Alberto Dainotti

So internet stands for internetwork.

So it's a network of networks.

So it was designed to make completely different networks interoperable and interconnect them.

Some of these are the networks of our ISPs, internet providers, that allow us to connect to the internet.

Some are networks of big telecom operators.

Some are networks of universities like ours, for example.

Okay, so we say that a network is a set of endpoints, like hosts and clients and servers that want to talk to each other.

Yes, a cell phone, a laptop, and so on.

And these endpoints, somehow they are connected to intermediate nodes, which we call routers and switches.

But you could even think about cell towers, for example.

We see traffic from many endpoints, and then they route it around.

But the way endpoints and routers are connected with each other is really through links, which can mean actual cables, like fiber cables, or the cable that reaches our home, or Ethernet cables, but it can be even Wi-Fi links that are in the air, basically, like radio signals, cell phone signals, satellite signals.

Those are links that interconnect these nodes.

It really depends.

The way connectivity and infrastructure is organized in various country by country

And so the keyword here really is centralization.

How much the connectivity infrastructure is centralized.

So you might find some countries mainly a big state telecom as a network operator or a handful of operators.

In other countries, you will find dozens who are densely connected and can leverage many different entry and exit points of traffic in the country or from the country to the rest of the world.

It is, yes.