ISP:Internet Backbone

We are all getting inter net from Interntet Backbone only..more about IB
The Internet backbone refers to the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and core routers in the Internet. These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network centers, the Internet exchange points and network access points, that interchange Internet traffic between the countries, continents and across the oceans of the world. Traffic interchange between the Internet service providers (often Tier 1 networks) participating in the Internet backbone exchange traffic by privately negotiated interconnection agreements, primarily governed by the principle of settlement-free peering.

History

The first high speed backbone was created by the National Science Foundation in 1987. It was called the NSFNET, and was a T1 line that connected 170 smaller networks together. The following year, IBM,MCI and Merit would create a T3 backbone. In the early days of the internet, backbone providers exchanged their traffic at government sponsored network access points, until the government privatized the internet, and then transferred the NAPs to commercial providers

Architectural principles

The Internet, and consequently its backbone networks, do not rely on central control or coordinating facilities, nor do they implement any global network policies. The resilience of the Internet results from its principal architectural features, most notably the idea of placing as few network state and control functions as possible in the network elements, but instead relying on the endpoints of communication to handle most of the processing to ensure data integrity, reliability, and authentication. In addition, the high degree of redundancy of today's network links and sophisticated real-time routing protocols provide alternate paths of communications for load balancing and congestion avoidance.

Infrastructure

The internet backbone is a conglomeration of multiple, redundant networks owned by numerous companies. It is typically a fiber optic trunk line. The trunk line consists of many fiber optic cables bundled together to increase the capacity. The backbone is able to re route traffic in case of a failure.The data speeds of backbone lines have changed with the times. In 1998, all of the United States backbone networks had utilized the slowest data rate of 45 Mbps. However the changing technologies allowed for 41 percent of backbones to have data rates of 2,488 Mbps or faster by the mid 2000's.The FCC curently defines "high speed" as any connection with data speeds that exceed 200 kilobits per second. An Azerbaijani based telecommunication company, Delta Telecom, has recently developed a very efficient trunk line with possible speeds of to 1.6 terabits per second. Internet traffic from this line goes through the countries of Iran, Iraq and Georgia. ^[4]Fiber-optic cables are the medium of choice for internet backbone providers for many reasons. Fiber-optics allow for fast data speeds and large bandwidth; they suffer relatively little attenuation, allowing them to cover long distances with few repeaters; they are also immune to crosstalk and other forms of EM interference which plague electrical transmission

India Internet Backbone

India's backbone is very extensive due to a very large population. This country alone has nearly 250 million internet users as of 2009. Three of India's top Internet Service Providers are BSNL, MTNL, and Reliance Communications who have market shares of 56.8%, 13.2%, and 10.2% respectively