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145-492: Network switching subsystem ( NSS ) (or GSM core network ) is the component of a GSM system that carries out call out and mobility management functions for mobile phones roaming on the network of base stations . It is owned and deployed by mobile phone operators and allows mobile devices to communicate with each other and telephones in the wider public switched telephone network (PSTN). The architecture contains specific features and functions which are needed because

290-461: A 32-bit number. IPv4 is the initial version used on the first generation of the Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed in 1981 to address up to ≈4.3 billion (10 ) hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion , which entered its final stage in 2011, when the global IPv4 address allocation pool was exhausted. Because of the growth of

435-515: A 4G network. The limits that users face on accessing information via mobile applications coincide with a broader process of fragmentation of the Internet . Fragmentation restricts access to media content and tends to affect the poorest users the most. Zero-rating , the practice of Internet service providers allowing users free connectivity to access specific content or applications without cost, has offered opportunities to surmount economic hurdles but has also been accused by its critics as creating

580-518: A broadband-internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and to fill in gaps in coverage between those cells. Cell horizontal radius varies – depending on antenna height, antenna gain , and propagation conditions – from a couple of hundred meters to several tens of kilometers. The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi). There are also several implementations of

725-559: A memorandum of understanding in Copenhagen to develop and deploy a common cellular telephone system across Europe, and EU rules were passed to make GSM a mandatory standard. The decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In February 1987 Europe produced the first agreed GSM Technical Specification. Ministers from

870-517: A blog, or building a website involves little initial cost and many cost-free services are available. However, publishing and maintaining large, professional web sites with attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition. Many individuals and some companies and groups use web logs or blogs, which are largely used as easily being able to update online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to communicate advice in their areas of specialization in

1015-470: A broad array of electronic, wireless , and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail , telephony , and file sharing . The origins of the Internet date back to research that enabled the time-sharing of computer resources,

1160-626: A collection of documents (web pages) and other web resources linked by hyperlinks and URLs . In the 1960s, computer scientists began developing systems for time-sharing of computer resources. J. C. R. Licklider proposed the idea of a universal network while working at Bolt Beranek & Newman and, later, leading the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of

1305-593: A designated pool of addresses set aside for each region. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration , an agency of the United States Department of Commerce , had final approval over changes to the DNS root zone until the IANA stewardship transition on 1 October 2016. The Internet Society (ISOC) was founded in 1992 with a mission to "assure the open development, evolution and use of

1450-568: A framework known as the Internet protocol suite (also called TCP/IP , based on the first two components.) This is a suite of protocols that are ordered into a set of four conceptional layers by the scope of their operation, originally documented in RFC   1122 and RFC   1123 . At the top is the application layer , where communication is described in terms of the objects or data structures most appropriate for each application. For example,

1595-664: A generic term for the plethora of G mobile phone technologies evolved from it. In 1983, work began to develop a European standard for digital cellular voice telecommunications when the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) set up the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) committee and later provided a permanent technical-support group based in Paris . Five years later, in 1987, 15 representatives from 13 European countries signed

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1740-419: A larger market or even sell goods and services entirely online . Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. The Internet has no single centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own policies. The overarching definitions of the two principal name spaces on

1885-426: A mast or a building above average rooftop level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average rooftop level; they are typically deployed in urban areas. Picocells are small cells whose coverage diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. Femtocells are cells designed for use in residential or small-business environments and connect to a telecommunications service provider 's network via

2030-597: A network into two or more networks is called subnetting . Computers that belong to a subnet are addressed with an identical most-significant bit -group in their IP addresses. This results in the logical division of an IP address into two fields, the network number or routing prefix and the rest field or host identifier . The rest field is an identifier for a specific host or network interface. The routing prefix may be expressed in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation written as

2175-488: A node on a different subnetwork. Routing tables are maintained by manual configuration or automatically by routing protocols . End-nodes typically use a default route that points toward an ISP providing transit, while ISP routers use the Border Gateway Protocol to establish the most efficient routing across the complex connections of the global Internet. The default gateway is the node that serves as

2320-456: A problem for any open-source GSM implementation, because it is not possible for GNU or any other free software distributor to guarantee immunity from all lawsuits by the patent holders against the users. Furthermore, new features are being added to the standard all the time which means they have patent protection for a number of years. The original GSM implementations from 1991 may now be entirely free of patent encumbrances, however patent freedom

2465-658: A rare unity and speed guided by four public officials: Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France), and Renzo Failli (Italy). In 1989 the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The IEEE/RSE awarded to Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis the 2018 James Clerk Maxwell medal for their "leadership in

2610-481: A relationship between two parts of the algorithm. The researchers found that this relationship was very unlikely to have happened if it was not intentional. This may have been done in order to satisfy European controls on export of cryptographic programs. The GSM systems and services are described in a set of standards governed by ETSI , where a full list is maintained. Several open-source software projects exist that provide certain GSM features: Patents remain

2755-410: A rule, these are stolen or lost devices. Mobile operators rarely use EIR capabilities to block devices on their own. Usually blocking begins when there is a law in the country, which obliges all cellular operators of the country to do so. Therefore, in the delivery of the basic components of the network switching subsystem (core network) is often already present EIR with basic functionality, which includes

2900-593: A shorthand for internetwork in RFC   675 , and later RFCs repeated this use. Cerf and Kahn credit Louis Pouzin and others with important influences on the resulting TCP/IP design. National PTTs and commercial providers developed the X.25 standard and deployed it on public data networks . Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded

