Commercial Internet eXchange
Early research and development:
- 1960–1964: RAND networking concepts developed
- 1962–1964: ARPA networking ideas
- 1965 (1965): NPL network concepts conceived
- 1966 (1966): Merit Network founded
- 1967 (1967): ARPANET planning begins
- 1967 (1967): Symposium on Operating Systems Principles
- 1969 (1969): NPL followed by the ARPANET carry their first packets
- 1970 (1970): Network Information Center (NIC)
- 1971 (1971): Tymnet switched-circuit network
- 1972 (1972): Merit Network's packet-switched network operational
- 1972 (1972): Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) established
- 1973 (1973): CYCLADES network demonstrated
- 1973 (1973): PARC Universal Packet development begins
- 1974 (1974): Transmission Control Program specification published
- 1975 (1975): Telenet commercial packet-switched network
- 1976 (1976): X.25 protocol approved and deployed on public data networks
- 1978 (1978): Minitel introduced
- 1979 (1979): Internet Activities Board (IAB)
- 1980 (1980): USENET news using UUCP
- 1980 (1980): Ethernet standard introduced
- 1981 (1981): BITNET established
Merging the networks and creating the Internet:
- 1981 (1981): Computer Science Network (CSNET)
- 1982 (1982): TCP/IP protocol suite formalized
- 1982 (1982): Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
- 1983 (1983): Domain Name System (DNS)
- 1983 (1983): MILNET split off from ARPANET
- 1984 (1984): OSI Reference Model released
- 1985 (1985): First .COM domain name registered
- 1986 (1986): NSFNET with 56 kbit/s links
- 1986 (1986): Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
- 1987 (1987): UUNET founded
- 1988 (1988): NSFNET upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s (T1)
- 1988 (1988): Morris worm
- 1988 (1988): Complete Internet protocol suite
- 1989 (1989): Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
- 1989 (1989): PSINet founded, allows commercial traffic
- 1989 (1989): Federal Internet Exchanges (FIX East|FIXes)
- 1990 (1990): GOSIP (without TCP/IP)
- 1990 (1990): ARPANET decommissioned
- 1990 (1990): Advanced Network and Services (ANS)
- 1990 (1990): UUNET/Alternet allows commercial traffic
- 1990 (1990): Archie search engine
- 1991 (1991): Wide area information server (WAIS)
- 1991 (1991): Gopher
- 1991 (1991): Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX)
- 1991 (1991): ANS CO+RE allows commercial traffic
- 1991 (1991): World Wide Web (WWW)
- 1992 (1992): NSFNET upgraded to 45 Mbit/s (T3)
- 1992 (1992): Internet Society (ISOC) established
- 1993 (1993): Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
- 1993 (1993): InterNIC established
- 1993 (1993): AOL added USENET access
- 1993 (1993): Mosaic web browser released
- 1994 (1994): Full text web search engines
- 1994 (1994): North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) established
Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet:
- 1995 (1995): New Internet architecture with commercial ISPs connected at NAPs
- 1995 (1995): NSFNET decommissioned
- 1995 (1995): GOSIP updated to allow TCP/IP
- 1995 (1995): very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS)
- 1995 (1995): IPv6 proposed
- 1996 (1996): AOL changes pricing model from hourly to monthly
- 1998 (1998): Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
- 1999 (1999): IEEE 802.11b wireless networking
- 1999 (1999): Internet2/Abilene Network
- 1999 (1999): vBNS+ allows broader access
- 2000 (2000): Dot-com bubble bursts
- 2001 (2001): New top-level domain names activated
- 2001 (2001): Code Red I, Code Red II, and Nimda worms
- 2003 (2003): UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) phase I
- 2003 (2003): National LambdaRail founded
- 2004 (2004): UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)
- 2005 (2005): UN WSIS phase II
- 2006 (2006): First meeting of the Internet Governance Forum
- 2010 (2010): First internationalized country code top-level domains registered
- 2012 (2012): ICANN begins accepting applications for new generic top-level domain names
- 2013 (2013): Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation
- 2014 (2014): NetMundial international Internet governance proposal
- 2016 (2016): ICANN contract with U.S. Dept. of Commerce ends, IANA oversight passes to the global Internet community on October 1st
