The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area
packet-switched network
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the pac ...
with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the
TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...
protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
. The ARPANET was established by the
Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Ad ...
(ARPA) of the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
.
Building on the ideas of
J. C. R. Licklider,
Bob Taylor initiated the ARPANET project in 1966 to enable access to remote computers. Taylor appointed
Larry Roberts as program manager. Roberts made the key decisions about the network design. He incorporated
Donald Davies
Donald Watts Davies, (7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000) was a Welsh computer scientist who was employed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
In 1965 he conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communic ...
' concepts and designs for packet switching, and sought input from
Paul Baran.
ARPA awarded the contract to build the network to
Bolt Beranek & Newman who developed the first
protocol for the network.
Roberts engaged
Leonard Kleinrock
Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American computer scientist and a long-tenured professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
In the early 1960s, Kleinrock pioneered the application of queueing theory ...
at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
to develop mathematical methods for analyzing the packet network technology.
The first computers were connected in 1969 and the
Network Control Protocol was implemented in 1970.
The network was declared operational in 1971. Further software development enabled
remote login
Remote may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Remote'' (1993 film), a 1993 movie
* ''Remote'' (2004 film), a Tamil-language action drama film
* ''Remote'' (album), a 1988 album by Hue & Cry
* Remote (band), ambient chillout band
* ' ...
,
file transfer File transfer is the transmission of a computer file through a communication channel from one computer system to another. Typically, file transfer is mediated by a communications protocol. In the history of computing, numerous file transfer protocol ...
and
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
.
The network expanded rapidly and operational control passed to the
Defense Communications Agency in 1975.
Internetworking
Internetworking is the practice of interconnecting multiple computer networks, such that any pair of hosts in the connected networks can exchange messages irrespective of their hardware-level networking technology. The resulting system of interc ...
research in the early 1970s led by
Bob Kahn at DARPA and
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that includ ...
at
Stanford University and later DARPA formulated the Transmission Control Program,
which incorporated concepts from the French
CYCLADES
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The na ...
project. As this work progressed, a protocol was developed by which multiple separate networks could be joined into a network of networks. Version 4 of TCP/IP was installed in the ARPANET for production use in January 1983 after the Department of Defense made it standard for all military computer networking.
Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981, when the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
(NSF) funded the
Computer Science Network (CSNET). In the early 1980s, the NSF funded the establishment of national supercomputing centers at several universities, and provided network access and network interconnectivity with the
NSFNET
The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The p ...
project in 1986. The ARPANET was formally decommissioned in 1990, after
partnerships with the telecommunication and computer industry had assured private sector expansion and future commercialization of an expanded world-wide network, known as the Internet.
History
Inspiration
Historically, voice and data communications were based on methods of
circuit switching
Circuit switching is a method of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel (circuit) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full b ...
, as exemplified in the traditional telephone network, wherein each telephone call is allocated a dedicated, end to end, electronic connection between the two communicating stations. The connection is established by switching systems that connected multiple intermediate call legs between these systems for the duration of the call.
The traditional model of the circuit-switched telecommunication network was challenged in the early 1960s by
Paul Baran at the
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financ ...
, who had been researching systems that could sustain operation during partial destruction, such as by nuclear war. He developed the theoretical model of ''distributed adaptive message block switching''.
However, the telecommunication establishment rejected the development in favor of existing models.
Donald Davies
Donald Watts Davies, (7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000) was a Welsh computer scientist who was employed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
In 1965 he conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communic ...
at the United Kingdom's
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) independently arrived at a similar concept in 1965.
The earliest ideas for a
computer network
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections ar ...
intended to allow general communications among computer users were formulated by
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...
J. C. R. Licklider of
Bolt Beranek and Newman
Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown ...
(BBN), in April 1963, in memoranda discussing the concept of the "
Intergalactic Computer Network
Intergalactic Computer Network or Galactic Network (IGCN) was a computer networking concept similar to today's Internet.
J.C.R. Licklider, the first director of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at The Pentagon's ARPA, used th ...
". Those ideas encompassed many of the features of the contemporary Internet. In October 1963, Licklider was appointed head of the Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control programs at the Defense Department's
Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Ad ...
