Public data network

Last updated

A public data network (PDN) is a network established and operated by a telecommunications administration, or a recognized private operating agency, for the specific purpose of providing data transmission services for the public.

Contents

The first public packet switching networks were RETD in Spain (1972), the experimental RCP network in France (1972) and Telenet in the United States (1975). "Public data network" was the common name given to the collection of X.25 providers, the first of which were Telenet in the U.S. and DATAPAC in Canada (both in 1976), and Transpac in France (in 1978). The International Packet Switched Service (IPSS) was the first commercial and international packet-switched network (1978). The networks were interconnected with gateways using X.75. These combined networks had large global coverage during the 1980s and into the 1990s. The networks later provided the infrastructure for the early Internet.

Description

Representatives of PTTs and private companies who championed the development of X.25-based networks and services in Europe, North America and Japan. CCITT SGVII X25 Advocates.jpg
Representatives of PTTs and private companies who championed the development of X.25-based networks and services in Europe, North America and Japan.

In communications, a PDN is a circuit- or packet-switched network that is available to the public and that can transmit data in digital form. A PDN provider is a company that provides access to a PDN and that provides any of X.25, Frame Relay, or cell relay (ATM) services. [1] Access to a PDN generally includes a guaranteed bandwidth, known as the committed information rate (CIR). Costs for the access depend on the guaranteed rate. PDN providers differ in how they charge for temporary increases in required bandwidth (known as surges). Some use the amount of overrun; others use the surge duration. [2]

Public switched data network

A public switched data network (PSDN) is a network for providing data services via a system of multiple wide area networks, similar in concept to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). [3] A PSDN may use a variety of switching technologies, including packet switching, circuit switching, and message switching. [3] A packet-switched PSDN may also be called a packet-switched data network. [4] [5]

Originally the term PSDN referred only to Packet Switch Stream (PSS), an X.25-based packet-switched network in the United Kingdom, mostly used to provide leased-line connections between local area networks and the Internet using permanent virtual circuits (PVCs). [6] Today, the term may refer not only to Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), both providing PVCs, but also to Internet Protocol (IP), GPRS, and other packet-switching techniques.

Whilst there are several technologies that are superficially similar to the PSDN, such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and the digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, they are not examples of it. [7] ISDN utilizes the PSTN circuit-switched network, and DSL uses point-to-point circuit switching communications overlaid on the PSTN local loop (copper wires), usually utilized for access to a packet-switched broadband IP network.

Public data transmission service

A public data transmission service is a data transmission service that is established and operated by a telecommunication administration, or a recognized private operating agency, and uses a public data network. A public data transmission service may include Circuit Switched Data, packet-switched, and leased line data transmission.

History

Public packet switching networks came into operation in the 1970s. The first were RETD in Spain, in 1972; [8] the experimental RCP in France, also in 1972; [9] Telenet in the United States, which began operation with proprietary protocols in 1975; EIN in the EEC in 1976; and EPSS in the United Kingdom in 1976 (in development since 1969). [10]

Telenet adopted X.25 protocols shortly after they were published in 1976 while DATAPAC in Canada was the first public data network specifically designed for X.25, also in 1976. [11] Many other PDNs adopted X.25 when they came into operation, including Transpac in France in 1978, Euronet in the EEC in 1979, Packet Switch Stream in the United Kingdom in 1980, and AUSTPAC in Australia in 1982. Iberpac in Spain adopted X.25 in the 1980s. Tymnet and CompuServe in the United States also adopted X.25.

The International Packet Switched Service (IPSS) was the first commercial and international packet-switched network. It was a collaboration between British and American telecom companies that became operational in 1978. [12] [11] [13]

The SITA Data Transport Network for airlines adopted X.25 in 1981, becoming the world's most extensive packet-switching network. [14] [15] [16]

The networks were interconnected with gateways using X.75. These combined networks had large global coverage during the 1980s and into the 1990s. [17] [18] [19]

Over time, other packet-switching technologies, including Frame Relay (FR) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) gradually replaced X.25. [20]

Many of these networks later adopted TCP/IP and provided the infrastructure for the early Internet. [21] [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

Internetworking is the practice of interconnecting multiple computer networks, such that any pair of hosts in the connected networks can exchange messages irrespective of their hardware-level networking technology. The resulting system of interconnected networks is called an internetwork, or simply an internet.

