Communications Fundamentals

Abstract

Reliable computer communications are a relatively new development. Long after computers evolved from the primitive early machines in the middle of the 20th century, computer communications were often restricted to slow and error-prone telephone lines, using expensive and cumbersome modems. It was not until the 1980s and 1990s that improving technology and other changes such as the deregulation and privatization of many national telephone corporations opened the floodgates to faster and better communications, followed by the explosive growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web. But communications remain something of a black art. Partly for that reason, there have been many proprietary solutions. In the days when there were numerous computer companies, mostly with their own operating systems and computer architectures, the networking systems had to be designed to fit in with those individual environments. And perhaps the computer companies realized that proprietary networking was another way to lock in customers. But there has been increasing emphasis on open systems, and the growth of the Internet, based on TCP/IP, has reinforced that trend. These days most computer companies actively support open standards, because it is to their commercial advantage to do so.