Internet topology

Internet topology deals with finding the topological structure of the Internet. It is daunting to map the entire hierarchy due to the rate at which the network is growing. The effort to map the Internet is usually incomplete and out of date the moment it appears. Internet topology has attracted interest from various disciplines including mathematical sciences, computer science and physics.

The networking researcher's motivation for studying Internet-specific topologies is to enable prediction of how new technologies, policies, or economic conditions will impact the Internet’s connectivity structure at different layers, whereas a physicist is interested in studying the Internet as any other complex network. This has led to many models being proposed including the Jellyfish and Bow Tie models to physically represent the structure of the Internet.[1][2]

Fortunately, nobody owns the Internet, there is no centralized control, and nobody can turn it off. Its evolution depends on rough consensus about technical proposals, and on running code. Engineering feed-back from real implementations is more important than any architectural principles.

Source : www.wikipedia.com