3045-407: A sign of future growth, 15 sites were connected to the young ARPANET by the end of 1971. These early years were documented in the 1972 film Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing . Thereafter, the ARPANET gradually developed into a decentralized communications network, connecting remote centers and military bases in the United States. Other user networks and research networks, such as

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3190-446: A specific service number, sending SMS to a specific service number, and all Internet traffic is redirected to a specific landing page. This is achieved by the fact that EIR can send commands to several MNO systems (HLR, PCRF , SMSC , etc.). The most common suppliers of individual EIR systems (not as part of a complex solution) are the companies BroadForward, Mahindra Comviva, Mavenir, Nokia, Eastwind. Connected more or less directly to

3335-481: A stronger one. Since 2000, different efforts have been made in order to crack the A5 encryption algorithms. Both A5/1 and A5/2 algorithms have been broken, and their cryptanalysis has been revealed in the literature. As an example, Karsten Nohl developed a number of rainbow tables (static values which reduce the time needed to carry out an attack) and have found new sources for known plaintext attacks . He said that it

3480-443: A term referring to inexperienced individuals utilizing readily available hardware and software. The vulnerability arises from the accessibility of tools such as a DVB-T TV tuner, posing a threat to both mobile and network users. Despite the term "script kiddies" implying a lack of sophisticated skills, the consequences of their attacks on GSM can be severe, impacting the functionality of cellular networks . Given that GSM continues to be

3625-537: A time. The HLRs store details of every SIM card issued by the mobile phone operator. Each SIM has a unique identifier called an IMSI which is the primary key to each HLR record. Another important item of data associated with the SIM are the MSISDNs, which are the telephone numbers used by mobile phones to make and receive calls. The primary MSISDN is the number used for making and receiving voice calls and SMS, but it

3770-596: A two-tiered Internet. To address the issues with zero-rating, an alternative model has emerged in the concept of 'equal rating' and is being tested in experiments by Mozilla and Orange in Africa. Equal rating prevents prioritization of one type of content and zero-rates all content up to a specified data cap. In a study published by Chatham House , 15 out of 19 countries researched in Latin America had some kind of hybrid or zero-rated product offered. Some countries in

3915-466: A vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to printed media, books, encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled the decentralization of information on a large scale. The Web has enabled individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to a potentially large audience online at greatly reduced expense and time delay. Publishing a web page,

4060-696: A web browser operates in a client–server application model and exchanges information with the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and an application-germane data structure, such as the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Below this top layer, the transport layer connects applications on different hosts with a logical channel through the network. It provides this service with a variety of possible characteristics, such as ordered, reliable delivery (TCP), and an unreliable datagram service (UDP). Underlying these layers are

4205-581: A wide variety of other Internet software may be installed from app stores . Internet usage by mobile and tablet devices exceeded desktop worldwide for the first time in October 2016. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that, by the end of 2017, 48% of individual users regularly connect to the Internet, up from 34% in 2012. Mobile Internet connectivity has played an important role in expanding access in recent years, especially in Asia and

4350-614: A ‘whitelisted’ response to all CheckIMEI and the ability to fill IMEI blacklist, which will be given a ‘blacklisted’ response. When the legislative framework for blocking registration of devices in cellular networks appears in the country, the telecommunications regulator usually has a Central EIR ( CEIR ) system, which is integrated with the EIR of all operators and transmits to them the actual lists of identifiers that must be used when processing CheckIMEI requests. In doing so, there may be many new requirements for EIR systems that are not present in

4495-447: Is 4.615 ms. TDMA noise is interference that can be heard on speakers near a GSM phone using TDMA, audible as a buzzing sound. The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM 850/900 and 1 watt in GSM 1800/1900 . GSM has used a variety of voice codecs to squeeze 3.1 kHz audio into between 7 and 13 kbit/s. Originally, two codecs, named after

Network switching subsystem - Misplaced Pages Continue

4640-547: Is a global network that comprises many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols ( IPv4 and IPv6 ) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise. To maintain interoperability,

4785-583: Is a database of the MSs ( Mobile stations ) that have roamed into the jurisdiction of the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) which it serves. Each main base transceiver station in the network is served by exactly one VLR (one BTS may be served by many MSCs in case of MSC in pool), hence a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time. The data stored in the VLR has either been received from

4930-399: Is a large address block with 2 addresses, having a 32-bit routing prefix. For IPv4, a network may also be characterized by its subnet mask or netmask , which is the bitmask that when applied by a bitwise AND operation to any IP address in the network, yields the routing prefix. Subnet masks are also expressed in dot-decimal notation like an address. For example, 255.255.255.0 is

5075-517: Is allowed to attach and proceed with GSM services. After successful authentication, the MSC sends the encryption key K c to the base station controller (BSC) so that all communications can be encrypted and decrypted. Of course, the mobile phone can generate the K c itself by feeding the same RAND supplied during authentication and the K i into the A8 algorithm. The AuC is usually collocated with

5220-468: Is an additional form of identification check performed on the serial number of the mobile phone described in the EIR section below, but this is not relevant to the AuC processing. Proper implementation of security in and around the AuC is a key part of an operator's strategy to avoid SIM cloning . The AuC does not engage directly in the authentication process, but instead generates data known as triplets for

5365-412: Is available in 3GPP TS 23.205. The term Circuit switching (CS) used here originates from traditional telecommunications systems. However, modern MSS and MGW devices mostly use generic Internet technologies and form next-generation telecommunication networks . MSS software may run on generic computers or virtual machines in cloud environment. The MSC connects to the following elements: Tasks of