(ARPA). He convinced
Ivan Sutherland
Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subj ...
and
Bob Taylor that this network concept was very important and merited development, although Licklider left ARPA before any contracts were assigned for development.
Sutherland and Taylor continued their interest in creating the network, in part, to allow ARPA-sponsored researchers at various corporate and academic locales to utilize computers provided by ARPA, and, in part, to quickly distribute new software and other
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...
results. Taylor had three computer terminals in his office, each connected to separate computers, which ARPA was funding: one for the
System Development Corporation
System Development Corporation (SDC) was a computer software company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1955, it is considered the first company of its kind.
History
SDC began as the systems engineering group for the SAGE air-defens ...
(SDC)
Q-32 in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
, one for
Project Genie at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, and another for
Multics
Multics ("Multiplexed Information and Computing Service") is an influential early time-sharing operating system based on the concept of a single-level memory.Dennis M. Ritchie, "The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System", Communications of ...
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
. Taylor recalls the circumstance: "For each of these three terminals, I had three different sets of user commands. So, if I was talking online with someone at S.D.C., and I wanted to talk to someone I knew at Berkeley, or M.I.T., about this, I had to get up from the S.D.C. terminal, go over and log into the other terminal and get in touch with them. I said, 'Oh Man!', it's obvious what to do: If you have these three terminals, there ought to be one terminal that goes anywhere you want to go. That idea is the ARPANET".
Donald Davies' work caught the attention of ARPANET developers at
Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in October 1967.
He gave the first public presentation, having coined the term ''
packet switching
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets are made of a header (computing), header and ...
'', in August 1968 and incorporated it into the
NPL network in England. The NPL network and ARPANET were the first two networks in the world to use packet switching.
[; ][ (source: Gatlinburg, ... Association for Computing Machinery)] Roberts said the ARPANET and other packet switching networks built in the 1970s were similar "in nearly all respects" to Davies' original 1965 design.
Creation
In February 1966, Bob Taylor successfully lobbied ARPA's Director
Charles M. Herzfeld
Charles Maria Herzfeld (June 29, 1925 – February 23, 2017) was an Austrian-born American scientist and scientific manager, particularly for the US Government. He is best known for his time as Director of DARPA, during which, among other thing ...
to fund a network project. Herzfeld redirected funds in the amount of one million dollars from a ballistic missile defense program to Taylor's budget. Taylor hired
Larry Roberts as a program manager in the ARPA
Information Processing Techniques Office
The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), originally "Command and Control Research",Lyon, Matthew; Hafner, Katie (1999-08-19). ''Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet'' (p. 39). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. was par ...
in January 1967 to work on the ARPANET.
Roberts asked
Frank Westervelt to explore the initial design questions for a network.
["Planning the ARPANET: 1967-1968" in Chapter 2 on Networking: Vision and Packet Switching 1959-1968 Intergalactic Vision to Arpanet, ''Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988''](_blank)
James Pelkey, 2007 In April 1967, ARPA held a design session on technical standards. The initial standards for identification and authentication of users, transmission of characters, and error checking and retransmission procedures were discussed. Roberts' proposal was that all mainframe computers would connect to one another directly. The other investigators were reluctant to dedicate these computing resources to network administration.
Wesley Clark
Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree ...
proposed minicomputers should be used as an interface to create a
message switching In telecommunications, message switching involves messages routed in their entirety, one hop at a time. It evolved from circuit switching and was the precursor of packet switching.
History
Western Union operated a message switching system, Plan 5 ...
network. Roberts modified the ARPANET plan to incorporate Clark's suggestion and named the minicomputers
Interface Message Processor
The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications netwo ...
s (IMPs).
The plan was presented at the inaugural Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in October 1967. Donald Davies' work on packet switching and the NPL network, presented by a colleague (
Roger Scantlebury), came to the attention of the ARPA investigators at this conference.
Roberts applied Davies' concept of packet switching for the ARPANET,
and sought input from Paul Baran.
The NPL network was using line speeds of 768 kbit/s, and the proposed line speed for the ARPANET was upgraded from 2.4 kbit/s to 50 kbit/s.
By mid-1968, Roberts and Barry Wessler wrote a final version of the IMP specification based on a
Stanford Research Institute
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as ...