Examples of Internet services:
- 1989 (1989): AOL dial-up service provider, email, instant messaging, and web browser
- 1990 (1990): IMDb Internet movie database
- 1994 (1994): Yahoo! web directory
- 1995 (1995): Amazon online retailer
- 1995 (1995): eBay online auction and shopping
- 1995 (1995): Craigslist classified advertisements
- 1995 (1995): AltaVista search engine
- 1996 (1996): Outlook (formerly Hotmail) free web-based e-mail
- 1996 (1996): RankDex search engine
- 1997 (1997): Google Search
- 1997 (1997): Babel Fish automatic translation
- 1998 (1998): Yahoo Groups (formerly Yahoo! Clubs)
- 1998 (1998): PayPal Internet payment system
- 1998 (1998): Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator
- 1999 (1999): 2ch Anonymous textboard
- 1999 (1999): i-mode mobile internet service
- 1999 (1999): Napster peer-to-peer file sharing
- 2000 (2000): Baidu search engine
- 2001 (2001): 2chan Anonymous imageboard
- 2001 (2001): BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing
- 2001 (2001): Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 2003 (2003): LinkedIn business networking
- 2003 (2003): Myspace social networking site
- 2003 (2003): Skype Internet voice calls
- 2003 (2003): iTunes Store
- 2003 (2003): 4chan Anonymous imageboard
- 2003 (2003): The Pirate Bay, torrent file host
- 2004 (2004): Facebook social networking site
- 2004 (2004): Podcast media file series
- 2004 (2004): Flickr image hosting
- 2005 (2005): YouTube video sharing
- 2005 (2005): Reddit link voting
- 2005 (2005): Google Earth virtual globe
- 2006 (2006): Twitter microblogging
- 2007 (2007): WikiLeaks anonymous news and information leaks
- 2007 (2007): Google Street View
- 2007 (2007): Kindle, e-reader and virtual bookshop
- 2008 (2008): Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
- 2008 (2008): Dropbox cloud-based file hosting
- 2008 (2008): Encyclopedia of Life, a collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all living species
- 2008 (2008): Spotify, a DRM-based music streaming service
- 2009 (2009): Bing search engine
- 2009 (2009): Google Docs, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service
- 2009 (2009): Kickstarter, a threshold pledge system
- 2009 (2009): Bitcoin, a digital currency
- 2010 (2010): Instagram, photo sharing and social networking
- 2011 (2011): Google+, social networking
- 2011 (2011): Snapchat, photo sharing
- 2012 (2012): Coursera, massive open online courses
- 2016 (2016): TikTok, video sharing and social networking
The Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) was an early interexchange point that allowed the free exchange of TCP/IP traffic, including commercial traffic, between ISPs. It was an important initial effort toward creating the commercial Internet that we know today.
Goal
[edit ]The goal of the CIX was to be an independent interconnection point with no U.S. government-defined "acceptable use policy"[1] on the traffic that could be exchanged; and just as critical, a "no-settlement" policy between the parties exchanging traffic. The no-settlement policy became a "given" during the modern era of the Internet, but was immensely controversial at the time.
The great debate
[edit ]The early history of the Internet was dominated by U.S. government agencies such as ARPA/DARPA through ARPANET, the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) through MILNET, the National Science Foundation (NSF) through CSNET and NSFNET, the NSF sponsored regional research and education networks, and a handful of national networks sponsored by various federal government agencies. The focus of this group was either military/government or research and education communications, especially support for the separately funded NSF supercomputing initiatives that started after Nobel Prize laureate Ken Wilson's testimony to Congress in the 1980s.
In general these federally supported networks did not allow commercial traffic that was not in direct support of a federal agency's mission or in support of research and education. There were of course many organizations that wanted access to the Internet, but did not do work directly for or with federal agency or in support of research and education.
