Tubes

Mapping the Physical World of the Internet

The Internet is the largest thing humans have ever built. It circles the globe, contains many miles of cables and consumes considerable energy. Though people seldom consider the Internet’s tangible structure, it has a physical presence, a physical reality and a physical structure. Having insight about the mechanical complexity of the web helps you make better decisions about it.

The Internet exists simultaneously in three different “overlapping realms”: the “logical realm” of electronic signals, the “geographic realm” where the signals reach, and the “physical realm” of computers and cables through which the signals travel.

Start expanding your vision of the Internet in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the printing company Kubin-Nicholson, which prints huge maps of the physical pathways of the Internet, including the web’s city-to-city links and traffic levels. Its $250 maps show the actual cables carrying all that information. Much of the data for these maps comes from an annual report titled Global Internet Geography (GIG). The market research firm TeleGeography, which publishes the GIG and sells...