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.

A virtual circuit (VC) is a means of transporting data over a data network, based on packet switching and in which a connection is first established across the network between two endpoints. The network, rather than having a fixed data rate reservation per connection as in circuit switching, takes advantage of the statistical multiplexing on its transmission links, an intrinsic feature of packet switching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X.25</span> Standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network (WAN) communication

X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee in a series of drafts and finalized in a publication known as The Orange Book in 1976.

In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. packets, that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the packet to its destination, where the payload is extracted and used by an operating system, application software, or higher layer protocols. Packet switching is the primary basis for data communications in computer networks worldwide.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for voice calls for the delivery of voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARPANET</span> Early packet switching network (1969–1990)

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. The ARPANET was established by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defense.

Packet Switch Stream (PSS) was a public data network in the United Kingdom, provided by British Telecommunications (BT). It operated from the late 1970s through to the mid-2000s.

The CYCLADES computer network was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate internetworking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Roberts (computer scientist)</span> American electrical engineer and Internet pioneer

Larry Roberts was an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer.

The International Packet Switched Service (IPSS) was the first international and commercial packet switching network. It was created in 1978 by a collaboration between Britain's Post Office Telecommunications, and the United States' Western Union International and Tymnet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer network</span> Network that allows computers to share resources and communicate with each other

A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. Computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication network technologies based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies.

Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines connecting their computers and local networks to this backbone network. Free public dialup access to Telenet, for those who wished to access these systems, was provided in hundreds of cities throughout the United States.

DATAPAC, or Datapac in some documents, was Canada's packet switched X.25-equivalent data network. Initial work on a data-only network started in 1972 and was announced by Bell Canada in 1974 as Dataroute. DATAPAC was implemented by adding packet switching to the existing Dataroute networks. It opened for use in 1976 as the world's first public data network designed specifically for X.25.

Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones, also known as P&T, P et T and PTT, was the French administration of postal services and telecommunications, founded in 1879 during the Third Republic.

A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication and possible error recovery methods. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of both.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rémi Després</span>

Rémi Després is a French engineer and entrepreneur known for his contributions on data networking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernhard Walke</span>

Bernhard H. Walke is a pioneer of mobile Internet access and professor emeritus at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. He is a driver of wireless and mobile 2G to 5G cellular radio networks technologies. In 1985, he proposed a local cellular radio network comprising technologies in use today in 2G, 4G and discussed for 5G systems. For example, self-organization of a radio mesh network, integration of circuit- and packet switching, de-centralized radio resource control, TDMA/spread spectrum data transmission, antenna beam steering, spatial beam multiplexing, interference coordination, S-Aloha based multiple access and demand assigned traffic channels, mobile broadband transmission using mm-waves, and multi-hop communication.

The International Network Working Group (INWG) was a group of prominent computer science researchers in the 1970s who studied and developed standards and protocols for interconnection of computer networks. Set up in 1972 as an informal group to consider the technical issues involved in connecting different networks, its goal was to develop an international standard protocol for internetworking. INWG became a subcommittee of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) the following year. Concepts developed by members of the group contributed to the Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication proposed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974 and the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that emerged later.

The Protocol Wars were a long-running debate in computer science that occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s, when engineers, organizations and nations became polarized over the issue of which communication protocol would result in the best and most robust networks. This culminated in the Internet–OSI Standards War in the 1980s and early 1990s, which was ultimately "won" by the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) by the mid-1990s when it became the dominant protocol suite through rapid adoption of the Internet.