5510-426: Is called SIM locking and is implemented by a software feature of the phone. A subscriber may usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee, utilize private services to remove the lock, or use software and websites to unlock the handset themselves. It is possible to hack past a phone locked by a network operator. In some countries and regions (e.g. Brazil and Germany ) all phones are sold unlocked due to

5655-494: Is necessary to allocate address space efficiently. Subnetting may also enhance routing efficiency or have advantages in network management when subnetworks are administratively controlled by different entities in a larger organization. Subnets may be arranged logically in a hierarchical architecture, partitioning an organization's network address space into a tree-like routing structure. Computers and routers use routing tables in their operating system to direct IP packets to reach

5800-477: Is needed indoors, as in shopping centers or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-building penetration of radio signals from any nearby cell. GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges (separated into GSM frequency ranges for 2G and UMTS frequency bands for 3G), with most 2G GSM networks operating in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Where these bands were already allocated,

5945-443: Is not certain due to the United States' "first to invent" system that was in place until 2012. The "first to invent" system, coupled with "patent term adjustment" can extend the life of a U.S. patent far beyond 20 years from its priority date. It is unclear at this time whether OpenBTS will be able to implement features of that initial specification without limit. As patents subsequently expire, however, those features can be added into

Network switching subsystem - Misplaced Pages Continue

6090-532: Is not directly interoperable by design with IPv4. In essence, it establishes a parallel version of the Internet not directly accessible with IPv4 software. Thus, translation facilities must exist for internetworking or nodes must have duplicate networking software for both networks. Essentially all modern computer operating systems support both versions of the Internet Protocol. Network infrastructure, however, has been lagging in this development. Aside from

6235-406: Is often accessed through high-performance content delivery networks . The World Wide Web is a global collection of documents , images , multimedia , applications, and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), which provide a global system of named references. URIs symbolically identify services, web servers , databases, and

6380-471: Is possible for a SIM to have other secondary MSISDNs associated with it for fax and data calls. Each MSISDN is also a unique key to the HLR record. The HLR data is stored for as long as a subscriber remains with the mobile phone operator. Examples of other data stored in the HLR against an IMSI record is: The HLR is a system which directly receives and processes MAP transactions and messages from elements in

6525-486: Is possible to build "a full GSM interceptor   ... from open-source components" but that they had not done so because of legal concerns. Nohl claimed that he was able to intercept voice and text conversations by impersonating another user to listen to voicemail , make calls, or send text messages using a seven-year-old Motorola cellphone and decryption software available for free online. GSM uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) for data transmissions like browsing

6670-511: Is said to be in use on some more modern networks. If used with USIM to prevent connections to fake base stations and downgrade attacks , users will be protected in the medium term, though migration to 128-bit GEA/4 is still recommended. The first public cryptanalysis of GEA/1 and GEA/2 (also written GEA-1 and GEA-2) was done in 2021. It concluded that although using a 64-bit key, the GEA-1 algorithm actually provides only 40 bits of security, due to

6815-400: Is structured into several discrete sections: GSM utilizes a cellular network , meaning that cell phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are five different cell sizes in a GSM network: The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base-station antenna is installed on

6960-433: Is used to authenticate the customer and generate a key for encrypting voice and data traffic, as defined in 3GPP TS 43.020 (03.20 before Rel-4). Development of A3 and A8 algorithms is considered a matter for individual GSM network operators, although example implementations are available. To encrypt Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular communications A5 algorithm is used. The Visitor Location Register (VLR)

7105-593: The Home Location Register (HLR) , or collected from the MS. In practice, for performance reasons, most vendors integrate the VLR directly to the V-MSC and, where this is not done, the VLR is very tightly linked with the MSC via a proprietary interface. Whenever an MSC detects a new MS in its network, in addition to creating a new record in the VLR, it also updates the HLR of the mobile subscriber, apprising it of

7250-555: The Oxford English Dictionary found that, based on a study of around 2.5 billion printed and online sources, "Internet" was capitalized in 54% of cases. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably; it is common to speak of "going on the Internet" when using a web browser to view web pages . However, the World Wide Web , or the Web , is only one of a large number of Internet services,

7395-457: The 3GPP developed third-generation ( 3G ) UMTS standards, followed by the fourth-generation ( 4G ) LTE Advanced and the fifth-generation 5G standards, which do not form part of the ETSI GSM standard. Beginning in the late 2010s, various carriers worldwide started to shut down their GSM networks . Nevertheless, as a result of the network's widespread use, the acronym "GSM" is still used as

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7540-1050: The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for North America , the Asia–Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) for Asia and the Pacific region , the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) for Latin America and the Caribbean region, and the Réseaux IP Européens – Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) for Europe , the Middle East , and Central Asia were delegated to assign IP address blocks and other Internet parameters to local registries, such as Internet service providers , from

7685-984: The Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982, the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) was standardized, which facilitated worldwide proliferation of interconnected networks. TCP/IP network access expanded again in 1986 when the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet) provided access to supercomputer sites in the United States for researchers, first at speeds of 56 kbit/s and later at 1.5 Mbit/s and 45 Mbit/s. The NSFNet expanded into academic and research organizations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 1988–89. Although other network protocols such as UUCP and PTT public data networks had global reach well before this time, this marked

7830-544: The HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the first Web browser (which was also an HTML editor and could access Usenet newsgroups and FTP files), the first HTTP server software (later known as CERN httpd ), the first web server , and the first Web pages that described the project itself. In 1991 the Commercial Internet eXchange was founded, allowing PSInet to communicate with the other commercial networks CERFnet and Alternet. Stanford Federal Credit Union

