 Free SAS FR 19.897922 Comcast Cable Communications US 19.834739 INTERNODE-AS Internode Pty Ltd AU 19.37

http://labs.apnic.net/ipv6-measurement/AS/ 24/06/2014

Internet Exchange Points

ISP

ISP

IXP $$$!

The Internet

Internet Exchange Points

ISP

ISP

The Internet

ISP

Local servicesDNS root serversData centres etc

ISP

ISP

ISP

Names

193.0.6.148

196.216.2.12001:42d0::200:2:1

192.149.252.752001:500:4:13::80

2001:13c7:7002:4000::10

202.12.29.211

2001:610:240:22::c100:68b

212.110.167.1572001:41c8:20::19

192.0.32.72620:0:2d0:200::7

People like names…

nixi.in

rigf.asia

www.google.com

twitter.com

www.apnic.net

Intgovforum.org

www.isoc.org

www.icann.org

Domain Name System

• Converts domain names to IP addresses– Like a phone book– A “critical infrastructure service” on the Internet– A specialised database service, essentially

• Highly distributed and reliable– Distributed servers– Distributed administration– Distributed authority (through “delegation”)– Redundancy/secondary services, caching etc– Security deployment via DNSSEC

Using the DNS

The Internet

www.apnic.net

www.apnic.net?

202.12.29.1942001:dc0:2001:11::211

DNS

2001:0C00:8888:: 2001:dc0:2001:11::211

DNS name hierarchy

whois

www

www www

www

.The “root”

net

org

com

asia

in

… …TLDs

apnic

iana

….

rigf

nixiSLDs

www.rigf.asia.

Domain name resolution

.rigf.asiaserver

.asiaserver

www.edu.auserver

Rootserver

198.41.0.4

www.rigf.asia?

“Ask 128.250.1.21”

“Ask 8.50.200.5”

“Ask 132.234.1.1”

“132.234.250.31”

“132.234.250.31”

www.rigf.asia?

Localresolver

www.rigf.asia?

210.80.58.34

132.234.250.31

*All IP addresses are fabricated

What’s in a nameserver?

• Authority for a particular zone eg “rigf.asia”

• The “zonefile” for that zone

• Zonefile records including– A: www = “203.12.45.91” (IPv4 address for this name)– AAAA: www = “2001:FC03::203:EFEF” (IPv6 address)– NS: www = “220.35.35.1” (delegation to another server)

• In real life, much more than this– Caches of recent queries– Secondary (backup) server configurations– Configuration and tuning settings– Many more record types– Replication using the “anycast” technique

What’s in a root nameserver?

• The all-important “root zone file”

• Delegation records for all TLDs– gTLDs such as: .com .org .asia etc– ccTLDs such as: .in .us .cn .ch .tv etc– IDN TLDs: . 网络 (Wǎngluò for net) and . 公司 (Gōngsī for com)

• Actually, there are 13 distinct root operations– Most have a different operator– Named A, B, C, … L and M– Each can have multiple secondaries– Each can have many “anycast” copies/clones/instances– Now there are many hundreds of individual root servers globally

Authority in the DNS

• Root zone– Managed by ICANN under USG authority– New TLDs can be created under new ICANN framework

• TLDs – gTLDs and ccTLDs– Authority is delegated technically by ICANN– gTLDs to nonprofit and commercial Registry organisations– ccTLDs to authorities specified (mainly) by National administrations– Registry authorities may rely on technical service providers

• SLDs and below– In general, under sole authority of the TLD– Some have “open second level”– Some have .com .edu .org etc; some have .co .ac .or etc

Internet Governance

What is Internet Governance?

• Any aspect of the Internet which requires regulation, coordination or oversight– Cybercrime, security, spam, phishing, hacking– Content regulation– Commerce, competition, trade and taxation– Intellectual property– Development and education, capacity building– Equity of access– Technical standards and coordination

• None of these are completely new– Most fall under existing governance systems

“Content Layer”

“Code Layer” “Physical Layer”

DiploFoundation www.diplomacy.edu Lawrence Lessig www.lessig.org

Internet Governance

“The Internet tradition”

• For thirty years, the Internet and its coordination structures have evolved hand-in-hand– Open, bottom-up processes

• Successes recognised in WSIS– “Internet Governance”– “Multistakeholder Model”– These things were discovered, not invented, by WSIS

• Internet Governance is now a critical issue– “Multistakeholder” vs intergovernmental approaches– But continuous improvement/evolution will continue– Discussions will go on for many years…

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Internet Governance Forum

• The multistakeholder model in action– Open discussions that can help inform policy making on all aspects

of Internet governance– “For decision makers not for decision making”

• Regional IGFs– Delhi, August 2014

• Global IGFs– Istanbul, September 2014

• National events too– IN,BD, AU, NZ…

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Internet technical coordination

• A.K.A. the “code layer” (Lessig)

• One aspect of Internet governance– Internet standards development–DNS administration–DNS infrastructure coordination– IP address and related resource management

• Includes activities of several types–Administrative –Operational–Standards and technical policy– Internet address management (RIRs)

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Regional Internet Registries

RIR Policy Process

OPEN

TRANSPARENT‘BOTTOM UP’

Anyone can participate

All processes documented and freely available

Internet community proposes and approves policy

OPEN

TRANSPARENT‘BOTTOM UP’

RIR Policy Process

Need

Discuss

ConsensusImplement

Evaluate

Other communities

• Technical standards– Internet Engineering Task Force– “RFC” series of documents

• Names– Registries, Registrars, Business, Individual users– GNSO, ccNSO (and other CCs)

• Numbers– Number Resource Organisation (umbrella for RIRs)– ASO for global policy coordination

• ICANN– Umbrella for coordination of names and numbers (mostly names)

That’s all, folks!

Internet Fundamentals – Recap

• What is the Internet?– Why is is successful?– What are we taking for granted?

• Layers and Standards– Essential concepts, from the cables to the politics

• Internet Addressing and Naming– The critical technical resources of the Internet– Technical factors must be understood

• Internet Governance– Intrinsic to the the Internet’s success– Will continue while the Internet keeps growing and changing!

Questions?

Thank you

dg@apnic.net