In 1988, the Federal Networking Council allowed the Corporation for National Research Initiatives CNRI to develop a gateway between the commercial MCI Mail. It became operational in 1989. That same year, many other commercial e-mail providers got permission to build and operate similar connections, leading to the interconnection of many, heretofore disconnected e-mail services to become linked via the Internet.
In 1991 the NSF allowed Advanced Network and Services (ANS), a non-profit company established by the Merit Network, IBM, and MCI to carry commercial traffic over the ANSNet backbone, the same infrastructure that carried traffic for the NSFNET Backbone Service.[2] NSF required ANS to (i) charge at least the average cost of carrying the commercial traffic, (ii) to set aside any revenue in excess of the cost of carrying the commercial traffic in an infrastructure pool that would be allocated to enhance and extend national and regional networking infrastructure and support, and (iii) to ensure that carrying commercial traffic did not diminish the NSFNET service.
Some saw allowing ANS CO+RE to carry commercial traffic as a good next step in the evolution of the Internet and as a way to bring about economies of scale that would reduce the cost of the Internet for everyone. Others were concerned by this approach to commercialization/privatization of the Internet and the manner in which ANS, IBM, and MCI received a perceived competitive advantage in leveraging federal research money to gain ground in fields in which other companies allegedly were more competitive. There was also disagreement about a settlement policy that seemed to require payments based on the amount of traffic exchanged.
The "com-priv" public mailing list at PSInet (com-priv@psi.com) was created to provide an open forum where the positives and negatives of approaches toward the commercialization of the Internet could be debated. The concept for the CIX was disclosed and debated on the com-priv list.
The CIX is born
[edit ]In mid-1991, meetings that led to the formation of the CIX were held in Reston, Virginia. The original signatories to the CIX agreement were PSINet, UUNET, and CERFnet.[3] [4]
While testing was originally done in the Washington, DC area, commercial operations began at a PSInet facility in Santa Clara, California in the Fall of 1991.[4] In April 1996, the CIX router moved to a more neutral site in Palo Alto, California, the Palo Alto Internet eXchange.[4]
The great compromise
[edit ]The CIX was growing as more and more commercial ISPs connected. NSFNET traffic continued growing based on research and education usage. ANS CO+RE was carrying commercial traffic. But ANS refused to connect to the CIX and the CIX refused to purchase a connection to ANS. Thus it was not always possible for organizations connected to one provider to exchange traffic with other organizations connected via a different provider.
A "compromise" was needed in order to maintain a fully interconnected Internet. Mitch Kapor took over the CIX chairmanship from Marty Schoffstall and in June 1992 forged an agreement with ANS allowing ANS to connect to the CIX as a "trial" that they could leave with a moment's notice and without having to become a CIX member.[5] This compromise resolved things for a time, but later the CIX started to block access from regional networks that had not paid the 10,000ドル fee to become members of the CIX.[6]
This unfortunate state of affairs kept the networking community as a whole from fully implementing the true vision for the Internet—a worldwide network of fully interconnected TCP/IP networks allowing any connected site to communicate with any other connected site. These problems would not be fully resolved until a new network architecture was developed and the NSFNET Backbone Service was turned off in 1995.
Legacy of the CIX as an exchange point
[edit ]The CIX established the business model for the settlement-free exchange of Internet traffic between Network Service Providers. From an engineering perspective this was an important precursor to the Internet interconnection architecture that followed such as the Metropolitan Area Ethernet (MAE) and the NSF sponsored Network Access Points (NAPs) that were established for the transition of NSFNET traffic to competing service providers that included Sprint, ANS, internetMCI, and others.
