The Internet and World Wide

Web: E-commerce
Infrastructure

7.1

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AGENDA

Outline the hardware and software technologies used

to build an e-business infrastructure within an
organization and with its partners
Outline the hardware and software requirements
necessary to enable employee access to the Internet
and hosting of e-commerce services.

7.2

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Management Issues

What are the practical risks to the organization of

failure to manage e-commerce infrastructure
adequately?
How should staff access to the Internet
be managed?
How should we evaluate the relevance of web services
and open source software?

7.3

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Typical Problems

Website communications too slow

Website not available
Bugs on site through pages being unavailable or
information typed in forms not being executed
Ordered products not delivered on time
7.4

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Typical Problems (Continued)

E-mails not replied to

Customers privacy or trust is broken through security
problems such as credit cards being stolen or addresses
sold to other companies.

7.5

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A five-layer model of e-business

infrastructure

7.6

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The Internet: Technology Background

Internet
An interconnected network of thousands of networks and
millions of computers, linking businesses, educational
institutions, government agencies, and individuals

World Wide Web (Web)

One of the Internets most popular services, providing
access to over 50 billion Web pages

7.7

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The Internet: Key Technology Concepts

Federal Networking Council definition of
Internet highlights three important concepts
that are the basis for understanding the
Internet:
Packet switching
TCP/IP communications protocol
Client/server computing

7.8

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Packet Switching
Packet switching: 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
Uses routers (special purpose computers that interconnect
the computer networks that make up the Internet and route
packets) and routing algorithms to ensure packets take the
best available path toward their destination

7.9

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Packet Switching

7.10

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TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP):
Establishes the connections among sending and receiving Web
computers, handles the assembly of packets at the point of
transmission, and their reassembly at the receiving end

Internet Protocol (IP):

Provides the Internets addressing scheme

TCP/IP divided into four separate layers:

7.11

Network Interface Layer

Internet Layer
Transport Layer
Application Layer
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TCP/IP

7.12

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Routing Internet Messages: TCP/IP and

Packet Switching

7.13

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Figure 3.13

7.14

The TCP/IP protocol

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Domain Names, DNS, and URLs

Domain name
IP address expressed in natural language

Domain name system (DNS)

Allows numeric IP addresses to be expressed in natural
language

Uniform resource locator (URL)

Addresses used by Web browsers to identify location of
content on the Web

7.15

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ISPs (Internet Service Providers)

Retail providers that deal with last mile of
service
Offer both narrowband (traditional telephone
modem connection at 56.6 Kbps) and
broadband (service based on cable modem, T1
or T3 telephone lines, and satellite)

7.16

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Media Standards
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) A graphics format and
compression algorithm best used for simple graphics.
JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) A graphics
format and compression algorithm best used for photographs.
Streaming media Sound and video that can be experienced
within a web browser before the whole clip is downloaded
e.g. Real Networks .rm format
Video standards include MPEG and .AVI
Sound standards include MP3 and WMA
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Internet II: The Future Infrastructure

Internet II: Second era of Internet being built by
private corporations, universities, government
agencies
To appreciate benefits, must understand
limitations of the Internets current infrastructure

7.18

Bandwidth limitations
Quality of service limitations
Network architecture limitations
Language development limitations
Wired Internet limitations

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Fiber Optics and the Bandwidth

Explosion
Fiber optics concerned with first mile or
backbone Internet services that carry bulk traffic
over long distances
Older transmission lines being replaced with
fiber-optic cable
Right now, much of fiber-optic cable laid in
United States is dark, but represents a vast
digital highway that can be utilized in the future
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Mobile Wireless Internet Access

Wireless Internet access concerned with the
last milefrom Internet backbone to users
computer, cell phone, PDA, etc.
Two different basic types of wireless Internet
access:
Telephone-based
Computer network-based

7.20

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Telephone-based Wireless Internet

Access
Different standards
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM): used
primarily in Europe
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA): used primarily in
U.S.

Third generation (3G) cellular networks

7.21

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Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)

Wi-Fi: High-speed, fixed broadband wireless LAN.
Different versions for home and business market.
Limited range
WiMax: High-speed, medium range broadband
wireless metropolitan area network
Bluetooth: Low-speed, short range connection
Ultra-Wideband (UWB): Low power, short-range
high bandwidth network
Zigbee: Short-range, low-power wireless network
technology for remotely controlling digital devices
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Wi-Fi Networks

7.23

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Benefits of Internet II Technologies

IP multicasting: Enables efficient delivery of data to
many locations on a network
Latency solutions: diffserv (differentiated quality of
service) assigns different levels of priority to
packets depending on type of data being transmitted
Guaranteed service levels: ability to purchase right
to move data through network at guaranteed speed
in return for higher fee
Lower error rates
Declining costs
7.24

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IP Multicasting

7.25

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Markup Languages
Generalized Markup Languages (GMLs)
include:
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)early
GML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)GML that is
relatively easy to use; provides fixed set of markup tags
used to format Web pages
Extensible Markup Language (XML)new markup
language specification developed by W3C; designed to
describe data and information; tags used are defined by user

7.26

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The Internet and Web: Features

Internet and Web features on which the
foundations of e-commerce are built include:

7.27

E-mail
Instant messaging
Search engines
Intelligent agents (bots)
Online forums and chat
Streaming media
Cookies

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Other Internet and Web Features Relevant

to E-commerce
Online forums/chat: Enables users to
communicate with each other via computer.
Online chat occurs in real time (simultaneously)
Streaming media: Enables music, video and other
large files to be sent to users in chunks so that
when received and played, file comes through
uninterrupted
Cookies: Small text file stored on users computer
with information about the user that can be
accessed by Web site the next time user returns to
the site
7.28

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Internet II and E-commerce: New and

Disruptive Web Features and Services
Blogs: Personal Web page that typically
contains a series of chronological entries by its
author, and links to related Web pages
Really Simple Syndication (RSS): Allows users
to have digital content automatically sent to
them; typically used for news
Podcasting: Audio presentation stored as an
audio file and available for download from Web
7.29

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Internet II and E-commerce: New and

Disruptive Web Features and Services
New music and video services: Videocasts;
digital video on demand
Internet Telephony: Use Voice Over Internet
Protocol (VOIP) and Internets packetswitched network to transmit voice and other
forms of audio communication over the
Internet
7.30

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7.31

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Figure 3.7

7.32

Information exchange between a web browser and a web server

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Figure 3.8

7.33

Transaction log file example

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Figure 3.19

7.34

Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management

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Figure 3.21

Popularity of different mobile app categories, May 2010

Source: The State of Mobile Apps, 1 June 2010, Nielsen Wire, http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/the-state-of-mobile-apps

7.35

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Activity 3.1

Infrastructure Risk Assessment

Make a list of the potential problems for customers of
an online retailer
You should consider problems faced by users of ebusiness applications who are both internal and
external to the organization
Base your answer on problems you have experienced
on a website that can be related to network, hardware
and software failures or problems with data quality.

7.36

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Box 3.3

Identify URL Components

7.37

Protocol
Host or hostname
Subdomain
Domain name
Top-level domain or TLD
Second-level domain (SLD)
The port
The path
http://video.google.co.uk:80/
URL parameter
videoplay?
Anchor or fragment
docid=724692761283107823
0&hl=en#00h02m30s
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