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Thousands of new users and service providers connect to the Internet each week. In order for the Internet to support this rapid amount of growth, it must be scalable. A scalable network can expand quickly to support new users and applications without impacting the performance of the service being delivered to existing users.

The fact that the Internet is able to expand at the rate that it is, without seriously impacting the performance experienced by individual users, is a function of the design of the protocols and underlying technologies on which it is built. The Internet has a hierarchical layered structure for addressing, for naming, and for connectivity services. As a result, network traffic that is destined for local or regional services does not need to traverse to a central point for distribution. Common services can be duplicated in different regions, thereby keeping traffic off the higher level backbone networks.

Scalability also refers to the ability to accept new products and applications. Although there is no single organization that regulates the Internet, the many individual networks that provide Internet connectivity cooperate to follow accepted standards and protocols. The adherence to standards enables the manufacturers of hardware and software to concentrate on product development and improvements in the areas of performance and capacity, knowing that the new products can integrate with and enhance the existing infrastructure.

The current Internet architecture, while highly scalable, may not always be able to keep up with the pace of user demand. New protocols and addressing structures are under development to meet the increasing rate at which Internet applications and services are being added.

So, given an existing network, how do you go about making it scalable if it isn't already?