(SRI) report that ARPA commissioned to write detailed specifications describing the ARPANET communications network.
Roberts gave a report to Taylor on 3 June, who approved it on 21 June. After approval by ARPA, a
Request for Quotation (RFQ) was issued for 140 potential bidders. Most computer science companies regarded the ARPA proposal as outlandish, and only twelve submitted bids to build a network; of the twelve, ARPA regarded only four as top-rank contractors. At year's end, ARPA considered only two contractors, and awarded the contract to build the network to BBN in January 1969.
The initial, seven-person BBN team were much aided by the technical specificity of their response to the ARPA RFQ, and thus quickly produced the first working system. This team was led by Frank Heart and included Robert Kahn and Dave Walden. The BBN-proposed network closely followed Roberts' ARPA plan: a network composed of small computers called
Interface Message Processor
The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications netwo ...
s (or IMPs), similar to the later concept of
routers, that functioned as gateways interconnecting local resources. At each site, the IMPs performed store-and-forward packet switching functions, and were interconnected with
leased line
A leased line is a private telecommunications circuit between two or more locations provided according to a commercial contract. It is sometimes also known as a private circuit, and as a data line in the UK. Typically, leased lines are used by ...
s via telecommunication data sets (
modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...
s), with initial data rates of . The host computers were connected to the IMPs via custom
serial communication
In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are ...
interfaces. The system, including the hardware and the packet switching software, was designed and installed in nine months.
The BBN team continued to interact with the NPL team with meetings between them taking place in the U.S. and the U.K.
The first-generation IMPs were built by BBN Technologies using a
rugged computer
A rugged computer or ruggedized computer is a computer specifically designed to operate reliably in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions. They are designed from incepti ...
version of the
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
DDP-516
The Honeywell 316 was a popular 16-bit minicomputer built by Honeywell starting in 1969. It is part of the Series 16, which includes the Models 116 (1965, Discrete component, discrete), 316 (1969), 416 (1966), 516 (1966) and DDP-716 (1969). They w ...
computer, configured with of expandable
magnetic-core memory
Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years between about 1955 and 1975.
Such memory is often just called core memory, or, informally, core.
Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magneti ...
, and a 16-channel Direct Multiplex Control (DMC)
direct memory access
Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems and allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).
Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed input/output, it is ...
unit. The DMC established custom interfaces with each of the host computers and modems. In addition to the front-panel lamps, the DDP-516 computer also features a special set of 24 indicator lamps showing the status of the IMP communication channels. Each IMP could support up to four local hosts, and could communicate with up to six remote IMPs via early
Digital Signal 0
Digital Signal 0 (DS0) is a basic digital signaling rate of 64 kilobits per second (kbit/s), corresponding to the capacity of one analog voice-frequency-equivalent communication channel. The DS0 rate, and its equivalents E0 in the E-carrier system ...
leased telephone lines. The network connected one computer in Utah with three in California. Later, the Department of Defense allowed the universities to join the network for sharing hardware and software resources.
Debate on design goals
According to Charles Herzfeld, ARPA Director (1965–1967):
Nonetheless, according to
Stephen J. Lukasik
Stephen Joseph Lukasik (March 19, 1931 – October 3, 2019) was an American physicist who served in multiple high-level defense and scientific related positions for advancing the technologies and techniques for national defense and the detection ...
, who as deputy director (1967–1970) and Director of DARPA (1970–1975) was "the person who signed most of the checks for Arpanet's development":
The ARPANET incorporated distributed computation, and frequent re-computation, of routing tables. This increased the survivability of the network in the face of significant interruption. Automatic routing was technically challenging at the time. The ARPANET was designed to survive subordinate-network losses, since the principal reason was that the switching nodes and network links were unreliable, even without any nuclear attacks.
The
Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...
agrees with Herzfeld in a footnote in their online article, ''A Brief History of the Internet'':
Paul Baran, the first to put forward a theoretical model for communication using packet switching, conducted the RAND study referenced above.
Though the ARPANET did not exactly share Baran's project's goal, he said his work did contribute to the development of the ARPANET. Minutes taken by Elmer Shapiro of
Stanford Research Institute
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as ...
at the ARPANET design meeting of 9–10 October 1967 indicate that a version of Baran's routing method ("hot potato") may be used, consistent with the NPL team's proposal at the Symposium on Operating System Principles in Gatlinburg.