7975-495: The International Network Working Group and commercial initiatives led to the development of various protocols and standards by which multiple separate networks could become a single network or "a network of networks". In 1974, Vint Cerf at Stanford University and Bob Kahn at DARPA published a proposal for "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication". They used the term internet as

8120-430: The Internet . The mobile switching center (MSC) is the primary service delivery node for GSM/CDMA, responsible for routing voice calls and SMS as well as other services (such as conference calls, FAX, and circuit-switched data). The MSC sets up and releases the end-to-end connection , handles mobility and hand-over requirements during the call and takes care of charging and real-time prepaid account monitoring. In

8265-485: The Merit Network and CYCLADES , were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Early international collaborations for the ARPANET were rare. Connections were made in 1973 to Norway ( NORSAR and NDRE ), and to Peter Kirstein's research group at University College London (UCL), which provided a gateway to British academic networks , forming the first internetwork for resource sharing . ARPA projects,

8410-539: The United States and in the United Kingdom and France . The ARPANET initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the United States to enable resource sharing . The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, encouraged worldwide participation in

8555-492: The gsm core network (typically when the phone is powered on). Once the authentication is successful, the HLR is allowed to manage the SIM and services described above. An encryption key is also generated that is subsequently used to encrypt all wireless communications (voice, SMS, etc.) between the mobile phone and the GSM core network. If the authentication fails, then no services are possible from that particular combination of SIM card and mobile phone operator attempted. There

8700-529: The 3GPP. GSM, for the first time, set a common standard for Europe for wireless networks. It was also adopted by many countries outside Europe. This allowed subscribers to use other GSM networks that have roaming agreements with each other. The common standard reduced research and development costs, since hardware and software could be sold with only minor adaptations for the local market. Telstra in Australia shut down its 2G GSM network on 1 December 2016,

8845-561: The 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands were used instead (for example in Canada and the United States). In rare cases the 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries because they were previously used for first-generation systems. For comparison, most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band. For more information on worldwide GSM frequency usage, see GSM frequency bands . Regardless of

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8990-456: The EIR response to determine whether or not to allow the device to register or re-register on the network. Since the response of switching equipment to ‘greylisted’ and ‘unknown equipment’ responses is not clearly described in the standard, they are most often not used. Most often, EIR uses the IMEI blacklist feature, which contains the IMEI of the devices that need to be banned from the network. As

9135-719: The GSM core network are many other functions. The billing center is responsible for processing the toll tickets generated by the VLRs and HLRs and generating a bill for each subscriber. It is also responsible for generating billing data of roaming subscriber. The multimedia messaging service center supports the sending of multimedia messages (e.g., images, audio , video and their combinations) to (or from) MMS-bluetooth. The voicemail system records and stores voicemail. According to U.S. law, which has also been copied into many other countries, especially in Europe, all telecommunications equipment must provide facilities for monitoring

9280-537: The GSM mobile phone system, in contrast with earlier analogue services, fax and data information is sent digitally encoded directly to the MSC. Only at the MSC is this re-coded into an "analogue" signal (although actually this will almost certainly mean sound is encoded digitally as a pulse-code modulation (PCM) signal in a 64-kbit/s timeslot, known as a DS0 in America). There are various different names for MSCs in different contexts which reflects their complex role in

9425-408: The GSM network, for example, the location update messages received as mobile phones roam around. The HLR connects to the following elements: The main function of the HLR is to manage the fact that SIMs and phones move around a lot. The following procedures are implemented to deal with this: The authentication center (AuC) is a function to authenticate each SIM card that attempts to connect to

9570-499: The HLR, although this is not necessary. Whilst the procedure is secure for most everyday use, it is by no means hack proof. Therefore, a new set of security methods was designed for 3G phones. In practice, A3 and A8 algorithms are generally implemented together (known as A3/A8, see COMP128 ). An A3/A8 algorithm is implemented in Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards and in GSM network Authentication Centers. It

9715-579: The Internet and the depletion of available IPv4 addresses , a new version of IP IPv6 , was developed in the mid-1990s, which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of Internet traffic. IPv6 uses 128 bits for the IP address and was standardized in 1998. IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s and is currently in growing deployment around the world, since Internet address registries ( RIRs ) began to urge all resource managers to plan rapid adoption and conversion. IPv6

9860-685: The Internet are contained in specially designated RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards . Other less rigorous documents are simply informative, experimental, or historical, or document the best current practices (BCP) when implementing Internet technologies. The Internet carries many applications and services , most prominently the World Wide Web, including social media , electronic mail , mobile applications , multiplayer online games , Internet telephony , file sharing , and streaming media services. Most servers that provide these services are today hosted in data centers , and content

10005-444: The Internet can then be accessed from places such as a park bench. Experiments have also been conducted with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet , various high-speed data services over cellular networks, and fixed wireless services. Modern smartphones can also access the Internet through the cellular carrier network. For Web browsing, these devices provide applications such as Google Chrome , Safari , and Firefox and

10150-618: The Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world" . Its members include individuals (anyone may join) as well as corporations, organizations , governments, and universities. Among other activities ISOC provides an administrative home for a number of less formally organized groups that are involved in developing and managing the Internet, including: the IETF, Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). On 16 November 2005,

10295-444: The Internet model is the Internet Protocol (IP). IP enables internetworking and, in essence, establishes the Internet itself. Two versions of the Internet Protocol exist, IPv4 and IPv6 . For locating individual computers on the network, the Internet provides IP addresses . IP addresses are used by the Internet infrastructure to direct internet packets to their destinations. They consist of fixed-length numbers, which are found within

