The Architecture of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) (the Web) is a hyperlinked collection of documents and programs that reside on computers all over the world, linked by the Internet.
This talk will show the underlying components and mechanisms that make the Web work.
- Network protocols based on TCP/IP and a common Domain Name Service
- Message-passing protocols based on MIME
- Web Server architecture based on the HTTP protocol
This works on a world-wide basis is because these protocols are based on Open Standards which have been implemented by many vendors on a variety of machines. The Web software structure is strictly non- proprietary, while allowing proprietary pieces to fit in where needed.
The same architecture and software that makes the Web work is also suitable for implementing distributed applications between hetereogeneous machines and networks. This makes the architecture attractive for the corporate Intranet as well.