Foreword
Often defined as a "global network of networks," the Internet has evolved without central hierarchy or control, and in the process has revolutionized communications like few inventions that preceded it. Today, with the total number of users approaching 1 billion people worldwide, the Internet is rapidly transforming the way economies and societies function and interrelate.The Internet came into existence in the late 1970s as an outgrowth of a communications network conceived by the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In the 1980s, a civilian segment evolved with support from the National Science Foundation, with many universities and research…
