CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The Internet is a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Sometimes referred to as a “network of networks,” the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s.
The Internet more also is an immensely useful network, which allows people to communicate information and share their feelings. It supports human communication via social media, electronic mail (e-mail), “chat rooms,” newsgroups, and audio and video transmission and allows people to work collaboratively at many different locations. The entire World ran most activities via the aid of internet during the spread of a pandemic known to be Covid-19 in 2020.
The recently identified new Coronavirus is a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2). According to WHO the COVID-19 can be compared with common cold and pneumonia which affects the respiratory tracts and gut of birds, mammals and human beings. Its outbreak in Wuhan of Hubei state in China came to the notice of the World Health Organization (WHO) on 1st December 2019 and it was declared as a Global Public Health emergency on 30th January, 2020. This virus spread to across 200 countries in the world and was recognized as “Global Pandemic” by WHO on 11th March, 2020.
Following the severity and widespread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), most Governments I=of the world introduced lockdown measures to prevent the virus’ spread, hence this scenario disclosed how important it is for everyone to have access to reliable and resilient digital infrastructure (Adeola 2020). According to Kenneth (2020), the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions around the world had a huge impact on Internet traffic as large number of people are online more frequently and for longer. Whereas in “normal times” there was a big difference in the amount of data traffic between weekdays and weekends.
Peter (2020) cited that restrictions on movement generated higher Internet usage and increased traffic on networks, reflecting an increase in remote working, learning, video conferencing as well as other activities that have shifted online.