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Quality of Service | Internet sector analysis Internet background

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The Internet first emerged during the Cold War, and was created for military purposes in order to the American armed forces maintain communications when the enemy attacks. For years, both scientists and researchers used it to communicate/share data with each other. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, it has also become an important tool for academic communication, where students and professors, mainly from the USA, exchanged messages, ideas and discoveries.

Only in the 1990s the Internet began to expand, and the so-called "browsers" such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer began to arise and started being used by various social groups, from young people just looking for fun gaming websites, the unemployed looking for jobs and companies who saw on the Internet a great way to make themselves known as profits began to shoot, especially with the internet and online sales has thus become a true virtual shopping centre. According to the Internet World Stats, from the 1990s until 2003, over 600 million people were connected to the network.

In 2006 the new era of the Internet appears through social networks that have been gaining more and more space in people's lives. It is a way to communicate with friends and connections, but are also tools increasingly required by businesses worldwide that see these networks as a way to spread their products and services. For instance, social networks are for everyone, without exception and its use is unlimited. Another "fever" which also appeared more or less by this period, were the collective purchases websites that make the intermediation between end users and businesses.

“History of the Internet Timeline”

Source: Marketing and Advertising by Stephanie White

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Internet today

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When the Internet arose there was not the perception of the need for Quality of Service (QoS), and it was considered as a "best effort" service. In the most recent years we have been observed an increasing use of new technologies and the countries that are part of Europe are no exception. Today the situation changed and the Internet became an integral and essential part of our lives and it is impossible to think of the world and the future without it. Staying connected has become a necessity, allowing more than the simple exchange of messages, emails or browsing static pages. Real-time applications such as video streaming, VoIP, intensive bandwidth services, as it happens with P2P file sharing, require ISPs to make available to its customers an Internet access that gives them real guarantees that the contracted service allows them to have a good user experience in various occasions and services. Internet service providers, regulators and the operators themselves have been faced with a growing need for increased bandwidth for end users. It is however necessary to understand why even today it is common to talk about the Internet without a clear understanding about the services that are provided in terms of, for instance, the best quality of service and a better performance.

Currently, namely in Portugal, the Internet service providers (ISP) sell mainly based on the maximum transfer rate of its connections, for instance, the access speed. However, there are many other factors that influence the quality of experience (QoE) of the user, as is the case of net neutrality. Increasingly, we need to look for new ways to ensure a quality of service that ensures that it is suitable for each type of traffic and that customers are satisfied with the services provided.

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