References

  1. ↑ ( Schatt 1991 , p. 207).
  2. ↑ Stokes, A. V. (2014-05-23). Communications Standards: State of the Art Report 14:3. Elsevier. ISBN   978-1-4831-6093-1.
  3. 1 2 Bagad (2009). Telecommunication Switching Systems and Networks. Technical Publications. p. 344. ISBN   9788184315905 . Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Hura and Singal (2001). Data and Computer Communications: Networking and Internetworking. CRC Press. p. 1168. ISBN   9780849309281 . Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  5. ↑ Mazda, Fraidoon (2013). Focal Illustrated Dictionary of Telecommunications. Taylor & Francis. p. 704. ISBN   9781136121029 . Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Smith, Edward; Miller, Chris; Norton, Jim (2023). "Evolving and Exploiting Packet Switched Networks". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4595785. ISSN   1556-5068.
  7. ↑ Hardy, Daniel (2002). Networks: Internet, Telephony, Multimedia : Convergences and Complementarities. Springer Nature. p. 512. ISBN   978-2-7445-0144-9.
  8. ↑ Derek Barber. "The Origins of Packet Switching". Computer Resurrection Issue 5. Retrieved 2024-06-05. The Spanish, dark horses, were the first people to have a public network. They'd got a bank network which they craftily turned into a public network overnight, and beat everybody to the post.
  9. ↑ Després, R. (1974). "RCP, the Experimental Packet-Switched Data Transmission Service of the French PTT". Proceedings of ICCC 74. pp. 171–185. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  10. ↑ Smith, Ed; Miller, Chris; Norton, Jim (2017). "Packet Switching: The first steps on the road to the information society". National Physical Laboratory.
  11. 1 2 Rybczynski, Tony (2009). "Commercialization of packet switching (1975-1985): A Canadian perspective [History of Communications]". IEEE Communications Magazine. 47 (12): 26–31. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2009.5350364. ISSN   1558-1896. S2CID   23243636.
  12. ↑ Roberts, L.G. (1978). "The evolution of packet switching". Proceedings of the IEEE. 66 (11): 1307–1313. doi:10.1109/PROC.1978.11141. ISSN   1558-2256. S2CID   26876676.
  13. ↑ Schwartz, Mischa (2010). "X.25 Virtual Circuits - TRANSPAC IN France - Pre-Internet Data Networking [History of communications]". IEEE Communications Magazine. 48 (11): 40–46. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2010.5621965. ISSN   1558-1896. S2CID   23639680.
  14. ↑ "SITA History". About SITA > What we do. SITA. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  15. ↑ Rybczynski, Tony (2009). "Commercialization of packet switching (1975–1985): A Canadian perspective [History of Communications]". IEEE Communications Magazine. 47 (12): 26–31. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2009.5350364. S2CID   23243636.
  16. ↑ "Airline Control System". IBM .
  17. ↑ Davies & Bressan 2010 , pp.  2, 9
  18. ↑ Ikram, Nadeem (1985). Internet Protocols and a Partial Implementation of CCITT X.75 (Thesis). p. 2. OCLC   663449435, 1091194379. Two main approaches to internetworking have come into existence based upon the virtual circuit and the datagram services. The vast majority of the work on interconnecting networks falls into one of these two approaches: The CCITT X.75 Recommendation; The DoD Internet Protocol (IP).
  19. ↑ Unsoy, Mehmet S.; Shanahan, Theresa A. (1981). "X.75 internetworking of Datapac and Telenet". ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. 11 (4): 232–239. doi:10.1145/1013879.802679.
  20. ↑ Titus, Tim. "42 Dead Networking Technologies and What Killed Them". www.pathsolutions.com. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  21. ↑ Council, National Research; Sciences, Division on Engineering and Physical; Board, Computer Science and Telecommunications; Applications, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and; Committee, NII 2000 Steering (1998-02-05). The Unpredictable Certainty: White Papers. National Academies Press. ISBN   978-0-309-17414-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ ( Schatt 1991 , p. 200).

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.