The Global Structure of the Internet and Its Critical Infrastructure: World Cities and Telecommunications

人们、企业、政府和其他组织不仅依靠电信网络与他人进行通信，而且还将其作为重要的信息来源。 因特网及其网址已成为一个庞大的数据库，几乎与地球仪上的所有地点连接，但其关键的基础设施（如电话网络枢纽和与其他网络的互连点）集中在大城市。 这项研究的目的是将互联网分解成其组成网络，特别是跨越国界的大型全球网络，并将其地理位置确定为节点和链接。 该项目将确定在美国内外，特别是在亚洲，非洲，中东和拉丁美洲的互联网结构中新兴和成熟的集线器和网关。 该研究还将确定产业结构和位置的变化如何影响美国地方规模的电信基础设施，放松管制和竞争创造了新的但基本上无计划的关键基础设施模式。 电话网络仍然是家庭和企业互联网拨号和宽带接入的枢纽。 数以千计的电话系统中心局是当地接入因特网主干网和长途网络的接入点，是城市电信基础设施的聚集地。 该项目将利用地理信息系统来确定网络节点的重合，例如主要的共址设施、互连点和主要的数字交换线中心。 该研究将使用带宽定价数据来估计数十条路线上对数字信息实际流量的需求，并估计交通流量。 集中分析网络汇聚的世界城市将通过带宽价格的趋势来理清互联网连接的供求关系。 该研究是综合性和分析性的，旨在将美国近40，000个中心局交换机的详细特征与80个全球路由的定价数据趋势相结合。 全球和本地方面的研究合并后，只有蒸馏的中心局和电线中心的数据到一个较小的城市节点。电信网络是全球经济日益依赖的关键基础设施。这项研究将跟踪互联网/电信基础设施的持续发展，并将全球范围内的基础设施与世界城市网络联系起来。这项研究将监测关键的互联网和电信基础设施的主要本地要素，包括合用同一地点设施和大型有线中心。 该项目还将更新有关互联网基础设施范围及其网络上数据流动的知识。 随着电信业通过破产、兼并和收购进行整合，行业演变影响着网络的空间形式及其城市位置。

People, businesses, governments, and other organizations rely on telecommunications networks not only to communicate with others but also as a key source of information. The Internet and its web sites have become a vast database, linked to nearly all points on the globe, yet its critical infrastructure (such as hubs of telephone networks and interconnection points with other networks) is concentrated in large cities. This research is designed to unpack the Internet into its component networks, particularly the large global networks that span national boundaries, and to identify their geography as nodes and links. This project will identify emerging and established hubs and gateways within the Internet's structure both in and outside the USA, and especially in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The research also will identify how changes in industrial structure and location have affected telecommunications infrastructure at the local scale in the United States, where both deregulation and competition have created new but largely unplanned patterns of critical infrastructure. Telephone networks remain the hubs for Internet dial-up and broadband access for households and businesses. Thousands of telephone system central offices house the points of presence for local access to Internet backbone and long-distance networks, and are agglomerations of telecommunications infrastructure in cities. This project will utilize a geographic information system to determine the coincidence of network nodes, such as major co-location facilities, interconnection points, and major digital switching wire centers. The research will use bandwidth pricing data to estimate the demand for actual flows of digital information on dozens of routes and to estimate traffic flows. Focusing analysis on world cities where networks converge will untangle supply and demand for Internet connectivity via trends in the price of bandwidth. The research is synthetic and analytical, aimed to combine detailed characteristics of nearly 40,000 central office switches in the USA with trends in pricing data for 80 global routes. The global and local aspects of the research are merged only upon distillation of the central office and wire center data into a smaller number of urban nodes. Telecommunications networks comprise a critical infrastructure on which the global economy increasingly depends. This research will track the continuing evolution of the Internet/telecom infrastructure, and relate this infrastructure at the global scale to the network of world cities. This research will monitor the major local elements of critical Internet and telecommunications infrastructure, including co-location facilities and large wire centers. The project also will update knowledge about the extent of Internet infrastructure and about the flows of data on its networks. As the telecommunications industry consolidates through bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, industry evolution affects the spatial form of the networks and their urban locations.