10440-514: The Internet via local computer networks. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi cafés, where users need to bring their own wireless devices, such as a laptop or PDA . These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks . Commercial Wi-Fi services that cover large areas are available in many cities, such as New York , London , Vienna , Toronto , San Francisco , Philadelphia , Chicago and Pittsburgh , where

10585-711: The Internet was included on USA Today ' s list of the New Seven Wonders . The word internetted was used as early as 1849, meaning interconnected or interwoven . The word Internet was used in 1945 by the United States War Department in a radio operator's manual, and in 1974 as the shorthand form of Internetwork. Today, the term Internet most commonly refers to the global system of interconnected computer networks , though it may also refer to any group of smaller networks. When it came into common use, most publications treated

10730-451: The Internet when needed to perform a function or obtain information, represent the bottom of the routing hierarchy. At the top of the routing hierarchy are the tier 1 networks , large telecommunication companies that exchange traffic directly with each other via very high speed fiber-optic cables and governed by peering agreements. Tier 2 and lower-level networks buy Internet transit from other providers to reach at least some parties on

10875-711: The Internet, the Internet Protocol address (IP address) space and the Domain Name System (DNS), are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise. In November 2006,

11020-427: The MSC include: The home location register (HLR) is a central database that contains details of each mobile phone subscriber that is authorized to use the GSM core network. There can be several logical, and physical, HLRs per public land mobile network (PLMN), though one international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI)/MSISDN pair can be associated with only one logical HLR (which can span several physical nodes) at

11165-512: The MSC to use during the procedure. The security of the process depends upon a shared secret between the AuC and the SIM called the K i . The K i is securely burned into the SIM during manufacture and is also securely replicated onto the AuC. This K i is never transmitted between the AuC and SIM, but is combined with the IMSI to produce a challenge/response for identification purposes and an encryption key called K c for use in over

11310-601: The MSC. When a particular IMSI requests access to the GSM core network, the MSC sends the RAND part of the triplet to the SIM. The SIM then feeds this number and the K i (which is burned onto the SIM) into the A3 algorithm as appropriate and an SRES is calculated and sent back to the MSC. If this SRES matches with the SRES in the triplet (which it should if it is a valid SIM), then the mobile

11455-471: The NSFNET and Europe was installed between Cornell University and CERN , allowing much more robust communications than were capable with satellites. Later in 1990, Tim Berners-Lee began writing WorldWideWeb , the first web browser , after two years of lobbying CERN management. By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web: the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 0.9,

11600-507: The Pacific and in Africa. The number of unique mobile cellular subscriptions increased from 3.9 billion in 2012 to 4.8 billion in 2016, two-thirds of the world's population, with more than half of subscriptions located in Asia and the Pacific. The number of subscriptions was predicted to rise to 5.7 billion users in 2020. As of 2018 , 80% of the world's population were covered by

11745-508: The UK by 1993, called the DCS 1800. Also that year, Telstra became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995 fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, the first 1900 MHz GSM network became operational in the United States and GSM subscribers worldwide exceeded 10 million. In

11890-813: The UK's national research and education network , JANET . Common methods of Internet access by users include dial-up with a computer modem via telephone circuits, broadband over coaxial cable , fiber optics or copper wires, Wi-Fi , satellite , and cellular telephone technology (e.g. 3G , 4G ). The Internet may often be accessed from computers in libraries and Internet cafés . Internet access points exist in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops. Various terms are used, such as public Internet kiosk , public access terminal , and Web payphone . Many hotels also have public terminals that are usually fee-based. These terminals are widely accessed for various usages, such as ticket booking, bank deposit, or online payment . Wi-Fi provides wireless access to

12035-826: The United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues. The communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. As with any computer network, the Internet physically consists of routers , media (such as cabling and radio links), repeaters, modems etc. However, as an example of internetworking , many of

12180-672: The United States Department of Defense (DoD). Research into packet switching , one of the fundamental Internet technologies, started in the work of Paul Baran at RAND in the early 1960s and, independently, Donald Davies at the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in 1965. After the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in 1967, packet switching from the proposed NPL network and routing concepts proposed by Baran were incorporated into

12325-461: The United States surpassed those of cable television and nearly exceeded those of broadcast television . Many common online advertising practices are controversial and increasingly subject to regulation. When the Web developed in the 1990s, a typical web page was stored in completed form on a web server, formatted in HTML , ready for transmission to a web browser in response to a request. Over time,

12470-542: The United States; A5/2 is weaker and used in other countries. Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms: it is possible to break A5/2 in real-time with a ciphertext-only attack , and in January 2007, The Hacker's Choice started the A5/1 cracking project with plans to use FPGAs that allow A5/1 to be broken with a rainbow table attack. The system supports multiple algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with

12615-427: The abundance of dual-SIM handsets and operators. GSM was intended to be a secure wireless system. It has considered the user authentication using a pre-shared key and challenge–response , and over-the-air encryption. However, GSM is vulnerable to different types of attack, each of them aimed at a different part of the network. Research findings indicate that GSM faces susceptibility to hacking by script kiddies ,

12760-405: The air communications. The AuC connects to the following elements: The AuC stores the following data for each IMSI: When the MSC asks the AuC for a new set of triplets for a particular IMSI, the AuC first generates a random number known as RAND . This RAND is then combined with the K i to produce two numbers as follows: The numbers ( RAND , SRES, K c ) form the triplet sent back to

12905-418: The architectural design of the Internet software systems has been assumed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. The resulting contributions and standards are published as Request for Comments (RFC) documents on the IETF web site. The principal methods of networking that enable

