E-COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE

T H E I N T E R N E T, W E B A N D M O B I L E P L AT F O R M
INTRODUCTION

• What is the Internet?

• Where did it come from, and how did it support the growth of the
Web?
• What are the Internet’s most important operating principles?
• How much do you really need to know about the technology of the
Internet?
 INTRODUCTION…

• The word Internet is derived from the word internetwork,

• the connecting together of two or more computer networks.

• Internet
– an interconnected network of thousands of networks and millions of
computers linking businesses, educational institutions, government
agencies, and individuals
– A network of networks
INTRODUCTION…

• The Internet provides approximately 3.3 billion people around the

world with services such as;
– e-mail, - apps,
– newsgroups, - shopping,
– research, - instant messaging
– music, - videos, and news
• No single organization controls the Internet or
• how it functions,
• nor is it owned by anybody,
 KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS

• Packet switching - a method of slicing digital messages into packets,

– sending the packets along different communication paths as they become
available, and then
– reassembling the packets once they arrive at their destination
• Packets - the discrete units into which digital messages are sliced for
transmission over the Internet
– In packet switching, digital messages are divided into fixed-length packets
of bits
KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS…

– Header information indicates;

1. Origin and the ultimate destination address of the packet,
2. Size of the message, and
3. Number of packets the receiving node should expect.
• The packets travel from computer to computer until they reach their
destination.
• These computers are called routers.
KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS…
 KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS…

• Router - special-purpose computer that interconnects the computer

networks that make up the Internet and routes packets to their ultimate
destination.
– To ensure that packets take the best available path toward their destination,
routers use a computer program called a routing algorithm.
• Routing algorithm - program that ensures that packets take the best
available path toward their destination
KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS…
 KEY TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS…

• The Internet uses packet-switched networks and

• the TCP/IP communications protocol to send, route, and assemble
messages.
• Messages are broken into packets, and
• packets from the same message can travel along different routes.
TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL -
(TCP/IP)
• There was no universally agreed-upon method for breaking up digital
messages into packets,
• routing them to the proper address, and
• reassembling them into a coherent message
• The answer was to develop a protocol
• Protocol - set of rules and standards for data transfer
• TCP/IP has become the core communications protocol for the Internet
• Core communications protocol for the Internet
TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET
PROTOCOL - (TCP/IP)…

• TCP - establishes connections among sending and receiving

computers and handles assembly and reassembly of packets
– makes sure that packets sent by one computer are received in the
same sequence by the other, without any packets missing
• IP - provides the Internet’s addressing scheme and is responsible for
delivery of packet
 TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL - (TCP/IP)…

• TCP/IP is divided into four separate layers,

• Each layer handles a different aspect of the communication problem
– Network Interface Layer - responsible for placing packets on and
receiving them from the network medium
– Internet Layer - responsible for addressing, packaging, and routing
messages on the Internet
– Transport Layer - responsible for providing communication with other
protocols within TCP/IP suite
– Application Layer - includes protocols used to provide user services or
exchange data
 TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET
PROTOCOL - (TCP/IP)…
• One of the most important is the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP),
– Enables the exchange of routing information among different autonomous
systems on the Internet.
• BGP uses TCP as its transport protocol.
• Other important protocols included in the Application layer are
– HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
– File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and
– Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP),
TCP/IP ARCHITECTURE
 TCP/IP ARCHITECTURE

• TCP/IP is an industry-standard suite of protocols for large

internetworks.
• The purpose of TCP/IP is to provide high-speed communication
network links.
 IP ADDRESSES
• The IP addressing scheme answers the question
– “How can billions of computers attached to the Internet communicate with
one another?”
• The answer is that every computer connected to the Internet must be
assigned an address -
• otherwise it cannot send or receive TCP packets
• When you sign onto the Internet using a dial-up, DSL, or cable modem,
• Your computer is assigned a temporary address by the ISP
IP ADDRESSES

• There are two versions of IP currently in use:

– IPv4 and IPv6.
• An IPv4 Internet address is a 32-bit number that appears as a
series of four separate numbers marked off by periods,
– such as 64.49.254.91.
• Each of the four numbers can range from 0–255.
• This “dotted quad” addressing scheme supports up to about 4 billion
addresses (2 to the 32nd power).
IP ADDRESSES

• With all the new networks and new Internet-enabled devices requiring
unique IP addresses being attached to the Internet,
• the number of IPv4 addresses available to be assigned has shrunk
significantly.
• IPv6 was created to address this problem.
• An IPv6 Internet address is 128 bits,
• It can support up to 2128 (3.4×1038) addresses, many more than IPv4.
 DOMAIN NAMES, DNS AND URLS

• Most people cannot remember 32-bit numbers.