Implementation
The first four nodes were designated as a testbed for developing and debugging the
1822 protocol
The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET from the late 1960s to 1989. It was the first generation of gateways, which are known today as routers. An IMP was a r ...
, which was a major undertaking. While they were connected electronically in 1969, network applications were not possible until the
Network Control Protocol was implemented in 1970 enabling the first two host-host protocols, remote login (
Telnet
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet cont ...
) and file transfer (
FTP) which were specified and implemented between 1969 and 1973.
The network was declared operational in 1971. Network traffic began to grow once
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
was established at the majority of sites by around 1973.
Initial four hosts
The first four IMPs were:
*
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
(UCLA), where
Leonard Kleinrock
Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American computer scientist and a long-tenured professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
In the early 1960s, Kleinrock pioneered the application of queueing theory ...
had established a Network Measurement Center, with an
SDS Sigma 7 being the first computer attached to it;
* The
Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute (now
SRI International
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as ...
), where
Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Carl Engelbart (January 30, 1925 – July 2, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularl ...
had created the new
NLS system, an early
hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references ( hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typicall ...
system, and would run the
Network Information Center (NIC), with the
SDS 940 that ran NLS, named "Genie", being the first host attached;
*
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...
(UCSB), with the
Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics Center's
IBM 360/75, running
OS/MVT
OS/360, officially known as IBM System/360 Operating System, is a discontinued batch processing operating system developed by IBM for their then-new System/360 mainframe computer, announced in 1964; it was influenced by the earlier IBSYS/IBJOB ...
being the machine attached;
* The
University of Utah School of Computing, where
Ivan Sutherland
Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subj ...
had moved, running a
DEC PDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...
operating on
TENEX.
The first successful host-to-host connection on the ARPANET was made between Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and UCLA, by SRI programmer Bill Duvall and UCLA student programmer Charley Kline, at 10:30 pm PST on 29 October 1969 (6:30 UTC on 30 October 1969). Kline connected from UCLA's
SDS Sigma 7 Host computer (in Boelter Hall room 3420) to the Stanford Research Institute's
SDS 940 Host computer. Kline typed the command "login," but initially the SDS 940 crashed after he typed two characters. About an hour later, after Duvall adjusted parameters on the machine, Kline tried again and successfully logged in. Hence, the first two characters successfully transmitted over the ARPANET were "lo". The first permanent ARPANET link was established on 21 November 1969, between the IMP at UCLA and the IMP at the Stanford Research Institute. By 5 December 1969, the initial four-node network was established.
Elizabeth Feinler created the first Resource Handbook for ARPANET in 1969 which led to the development of the ARPANET directory. The directory, built by Feinler and a team made it possible to navigate the ARPANET.
Growth and evolution
Roberts engaged Howard Frank to consult on the topological design of the network. Frank made recommendations to increase throughput and reduce costs in a scaled-up network. By March 1970, the ARPANET reached the East Coast of the United States, when an IMP at BBN in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...
was connected to the network. Thereafter, the ARPANET grew: 9 IMPs by June 1970 and 13 IMPs by December 1970, then 18 by September 1971 (when the network included 23 university and government hosts); 29 IMPs by August 1972, and 40 by September 1973. By June 1974, there were 46 IMPs, and in July 1975, the network numbered 57 IMPs. By 1981, the number was 213 host computers, with another host connecting approximately every twenty days.
Support for inter-IMP circuits of up to 230.4 kbit/s was added in 1970, although considerations of cost and IMP processing power meant this capability was not actively used.
Larry Roberts saw the ARPANET and
NPL projects as complementary and sought in 1970 to connect them via a satellite link.
Peter Kirstein's research group at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = Â ...
(UCL) was subsequently chosen in 1971 in place of NPL for the UK connection. In June 1973, a transatlantic satellite link connected ARPANET to the
Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR), via the Tanum Earth Station in Sweden, and onward via a terrestrial circuit to a TIP at UCL. UCL provided a gateway for interconnection with British academic and research networks and a testbed for international internetworking.
1971 saw the start of the use of the non-ruggedized (and therefore significantly lighter)
Honeywell 316 as an IMP.