13050-412: The beginning of the Internet as an intercontinental network. Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) emerged in 1989 in the United States and Australia. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. Steady advances in semiconductor technology and optical networking created new economic opportunities for commercial involvement in the expansion of the network in its core and for delivering services to

13195-456: The bottom of the architecture is the link layer , which connects nodes on the same physical link, and contains protocols that do not require routers for traversal to other links. The protocol suite does not explicitly specify hardware methods to transfer bits, or protocols to manage such hardware, but assumes that appropriate technology is available. Examples of that technology include Wi-Fi , Ethernet , and DSL . The most prominent component of

13340-414: The calls of selected users. There must be some level of support for this built into any of the different elements. The concept of lawful interception is also known, following the relevant U.S. law, as CALEA . Generally, lawful Interception implementation is similar to the implementation of conference call. While A and B are talking with each other, C can join the call and listen silently. GSM It

13485-455: The complex array of physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts, e.g., peering agreements , and by technical specifications or protocols that describe the exchange of data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is defined by its interconnections and routing policies. A subnetwork or subnet is a logical subdivision of an IP network . The practice of dividing

13630-507: The concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain, and the timing advance . GSM supports indoor coverage – achievable by using an indoor picocell base station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters – to deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate indoor distributed antenna system. Picocells are typically deployed when significant call capacity

13775-613: The design of the ARPANET , an experimental resource sharing network proposed by ARPA. ARPANET development began with two network nodes which were interconnected between the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) on 29 October 1969. The third site was at the University of California, Santa Barbara , followed by the University of Utah . In

13920-528: The development of packet switching in the 1960s and the design of computer networks for data communication . The set of rules ( communication protocols ) to enable internetworking on the Internet arose from research and development commissioned in the 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense in collaboration with universities and researchers across

14065-434: The development of new networking technologies and the merger of many networks using DARPA's Internet protocol suite . The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s, as well as the advent of the World Wide Web , marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal , and mobile computers were connected to

14210-537: The development of the first international mobile communications standard with subsequent evolution into worldwide smartphone data communication". The GSM (2G) has evolved into 3G, 4G and 5G. In parallel France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986, the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM. It

14355-594: The documents and resources that they can provide. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the main access protocol of the World Wide Web. Web services also use HTTP for communication between software systems for information transfer, sharing and exchanging business data and logistics and is one of many languages or protocols that can be used for communication on the Internet. World Wide Web browser software, such as Microsoft 's Internet Explorer / Edge , Mozilla Firefox , Opera , Apple 's Safari , and Google Chrome , enable users to navigate from one web page to another via

14500-492: The first HSDPA -capable network also became operational. The first HSUPA network launched in 2007. ( High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and its uplink and downlink versions are 3G technologies, not part of GSM.) Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded three billion in 2008. The GSM Association estimated in 2011 that technologies defined in the GSM standard served 80% of the mobile market, encompassing more than 5 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories, making GSM

14645-453: The first Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) services first became operational in a network in 2003, and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005 GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the worldwide cellular network market, serving 1.5 billion subscribers. In 2005,

14790-485: The first address of a network, followed by a slash character ( / ), and ending with the bit-length of the prefix. For example, 198.51.100.0 / 24 is the prefix of the Internet Protocol version 4 network starting at the given address, having 24 bits allocated for the network prefix, and the remaining 8 bits reserved for host addressing. Addresses in the range 198.51.100.0 to 198.51.100.255 belong to this network. The IPv6 address specification 2001:db8:: / 32

14935-673: The first mobile network operator to decommission a GSM network. The second mobile provider to shut down its GSM network (on 1 January 2017) was AT&T Mobility from the United States . Optus in Australia completed the shut down of its 2G GSM network on 1 August 2017, part of the Optus GSM network covering Western Australia and the Northern Territory had earlier in the year been shut down in April 2017. Singapore shut down 2G services entirely in April 2017. The network

15080-429: The forwarding host (router) to other networks when no other route specification matches the destination IP address of a packet. While the hardware components in the Internet infrastructure can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the standardization process of the software that characterizes the Internet and provides the foundation for its scalability and success. The responsibility for

15225-645: The four big EU countries cemented their political support for GSM with the Bonn Declaration on Global Information Networks in May and the GSM MoU was tabled for signature in September. The MoU drew in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. In this short 38-week period the whole of Europe (countries and industries) had been brought behind GSM in

15370-416: The frequency selected by an operator, it is divided into timeslots for individual phones. This allows eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency . These eight radio timeslots (or burst periods) are grouped into a TDMA frame. Half-rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate for all 8 channels is 270.833 kbit/s, and the frame duration

15515-413: The gateway function and the visited MSC function. However, some manufacturers design dedicated high capacity MSCs which do not have any base station subsystems (BSS) connected to them. These MSCs will then be the gateway MSC for many of the calls they handle. The visited MSC (V-MSC) is the MSC where a customer is currently located. The visitor location register (VLR) associated with this MSC will have

15660-603: The global Internet, though they may also engage in peering. An ISP may use a single upstream provider for connectivity, or implement multihoming to achieve redundancy and load balancing. Internet exchange points are major traffic exchanges with physical connections to multiple ISPs. Large organizations, such as academic institutions, large enterprises, and governments, may perform the same function as ISPs, engaging in peering and purchasing transit on behalf of their internal networks. Research networks tend to interconnect with large subnetworks such as GEANT , GLORIAD , Internet2 , and

15805-661: The hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information and be attracted to the corporation as a result. Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce , which is the sale of products and services directly via the Web, continues to grow. Online advertising is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising . In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in

