Datakit is a

virtual circuit A virtual circuit (VC) is a means of transporting data over a data network, based on packet switching and in which a connection is established within the network between two endpoints. The network, rather than having a fixed data rate reservation ...

switch which was developed by Sandy Fraser at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

for both local-area and wide-area networks, and in widespread deployment by the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). Datakit uses a cell relay protocol similar to

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ITU-T (formerly CCITT) for digital transmission of multiple types of traffic. ATM was developed to meet the needs of ...

. Datakit is a connection-oriented switch, with all packets for a particular call traveling through the network over the same

. Datakit networks are still in widespread use by the major telephone companies in the United States. Interfaces to these networks include TCP/IP and UDP, X.25, asynchronous protocols and several synchronous protocols, such as SDLC,

HDLC High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) is a bit-oriented code-transparent synchronous data link layer protocol developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The standard for HDLC is ISO/IEC 13239:2002. HDLC provides both ...

Bisync Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or Bisync) is an IBM character-oriented, half-duplex link protocol, announced in 1967 after the introduction of System/360. It replaced the synchronous transmit-receive (STR) protocol used with second gener ...

and others. These networks support host to terminal traffic and vice versa, host-to-host traffic, file transfers, remote login, remote printing, and remote command execution. At the physical layer, it can operate over multiple media, from slow speed

EIA-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' ('' data terminal equipment'') such ...

to 500Mbit fiber optic links including 10/100 Megabit ethernet links. Most of Bell Laboratories was trunked together via Datakit networking. On top of Datakit transport service, several operating systems (including

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

) implemented UUCP for

electronic 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 ...

and dkcu for remote login.{{Cite web, url=http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=18&id=9#article, title = .:: Phrack Magazine :: Datakit uses an adaptation protocol called Universal Receiver Protocol (URP) that spreads PDU overhead across multiple cells and performs immediate packet processing. URP assumes that cells arrive in order and may force retransmissions if not. The Information Systems Network (ISN) was the pre-version of Datakit that was supported by the former AT&T Information Systems. The ISN was a packet switching network that was built similar to digital System 75 platform. LAN and WAN applications with the use of what was referred to as a Concentrator that was connected via fiber optics up to 15 miles away from the main ISN. The speeds of these connections were very slow to today's standards, from 1200 to 5600 baud with most connections / end users on dumb terminals. The main support for this product came from the NCSC (National Customer Support Center) in Englewood CO then later AT&T Information Systems as the company reorganized and Bell Labs. It was in production three or more years prior to the Datakit being released. Datakit was programmed similar to a Central Office with area code and seven digit location. Datakit is supported by Datatek Applications, Inc. under license from

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

Inc., the present owner of Bell Labs.

References

Wide area networks Packets (information technology) Computer networking

See also

References