It could also be configured as a Terminal Interface Processor (TIP), which provided
terminal server
A terminal server connects devices with a serial port to a local area network (LAN). Products marketed as terminal servers can be very simple devices that do not offer any security functionality, such as data encryption and user authenticatio ...
support for up to 63
ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
serial terminals through a multi-line controller in place of one of the hosts. The 316 featured a greater degree of integration than the 516, which made it less expensive and easier to maintain. The 316 was configured with 40 kB of core memory for a TIP. The size of core memory was later increased, to 32 kB for the IMPs, and 56 kB for TIPs, in 1973.
In 1975, BBN introduced IMP software running on the
Pluribus multi-processor. These appeared in a few sites. In 1981, BBN introduced IMP software running on its own C/30 processor product.
Network performance
In 1968, Roberts contracted with Kleinrock to measure the performance of the network and find areas for improvement.
Building on his earlier work on
queueing theory
Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...
, Kleinrock specified mathematical models of the performance of packet-switched networks, which underpinned the development of the ARPANET as it expanded rapidly in the early 1970s.
Operation
ARPA was intended to fund advanced research. The ARPANET was a research project that was communications-oriented, rather than user-oriented in design.
Nonetheless, in the summer of 1975, operational control of the ARPANET passed to the
Defense Communications Agency.
At about this time, the first
ARPANET encryption devices
The ARPANET pioneered the creation of novel encryption devices for packet networks in the 1970s and 1980s, and as such were ancestors to today's IPsec architecture, and High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) devices more specifical ...
were deployed to support classified traffic.
The transatlantic connectivity with NORSAR and UCL later evolved into the
SATNET. The ARPANET, SATNET and
PRNET were interconnected in 1977.
The ''ARPANET Completion Report'', published in 1981 jointly by BBN and
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Ad ...
, concludes that:
CSNET, expansion
Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981, when the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
(NSF) funded the
Computer Science Network (CSNET).
Adoption of TCP/IP
The DoD made
TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...
the standard
communication protocol
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchroniza ...
for all military computer networking in 1980. NORSAR and University College London left the ARPANET and began using TCP/IP over SATNET in early 1982.
On January 1, 1983, known as
flag day, TCP/IP protocols became the standard for the ARPANET, replacing the earlier Network Control Protocol.
MILNET, phasing out
In September 1984 work was completed on restructuring the ARPANET giving U.S. military sites their own Military Network (
MILNET) for unclassified defense department communications. Both networks carried unclassified information, and were connected at a small number of controlled
gateways which would allow total separation in the event of an emergency. MILNET was part of the
Defense Data Network The Defense Data Network (DDN) was a computer networking effort of the United States Department of Defense from 1983 through 1995. It was based on ARPANET technology.
History
As an experiment, from 1971 to 1977, the Worldwide Military Comman ...
(DDN).
Separating the civil and military networks reduced the 113-node ARPANET by 68 nodes. After MILNET was split away, the ARPANET would continue be used as an Internet backbone for researchers, but be slowly phased out.
Decommissioning
In 1985, the NSF funded the establishment of national supercomputing centers at several universities, and provided network access and network interconnectivity with the
NSFNET
The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The p ...
project in 1986. NSFNET became the Internet backbone for government agencies and universities.
The ARPANET project was formally decommissioned in 1990. The original IMPs and TIPs were phased out as the ARPANET was shut down after the introduction of the NSFNet, but some IMPs remained in service as late as July 1990.
In the wake of the decommissioning of the ARPANET on 28 February 1990, Vinton Cerf wrote the following lamentation, entitled "Requiem of the ARPANET":
Legacy
The ARPANET was related to many other research projects, which either influenced the ARPANET design, or which were ancillary projects or spun out of the ARPANET.
Senator
Al Gore authored the
High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill", after hearing the 1988 concept for a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by
Leonard Kleinrock
Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American computer scientist and a long-tenured professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
In the early 1960s, Kleinrock pioneered the application of queueing theory ...
. The bill was passed on 9 December 1991 and led to the
National Information Infrastructure The National Information Infrastructure (NII) was the product of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991. It was a telecommunications policy buzzword, which was popularized during the Clinton Administration under the leadership of Vice-President ...
