The International Packet Switched Service (IPSS) was the first international and commercial

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. ''network packet, packets,'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets consi ...

network. It was created in 1978 by a collaboration between Britain's Post Office Telecommunications, and the United States' Western Union International and Tymnet.

History

This network grew from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the United States to cover Canada,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and Australia by 1981, and by the 1990s it provided a worldwide networking infrastructure.. Companies and individual users could connect in to the network, via a PSS ( Packet Switch Stream)

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

, or an

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for Packet switched network, packet-switched data communication in wide area network, wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the CCITT, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Co ...

PAD ( packet assembler/disassembler), and a dedicated PSS line, and use it to connect to a variety of online databases and mainframe systems. There was a choice of about three different speeds of PSS lines, although a faster line was more costly to rent. By 1984 British Telecom had joined the PSS to the global network and was providing IPSS services to customers. Companies including Dynatech, were providers of interconnectivity and infrastructure devices including line drivers, modems, self configuring modems, 4 port, 8 port and 16 port PADs, and switches. These were physical boxes delivering full implementation of x.25, x.28, x.29 and x.3 protocols with physical connectivity conforming to RS232 asynchronous connectivity specification.

JANET Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psychologist and psychotherapist * Maur ...

connections were available via IPSS. In 1988 the IPSS directory listed approximately 800 global sites available for connection via X.25. The network later adopted

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

and provided infrastructure for the early

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, 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 ...

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last=Schatt , first=Stan , title=Linking LANs: A Micro Manager's Guide , year=1991 , publisher=McGraw-Hill , isbn=0-8306-3755-9 BT Group Computer-related introductions in 1978 General Post Office History of computing in the United Kingdom History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom Packets (information technology) Western Union X.25

History

See also

References

Sources