15950-505: The hyperlinks embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain any combination of computer data , including graphics, sounds, text , video , multimedia and interactive content that runs while the user is interacting with the page. Client-side software can include animations, games , office applications and scientific demonstrations. Through keyword -driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! , Bing and Google , users worldwide have easy, instant access to

16095-579: The key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module , commonly known as a SIM card . The SIM is a detachable smart card containing a user's subscription information and phone book. This allows users to retain their information after switching handsets. Alternatively, users can change networks or network identities without switching handsets - simply by changing the SIM. Sometimes mobile network operators restrict handsets that they sell for exclusive use in their own network. This

16240-485: The late 1990s, it was estimated that traffic on the public Internet grew by 100 percent per year, while the mean annual growth in the number of Internet users was thought to be between 20% and 50%. This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over

16385-419: The legacy EIR: Other functions may be required in individual cases. For example, Kazakhstan has introduced mandatory registration of devices and their binding to subscribers. But when a subscriber appears in the network with a new device, the network operation is not blocked completely, and the subscriber is allowed to register the device. To do this, there are blocked all services, except the following: calls to

16530-414: The main source of cellular technology in numerous countries, its susceptibility to potential threats from malicious attacks is one that needs to be addressed. The development of UMTS introduced an optional Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), that uses a longer authentication key to give greater security, as well as mutually authenticating the network and the user, whereas GSM only authenticates

16675-531: The mobile switching center, which provides circuit-switched calling mobility management, and GSM services to the mobile phones roaming within the area that it serves. The functionality enables split control between (signaling ) and user plane (bearer in network element called as media gateway/MG), which guarantees better placement of network elements within the network. MSS and media gateway (MGW) makes it possible to cross-connect circuit-switched calls switched by using IP, ATM AAL2 as well as TDM . More information

16820-598: The most ubiquitous of the many standards for cellular networks. GSM is a second-generation (2G) standard employing time-division multiple-access (TDMA) spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The GSM standard does not include the 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology, nor the 4G LTE orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technology standards issued by

16965-462: The network nodes are not necessarily Internet equipment per se. The internet packets are carried by other full-fledged networking protocols with the Internet acting as a homogeneous networking standard, running across heterogeneous hardware, with the packets guided to their destinations by IP routers. Internet service providers (ISPs) establish the worldwide connectivity between individual networks at various levels of scope. End-users who only access

17110-504: The network, all of these terms though could refer to the same MSC, but doing different things at different times. The gateway MSC (G-MSC) is the MSC that determines which "visited MSC" (V-MSC) the subscriber who is being called is currently located at. It also interfaces with the PSTN. All mobile to mobile calls and PSTN to mobile calls are routed through a G-MSC. The term is only valid in the context of one call, since any MSC may provide both

17255-412: The network. As of 31 March 2011 , the estimated total number of Internet users was 2.095 billion (30% of world population ). It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication . By 2000 this figure had grown to 51%, and by 2007 more than 97% of all telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet. The Internet

17400-1058: The network. Although the Internet was widely used by academia in the 1980s, the subsequent commercialization in the 1990s and beyond incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life. Most traditional communication media, including telephone , radio , television , paper mail, and newspapers, are reshaped, redefined, or even bypassed by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as email , Internet telephone , Internet television , online music , digital newspapers, and video streaming websites. Newspapers, books, and other print publishing have adapted to website technology or have been reshaped into blogging , web feeds , and online news aggregators . The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interaction through instant messaging , Internet forums , and social networking services . Online shopping has grown exponentially for major retailers, small businesses , and entrepreneurs , as it enables firms to extend their " brick and mortar " presence to serve

17545-414: The networking technologies that interconnect networks at their borders and exchange traffic across them. The Internet layer implements the Internet Protocol (IP) which enables computers to identify and locate each other by IP address and route their traffic via intermediate (transit) networks. The Internet Protocol layer code is independent of the type of network that it is physically running over. At

17690-480: The new location of that MS. If VLR data is corrupted it can lead to serious issues with text messaging and call services. Data stored include: The primary functions of the VLR are: EIR is a system that handles real-time requests to check the IMEI (checkIMEI) of mobile devices that come from the switching equipment (MSC, SGSN , MME ). The answer contains the result of the check: The switching equipment must use

17835-466: The open-source version. As of 2011 , there have been no lawsuits against users of OpenBTS over GSM use. Internet The Internet (or internet ) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private , public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by

17980-481: The packet. IP addresses are generally assigned to equipment either automatically via DHCP , or are configured. However, the network also supports other addressing systems. Users generally enter domain names (e.g. "en.wikipedia.org") instead of IP addresses because they are easier to remember; they are converted by the Domain Name System (DNS) into IP addresses which are more efficient for routing purposes. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as

18125-459: The phones are not fixed in one location. The NSS originally consisted of the circuit-switched core network , used for traditional GSM services such as voice calls, SMS , and circuit switched data calls. It was extended with an overlay architecture to provide packet-switched data services known as the GPRS core network . This allows mobile phones to have access to services such as WAP , MMS and

18270-435: The principal name spaces of the Internet are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other non-commercial communities. ICANN coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers for use on the Internet, including domain names , IP addresses, application port numbers in

18415-586: The process of creating and serving web pages has become dynamic, creating a flexible design, layout, and content. Websites are often created using content management software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of an organization or the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose while casual visitors view and read this content in HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into

