Editing Internetworking (section)

{{redirect|Internetwork|the most notable example of an internetwork|Internet}}
{{Short description|Interconnecting different types of computer networks}}

'''Internetworking''' is the practice of [[interconnect]]ing multiple [[computer network]]s.<ref name="PD2012">{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Larry L. |last2=Davie |first2=Bruce S.|date=2012 |title=Computer Networks: a systems approach |publisher=Elsevier, Inc. |isbn=978-0-12-385059-1}}</ref>{{rp|169}} Typically, this enables any pair of [[Host (network)|host]]s in the connected networks to exchange messages irrespective of their hardware-level networking technology. The resulting system of interconnected networks is called an ''internetwork'', or simply an ''internet''.

The most notable example of internetworking is the [[Internet]], a network of networks based on many underlying hardware technologies. The Internet is defined by a unified [[IP address|global addressing system]], [[Network packet|packet]] format, and [[Router (computing)|routing]] methods provided by the [[Internet Protocol]].{{r|CDKB2012|p=103}}

The term ''internetworking'' is a combination of the components ''inter'' (between) and ''networking''. An earlier term for an internetwork is '''catenet''',<ref name="ien48">{{Cite web |author=Vint Cerf |author-link=Vint Cerf |date=July 1978 |title=IEN 48: The Catenet Model for Internetworking |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien48.txt |publisher=[[IETF]] |quote=The term "catenet" was introduced by L. Pouzin in 1974.}}</ref> a short-form of ''(con)catenating networks''.