By 1995 the CIX was essentially superseded by events both commercial and technical, though the CIX router continued to operate until 2001 when the UUNET peering session was turned down.[7]
The hardware, a Cisco 7500 router, that had been the workhorse for most of the CIX's operational life (though not at its inception), together with papers and notes from the founding meetings (donated by Bill Schrader of PSINET) were acquired by the National Museum of American History in November 2005.[8]
The CIX as a trade association
[edit ]As the role of CIX as an interexchange point diminished, it took on the role of an ISP trade association. CIX frequently lobbied the U.S. government and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). CIX's executive director was Barbara Dooley.[9] [10] CIX's lobbying efforts reflected the positions of its largest financial supporter, AT&T, regularly opposing the positions of the incumbent local bell operating companies.[11] [12] [13] CIX also appeared in other forums such as before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)[9] and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).[14] AT&T also supported a CIX spin off effort, the US ISP Association (USISPA) which was led by Sue Ashdown. Unlike other trade associations, CIX did not host a trade show, but instead appeared and solicited support at conferences like ISPCON.
AT&T, the long distance company, came under financial strain during the dot-com bust prior to being acquired by SBC, and its support for CIX diminished. In 2002, CIX was reorganized and took on the name of its spin off organization, the USISPA.[15] AT&T is now owned by SBC. While AT&T continues to support USIPSA, USISPA no longer takes policy stances at the FCC in opposition to SBC or other bell operating companies.
See also
[edit ]- National Science Foundation Network §§ Commercial traffic and Controversy
- Network Access Point (NAP)
- Federal Internet Exchange (FIX)
- Internet Exchange Point (IXP)
- History of the Internet
References
[edit ]- ^ ""The NSFNET Backbone Services Acceptable Use Policy", June 1992". Archived from the original on 2007年09月29日. Retrieved 2016年12月04日.
- ^ Review of NSFNET, Office of the Inspector General, National Science Foundation, 23 March 1993
- ^ California Education and Research Network (CERFnet) was established and operated by General Atomics under the management of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego. Unlike the other National Science Foundation (NSF) supported regional networks, CERFnet was privately owned by General Atomics. CERFnet was, however, connected to the NSFNET because the center with which it was associated, SDSC, was an NSF supported center. CERFnet was more aligned with PSINet (which had spun off from the New York State Regional Network (NYSERNET) than with Advanced Network and Services (ANS) that operated NSFNET as part of the partnership led by the non-profit Merit Network composed of IBM, MCI, the State of Michigan, and later ANS. The name CERFnet has no connection with Vint Cerf.
- ^ a b c The CIX Router Timeline, Farooq Hussain.
- ^ "The EFF Announcement of the settlement-free interconnection of CIX and ANS negotiated with assistance of NEARnet". Archived from the original on 2008年11月29日. Retrieved 2009年05月25日.
- ^ A series of e-mail messages that talk about various aspects of the CIX as seen from MichNet, the regional network operated by Merit in the State of Michigan: 1June1992 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine, 29June1992 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine, 29Sep1992 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine, 4Jan1994 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine, 6Jan1994 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine, and 10Jan1994 Archived 2011年07月19日 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The notification of turning down the CIX Router with the closure of UUNET's peering session after just over ten years of operation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008年09月08日. Retrieved 2009年04月06日.
- ^ "CIX router acquired by Smithsonian Museum of American History — Farooq Hussain". Archived from the original on 2006年09月26日. Retrieved 2006年06月14日.
- ^ a b "Comments of CIX and PSINet in response to FTC's RFC COPPA (1999)". Archived from the original on 2007年09月29日. Retrieved 2007年05月11日.
- ^ Commercial Internet Exchange, ISP Planet Association Directory Archived 2007年02月13日 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ In Re Computer III Remand Order, Order on Reconsideration, FCC Docket 95-20 (Dec. 17, 1999)
- ^ In re Request for Extension of the Sunset Date of the Structural, Nondiscrimination, and Other Behavioral Safeguards Governing Bell Operating Company Provision of In-Region, InterLATA Information Services, Order, FCC Docket 96-149 (Feb. 8, 2000)
- ^ Bell Operating Companies Joint Petition for Waiver of Computer II Rules, Order, FCC DA 95-2264 (Oct. 31, 1995)
- ^ Comments from the Commercial Internet Exchange Association (CIX) (1999)
- ^ Cybertelecom :: ISPs. See also Cybertelecom :: CIX