(NII) which Gore called the ''
information superhighway''.
Inter-networking protocols developed by ARPA and implemented on the ARPANET paved the way for future commercialization of a new world-wide network, known as the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
.
The ARPANET project was honored with two
IEEE Milestones, both dedicated in 2009.
Software and protocols
IMP functionality
Because it was never a goal for the ARPANET to support IMPs from vendors other than BBN, the IMP-to-IMP protocol and message format were not standardized. However, the IMPs did nonetheless communicate amongst themselves to perform
link-state routing, to do reliable forwarding of messages, and to provide remote monitoring and management functions to ARPANET's Network Control Center. Initially, each IMP had a 6-bit identifier, and supported up to 4 hosts, which were identified with a 2-bit index. An ARPANET host address, therefore, consisted of both the port index on its IMP and the identifier of the IMP, which was written with either
port/IMP
notation or as a single byte; for example, the address of MIT-DMG (notable for hosting development of
Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded ...
) could be written as either
1/6
or
70
. An upgrade in early 1976 extended the host and IMP numbering to 8-bit and 16-bit, respectively.
In addition to primary routing and forwarding responsibilities, the IMP ran several background programs, titled TTY, DEBUG, PARAMETER-CHANGE, DISCARD, TRACE, and STATISTICS. These were given host numbers in order to be addressed directly and provided functions independently of any connected host. For example, "TTY" allowed an on-site operator to send ARPANET packets manually via the
teletype
A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...
connected directly to the IMP.
1822 protocol
The starting point for host-to-host communication on the ARPANET in 1969 was the
1822 protocol
The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET from the late 1960s to 1989. It was the first generation of gateways, which are known today as routers. An IMP was a r ...
, which defined the transmission of messages to an IMP. The message format was designed to work unambiguously with a broad range of computer architectures. An 1822 message essentially consisted of a message type, a numeric host address, and a data field. To send a data message to another host, the transmitting host formatted a data message containing the destination host's address and the data message being sent, and then transmitted the message through the 1822 hardware interface. The IMP then delivered the message to its destination address, either by delivering it to a locally connected host, or by delivering it to another IMP. When the message was ultimately delivered to the destination host, the receiving IMP would transmit a ''Ready for Next Message'' (RFNM) acknowledgement to the sending, host IMP.
Network Control Protocol
Unlike modern Internet datagrams, the ARPANET was designed to reliably transmit 1822 messages, and to inform the host computer when it loses a message; the contemporary
IP is unreliable, whereas the
TCP
TCP may refer to:
Science and technology
* Transformer coupled plasma
* Tool Center Point, see Robot end effector
Computing
* Transmission Control Protocol, a fundamental Internet standard
* Telephony control protocol, a Bluetooth communication s ...
is reliable. Nonetheless, the 1822 protocol proved inadequate for handling multiple connections among different applications residing in a host computer. This problem was addressed with the
Network Control Protocol (NCP), which provided a standard method to establish reliable, flow-controlled, bidirectional communications links among different processes in different host computers. The NCP interface allowed
application software
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...
to connect across the ARPANET by implementing higher-level
communication protocols, an early example of the ''protocol layering'' concept later incorporated in the
OSI model
The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that 'provides a common basis for the coordination of SOstandards development for the purpose of systems interconnection'. In the OSI reference model, the communications ...
.
NCP was developed under the leadership of Stephen D. Crocker, then a graduate student at UCLA. Crocker created and led the Network Working Group (NWG) which was made up of a collection of graduate students at universities and research laboratories sponsored by ARPA to carry out the development of the ARPANET and the software for the host computers that supported applications. The various application protocols such as TELNET for remote time-sharing access, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and rudimentary electronic mail protocols were developed and eventually ported to run over the TCP/IP protocol suite or replaced in the case of email by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
TCP/IP
Steve Crocker formed a "Networking Working Group" in 1969 with
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that includ ...
, who also joined an
International Networking Working Group The International Networking Working Group (INWG) was a group of prominent computer science researchers in the 1970s who studied and developed standards and protocols for computer networking. Set up in 1972 as an informal group to consider the tec ...
in 1972.