• An IP address can be represented by a natural language convention called
a domain name.
• Domain name - IP address expressed in natural language
• Domain Name System (DNS) - system for expressing numeric IP
addresses in natural language
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - the address used by a web browser
to identify the location of content on the Web
• Domain name is part of the URL.
DOMAIN NAMES, DNS AND URLS

• It includes the protocol being used to access the address,

CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING
• While packet switching exploded the available communications
capacity,
• TCP/IP provided the communications rules and regulations,
• It took a revolution in computing to bring about today’s Internet and
the Web.
• That revolution is called client/server computing and
• Without it, the Web—in all its richness—would not exist.
 CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING

• client/server computing - a model of computing in which client

computers are connected in a network together with one or more servers
• Client - a powerful desktop computer that is part of a network
– User machines
• Server - networked computer dedicated to common functions that the
client computers on the network need
• Servers are computers that are dedicated to performing common
functions that the client computers on the network need, such as;
– file storage,
CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING

– software applications,
– printing, and
– Internet access.
• The client computers are themselves sufficiently powerful to
accomplish complex tasks.
 THE NEW CLIENT – MOBILE PLATFORM

• There’s a new client.

• The primary means of accessing the Internet worldwide is now through
– highly portable smartphones and tablet computers.
• The primary platform for e-commerce products and services is also
changing to a mobile platform.
• The change in hardware has reached a tipping point.
• The form factor of PCs has changed from desktops to
• Laptops and tablet computers such as the iPad.
THE NEW CLIENT – MOBILE PLATFORM

– Lighter,
– do not require a complex operating system, and
– rely on the Internet cloud to provide processing and storage.
• Smartphones do not use power-hungry hard drives
• They use flash memory chips with storage up to 128 gigabytes that
also require much less power.
• In 2016, over 2.5 billion people used mobile phones to access the
Internet (eMarketer, Inc., 2016d).
 THE INTERNET CLOUD COMPUTING MODEL
• A model of computing in which computer processing, storage, software,
and other services are provided as a shared pool of virtualized resources
over the Internet
• Can be accessed on an as-needed basis from any connected device and
location.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING
– On-demand self-service: obtain computing capabilities such as server time
or network storage as needed automatically on their own.
– Ubiquitous network access: Cloud resources can be accessed using
standard network and Internet devices.
– Location-independent resource pooling: Computing resources are pooled
to serve multiple users, with different virtual resources dynamically assigned
according to user demand.
– Rapid elasticity: Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned,
increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand.
– Measured service: Charges are based on the amount of resources actually
used.
 SERVICES

• Cloud computing consists of three basic types of services:

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Customers use processing, storage,
networking, and other computing resources from third-party providers
– These called cloud service providers (CSPs) to run their information
systems.
• For example,
• Amazon used the spare capacity of its information technology
infrastructure to develop Amazon Web Services (AWS)
– AWS offers a cloud environment for a myriad of different IT infrastructure
services.
 SERVICES
• Software as a service (SaaS): Customers use software hosted by the
vendor on the vendor’s cloud infrastructure and delivered as a service
over a network.
• Leading SaaS examples are Google Apps –
– provides common business applications online, and Salesforce.com,
– provides customer relationship management and related software services
over the Internet.
– Both charge users an annual subscription fee
– Users access these applications from a web browser
SERVICES

• Platform as a service (PaaS): Customers use infrastructure and

programming tools supported by the CSP to develop their own
applications.
– IBM offers Bluemix for software development and testing on its
cloud infrastructure.
– Salesforce.com’s Force.com, - allows developers to build applications
that are hosted on its servers as a service.
 TYPES OF CLOUD

• A cloud can be private, public, or hybrid.

• Public cloud - third-party service providers that own and manage large,
scalable data centers that offer computing, data storage, and high speed
Internet to multiple customers
– Pay for only the resources they use
• Private cloud - provides similar options as public cloud but only to a
single tenant
• hybrid cloud - offers customers both a public cloud and a private cloud
TYPES OF CLOUD
 TYPES OF CLOUD

• Unless users make provisions for storing their data locally,

• The responsibility for data storage and control is in the hands of the
provider.
• Some companies worry about the security risks related to entrusting their
critical data and systems to an outside vendor.
• Companies expect their systems to be available 24/7 and
• Do not want to suffer any loss of business capability if cloud
infrastructures malfunction.
IMPLICATION FOR E-COMMERCE

• Reduces the cost of building and operating websites – licensed as a

service from CSPs
 INTERNET PROTOCOLS AND UTILITY
• There are many other Internet protocols and utility programs that provide
services to users.
• The services are based on universally accepted protocols—or standards
• They are not owned by any organization, -
• Services developed over many years and made available to all Internet
users.
• HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - the Internet protocol used for
transferring web pages
– developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF).
INTERNET PROTOCOLS AND UTILITY

• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) - the Internet protocol

used to send mail to a server
• Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) - a protocol used by the client to
retrieve mail from an Internet server
• Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) - e-mail protocol that
allows users to search, organize, and filter their mail prior to
downloading it from the server
 INTERNET PROTOCOLS AND UTILITY

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - one of the original Internet services.

