What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Real Internet Architecture’

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Updated 04 December 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Real Internet Architecture’

Authors: Pamela Zave & Jennifer Rexford

This book meets the long-standing need for an explanation of how the internet’s architecture has evolved since its creation to support an ever-broader range of the world’s communication needs. Countering the idea that the internet’s architecture is “ossified” or rigid, this model—which is presented through hundreds of examples rather than mathematical notation—encompasses the internet’s original or “classic” architecture, its current architecture, and its possible future architectures.