These groups considered how to interconnect packet switching networks with different specifications, that is,
internetworking
Internetworking is the practice of interconnecting multiple computer networks, such that any pair of hosts in the connected networks can exchange messages irrespective of their hardware-level networking technology. The resulting system of interc ...
.
Stephen J. Lukasik
Stephen Joseph Lukasik (March 19, 1931 – October 3, 2019) was an American physicist who served in multiple high-level defense and scientific related positions for advancing the technologies and techniques for national defense and the detection ...
directed DARPA to focus on internetworking research in the early 1970s. Research led by
Bob Kahn at DARPA and Vint Cerf at
Stanford University and later DARPA resulted in the formulation of the
Transmission Control Program
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.
IP ...
,
which incorporated concepts from the French
CYCLADES
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The na ...
project directed by
Louis Pouzin
Louis Pouzin (April 20, 1931 in Chantenay-Saint-Imbert, Nièvre, France) is a French computer scientist. He designed an early packet communications network, CYCLADES.
This network was the first actual implementation of the pure datagram model, ...
.
Its specification was written by Cerf with
Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in December 1974 (). The following year, testing began through concurrent implementations at Stanford, BBN and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = Â ...
.
At first a monolithic design, the software was redesigned as a modular protocol stack in version 3 in 1978.
Version 4 was installed in the ARPANET for production use in January 1983, replacing NCP. The development of the complete
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the sui ...
by 1989, as outlined in and , and
partnerships with the telecommunication and computer industry laid the foundation for the adoption of TCP/IP as a comprehensive protocol suite as the core component of the emerging
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
.
Network applications
NCP provided a standard set of network services that could be shared by several applications running on a single host computer. This led to the evolution of ''application protocols'' that operated, more or less, independently of the underlying network service, and permitted independent advances in the underlying protocols.
Telnet
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet cont ...
was developed in 1969 beginning with RFC 15, extended in RFC 855.
The original specification for the File Transfer Protocol was written by
Abhay Bhushan
Abhay Bhushan Pandey (; born 23 November 1944) is an Indian computer scientist. Bhushan has been a major contributor to the development of the Internet TCP/IP architecture, and is the author of the File Transfer Protocol (which he started worki ...
and published as on 16 April 1971. By 1973, the
File Transfer Protocol
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...
(FTP) specification had been defined () and implemented, enabling file transfers over the ARPANET.
In 1971,
Ray Tomlinson
Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; It was the first system able to send mail be ...
, of BBN sent the first network
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
(, ).
Within a few years, e-mail came to represent a very large part of the overall ARPANET traffic.
The
Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specifications were defined in 1977 (), and implemented. But, because of technical shortcomings,
conference call
A conference call is a telephone call in which someone talks to several people at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call or set up so that the called party merely listens into ...
s over the ARPANET never worked well; the contemporary
Voice over Internet Protocol
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet ...
(packet voice) was decades away.
Password protection
The
Purdy Polynomial hash algorithm was developed for the ARPANET to protect passwords in 1971 at the request of Larry Roberts, head of ARPA at that time. It computed a polynomial of degree 2
24 + 17 modulo the 64-bit prime ''p'' = 2
64 − 59. The algorithm was later used by
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unti ...
(DEC) to hash passwords in the
VMS #REDIRECT VMS
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
operating system and is still being used for this purpose.
Rules and etiquette
Because of its government funding, certain forms of traffic were discouraged or prohibited.
Leonard Kleinrock claims to have committed the first illegal act on the Internet, having sent a request for return of his electric razor after a meeting in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
in 1973. At the time, use of the ARPANET for personal reasons was unlawful.
In 1978, against the rules of the network, Gary Thuerk of
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unti ...
(DEC) sent out the first
mass email to approximately 400 potential clients via the ARPANET. He claims that this resulted in $13 million worth of sales in DEC products, and highlighted the potential of
email marketing.
A 1982 handbook on computing at MIT's
AI Lab stated regarding network etiquette:
In popular culture
* ''
Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing'', a 30-minute documentary film featuring
Fernando J. Corbató,
J. C. R. Licklider,
Lawrence G. Roberts,
Robert Kahn, Frank Heart,
William R. Sutherland
William Robert Sutherland (May 10, 1936 – February 18, 2020) was an American computer scientist who was the longtime manager of three prominent research laboratories, including Sun Microsystems Laboratories (1992–1998), the Systems Sci ...