18560-442: The public. In mid-1989, MCI Mail and Compuserve established connections to the Internet, delivering email and public access products to the half million users of the Internet. Just months later, on 1 January 1990, PSInet launched an alternate Internet backbone for commercial use; one of the networks that added to the core of the commercial Internet of later years. In March 1990, the first high-speed T1 (1.5 Mbit/s) link between

18705-469: The region had a handful of plans to choose from (across all mobile network operators) while others, such as Colombia , offered as many as 30 pre-paid and 34 post-paid plans. A study of eight countries in the Global South found that zero-rated data plans exist in every country, although there is a great range in the frequency with which they are offered and actually used in each. The study looked at

18850-590: The rise of near-instant communication by email, instant messaging , telephony ( Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP), two-way interactive video calls , and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums , blogs, social networking services , and online shopping sites. Increasing amounts of data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, or more. The Internet continues to grow, driven by ever-greater amounts of online information and knowledge, commerce, entertainment and social networking services. During

18995-523: The same year, the GSM Association formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998. In 2000 the first commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services were launched and the first GPRS-compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001, the first UMTS (W-CDMA) network was launched, a 3G technology that is not part of GSM. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002,

19140-458: The signal. GSM was further enhanced in 1997 with the enhanced full rate (EFR) codec, a 12.2 kbit/s codec that uses a full-rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS , EFR was refactored into a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband , which is high quality and robust against interference when used on full-rate channels, or less robust but still relatively high quality when used in good radio conditions on half-rate channel. One of

19285-452: The subnet mask for the prefix 198.51.100.0 / 24 . Traffic is exchanged between subnetworks through routers when the routing prefixes of the source address and the destination address differ. A router serves as a logical or physical boundary between the subnets. The benefits of subnetting an existing network vary with each deployment scenario. In the address allocation architecture of the Internet using CIDR and in large organizations, it

19430-408: The subscriber's data in it. The anchor MSC is the MSC from which a handover has been initiated. The target MSC is the MSC toward which a handover should take place. A mobile switching center server is a part of the redesigned MSC concept starting from 3GPP Release 4 . The mobile switching center server is a soft-switch variant (therefore it may be referred to as mobile soft switch, MSS) of

19575-462: The top three to five carriers by market share in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru and Philippines. Across the 181 plans examined, 13 percent were offering zero-rated services. Another study, covering Ghana , Kenya , Nigeria and South Africa , found Facebook 's Free Basics and Misplaced Pages Zero to be the most commonly zero-rated content. The Internet standards describe

19720-405: The transport protocols, and many other parameters. Globally unified name spaces are essential for maintaining the global reach of the Internet. This role of ICANN distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body for the global Internet. Regional Internet registries (RIRs) were established for five regions of the world. The African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) for Africa ,

19865-400: The types of data channel they were allocated, were used, called Half Rate (6.5 kbit/s) and Full Rate (13 kbit/s). These used a system based on linear predictive coding (LPC). In addition to being efficient with bitrates , these codecs also made it easier to identify more important parts of the audio, allowing the air interface layer to prioritize and better protect these parts of

20010-415: The user to the network (and not vice versa). The security model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but limited authorization capabilities, and no non-repudiation . GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1 , A5/2 , and A5/3 stream ciphers are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed first and is a stronger algorithm used within Europe and

20155-455: The volume of Internet traffic started experiencing similar characteristics as that of the scaling of MOS transistors , exemplified by Moore's law , doubling every 18 months. This growth, formalized as Edholm's law , was catalyzed by advances in MOS technology , laser light wave systems, and noise performance. Since 1995, the Internet has tremendously impacted culture and commerce, including

20300-535: The web. The most commonly deployed GPRS ciphers were publicly broken in 2011. The researchers revealed flaws in the commonly used GEA/1 and GEA/2 (standing for GPRS Encryption Algorithms 1 and 2) ciphers and published the open-source "gprsdecode" software for sniffing GPRS networks. They also noted that some carriers do not encrypt the data (i.e., using GEA/0) in order to detect the use of traffic or protocols they do not like (e.g., Skype ), leaving customers unprotected. GEA/3 seems to remain relatively hard to break and

20445-533: The word Internet as a capitalized proper noun ; this has become less common. This reflects the tendency in English to capitalize new terms and move them to lowercase as they become familiar. The word is sometimes still capitalized to distinguish the global internet from smaller networks, though many publications, including the AP Stylebook since 2016, recommend the lowercase form in every case. In 2016,

20590-467: Was actually made by me. I called Marjo Jousinen, in Salo.", Lonka informed. The following year saw the sending of the first short messaging service (SMS or "text message") message, and Vodafone UK and Telecom Finland signed the first international roaming agreement. Work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in

20735-776: Was first implemented in Finland in December 1991. By the mid-2010s, it became a global standard for mobile communications achieving over 90% market share, and operating in over 193 countries and territories. 2G networks developed as a replacement for first generation ( 1G ) analog cellular networks. The GSM standard originally described a digital, circuit-switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony . This expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit-switched transport , then by packet data transport via General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Subsequently,

20880-478: Was long believed that the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri made the world's first GSM call on 1 July 1991, calling Kaarina Suonio (deputy mayor of the city of Tampere ) using a network built by Nokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja . In 2021 a former Nokia engineer Pekka Lonka revealed to Helsingin Sanomat making a test call just a couple of hours earlier. "World's first GSM call

21025-558: Was the first financial institution to offer online Internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994. In 1996, OP Financial Group , also a cooperative bank , became the second online bank in the world and the first in Europe. By 1995, the Internet was fully commercialized in the U.S. when the NSFNet was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic. As technology advanced and commercial opportunities fueled reciprocal growth,

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