– Part of the TCP/IP protocol that permits users to transfer files from the
server to their client computer, and vice versa
• Telnet - a terminal emulation program that runs in TCP/IP
– used to allow remote login on another computer.
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) /Transport Layer Security (TLS) -
protocols that secure communications between the client and the server
INTERNET PROTOCOLS AND UTILITY

• Helps secure e-commerce communications and payments through a

variety of techniques, such as;
– Message encryption and digital signatures,
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

• A company that provides access to the Internet to both personal and

business customers.
• In Uganda include;
– MTN,
– Airtel,
– Roke Telkom, and
– Liquid Telecom 
– RENU – Research and Education Network for Uganda
 INTRANETS

• A TCP/IP network located within a single organization for purposes of

communications and information processing
• Uses Internet technologies
• all the applications available on the public Internet can be used in private
intranets.
• The largest provider of local area network software is Microsoft,
followed by open source Linux,
• Both use TCP/IP networking protocols.
 WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET

• The Internet is tied into a complex web of governing bodies, national

governments, and international professional societies.
• There is no one single governing organization that controls activity
on the Internet.
• Instead, there are a number of organizations that influence the system
and monitor its operations.
• Among the governing bodies of the Internet are:
WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET…

• The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) –

coordinates the Internet’s systems of unique identifiers:
– IP addresses, protocol parameter registries, and the top-level domain
systems.
• The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - an open international
community of network operators, vendors, and researchers
– Concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and operation of
the Internet.
– Has a number of working groups, organized into several different areas,
– Develop and promote Internet standards, which influence the way people
use and manage the Internet.
 WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET…

• The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) - focuses on the evolution of the
Internet.
– The IRTF has a number of long-term research groups working on various
topics such as;
• Internet protocols,
• applications, and technology.
• The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) - responsible for
technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards process.
• The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) - define the overall architecture of the
Internet and oversees the IETF and IRTF.
 WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET…

• The Internet Society (ISOC) - a consortium of corporations, government

agencies, and nonprofit organizations that monitors Internet policies and
practices.
• The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - a multi-stakeholder open forum
for debate on issues related to Internet governance.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - sets HTML and other
programming standards for the Web.
– largely academic group
 WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET…

• The Internet Network Operators Groups (NOGs) - discuss and attempt to

influence matters related to Internet operations and regulation.
• Informal groups that are made up of ISPs, IXPs, and others that
• While none of these organizations has actual control over the Internet and
how it functions, they can and do influence;
– government agencies,
– major network owners,
– ISPs, corporations, and
– software developers with the goal of keeping the Internet operating as
efficiently as possible.
 LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT INTERNET
• Bandwidth limitations. Insufficient capacity throughout the backbone
• Quality of service limitations. Today’s information packets take a
circuitous route to get to their final destinations.
• creates the phenomenon of latency—delays in messages caused by the
uneven flow of information packets
• Network architecture limitations.
• Wired Internet. The Internet is still largely based on cables - restricts
mobility of users
 THE WEB
• Without the Web, there would be no e-commerce.
• The invention of the Web brought an extraordinary expansion of digital
services to millions of amateur computer users, including
– color text and pages,
– formatted text,
– pictures,
– animations,
– video, and
– sound.
• While the Internet was born in the 1960s,
• the Web was not invented until 1989–1991 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee of
the European Particle Physics Laboratory,
• Better known as CERN (Berners-Lee et al., 1994).
• The early Web was based on text only;
• the original web browser only provided a line interface.
• Information shared on the Web remained text-based until 1993,
– Marc Andreessen and others at the University of Illinois created a web
browser with a graphical user interface (GUI) - Mosaic
 WEB BROWSERS
• A web browser is a software program whose primary purpose is to
display web pages.
• Browsers also have added features, such as e-mail and newsgroups;
– an online discussion group or forum.
• Popular web browsers;
– Google Chrome, - Google corporation
– Internet Explorer, Edge - Microsoft
– Mozilla Firefox - Netscape
– Safari - Apple
 THE INTERNET AND THE WEB: FEATURES AND SERVICED
• The Internet and the Web have spawned a number of powerful software
applications upon which the foundations of e-commerce are built.
• E-mail - enable transfer of messages from one Internet user to another
– containing text, images, sound, and video clips
– e-mail also allows attachments - files inserted within the e-mail message.
• Instant messaging (IM) - displays text entered almost instantaneously.
– allows you to send messages in real time,
– Recipients can then respond immediately to the sender the same way,
 THE INTERNET AND THE WEB: FEATURES AND SERVICED

• online message board - a web application that allows Internet users

to communicate with each other, although not in real time
• IP telephony - a general term for the technologies that use VoIP and
the Internet’s packet switched network to transmit voice and other
forms of audio communication over the Internet
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - protocol that allows for
transmission of voice and other forms of audio communication over
the Internet
 THE INTERNET AND THE WEB: FEATURES AND SERVICED

• Video Conferencing, Video Chatting, and Telepresence

• Telepresence creates an environment in a room using multiple cameras
and screens, which surround the users.