, Richard W. Watson,
John R. Pasta,
Donald W. Davies
Donald Watts Davies, (7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000) was a Welsh computer scientist who was employed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
In 1965 he conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communica ...
, and economist,
George W. Mitchell.
*
"Scenario", an episode of the U.S. television sitcom
''Benson'' (season 6, episode 20—dated February 1985), was the first incidence of a popular TV show directly referencing the Internet or its progenitors. The show includes a scene in which the ARPANET is accessed.
* There is an
electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
artist known as "Arpanet",
Gerald Donald, one of the members of
Drexciya. The artist's 2002 album ''Wireless Internet'' features commentary on the expansion of the internet via wireless communication, with songs such as ''
NTT DoCoMo'', dedicated to the mobile communications giant based in Japan.
*
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), them ...
mentions the ARPANET in his 2009 novel ''
Inherent Vice
''Inherent Vice'' is a novel by American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published in August 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to investigat ...
'', which is set in Los Angeles in 1970, and in his 2013 novel ''
Bleeding Edge''.
* The 1993 television series ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' featured the ARPANET in a season 5 episode, titled "
Unusual Suspects". John Fitzgerald Byers offers to help Susan Modeski (known as Holly ... "just like the sugar") by hacking into the ARPANET to obtain sensitive information.
* In the spy-drama television series ''
The Americans
''The Americans'' is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also serve as showrunners a ...
'', a Russian scientist defector offers access to ARPANET to the Russians in a plea to not be repatriated (Season 2 Episode 5 "The Deal"). Episode 7 of Season 2 is named 'ARPANET' and features Russian infiltration to bug the network.
* In the television series ''
Person of Interest
"Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no le ...
'', main character
Harold Finch hacked the ARPANET in 1980 using a homemade computer during his first efforts to build a prototype of the Machine. This corresponds with the real life virus that occurred in October of that year that temporarily halted ARPANET functions.
The ARPANET hack was first discussed in the episode
''2PiR'' (stylised ''2R'') where a computer science teacher called it the most famous hack in history and one that was never solved. Finch later mentioned it to Person of Interest Caleb Phipps and his role was first indicated when he showed knowledge that it was done by "a kid with a homemade computer" which Phipps, who had researched the hack, had never heard before.
* In the third season of the television series ''
Halt and Catch Fire'', the character Joe MacMillan explores the potential commercialization of the ARPANET.
See also
*
.arpa
The domain name arpa is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. It is used predominantly for the management of technical network infrastructure. Prominent among such functions are the subdomains ''in-addr.arpa'' ...
–
top-level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
used exclusively for technical infrastructure purposes
*
*
*
*
*
Protocol Wars
* , "A Poor Man's ARPAnet"
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Oral histories
* Focuses on Kahn's role in the development of computer networking from 1967 through the early 1980s. Beginning with his work at BBN, Kahn discusses his involvement as the ARPANET proposal was being written and then implemented, and his role in the public demonstration of the ARPANET. The interview continues into Kahn's involvement with networking when he moves to IPTO in 1972, where he was responsible for the administrative and technical evolution of the ARPANET, including programs in packet radio, the development of a new network protocol (TCP/IP), and the switch to TCP/IP to connect multiple networks.
* Cerf describes his involvement with the ARPA network, and his relationships with Bolt Beranek and Newman, Robert Kahn, Lawrence Roberts, and the Network Working Group.
* Baran describes his work at RAND, and discusses his interaction with the group at ARPA who were responsible for the later development of the ARPANET.
* Kleinrock discusses his work on the ARPANET.
*
* Lukasik discusses his tenure at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the development of computer networks and the ARPANET.
* Frank describes his work on the ARPANET, including his interaction with Roberts and the IPT Office.
Detailed technical reference works
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
** NTIS documents may be available from
*
*
External links
*
*
* Timeline.
*
* Personal anecdote of the first message ever sent over the ARPANET
*
*
*
{{Authority control
American inventions
History of the Internet
Computer-related introductions in 1969
Internet properties established in 1969
Internet properties disestablished in 1990
1969 establishments in the United States
Internet in the United States
1990 disestablishments in the United States