Last time we emphasized that the "physics" associated with the construction of the Net largely involved the development of protocols. A protocol is a set of rules that are engineered into the network so that all its components know what to do.

We ended in 1966 last time where the basic vision of packet switching and nodes was in place but there was no real hardware yet available to implement this.

Remember Moore's 1964 Law Processing power doubles every 18 months. While this is good, it means that technology has to be carefully planned so as to avoid rapid obsolescence.

Towards Internet Implementation: (Note the ??? refers to people who you will later research.

1967 Wesley Clark comes up with the idea of using dedicated hardware to perform network functions while at a meeting of ARPA principal investigators. The devices would eventually be called Interface Message Processors (IMP's). First notion that dedicated hardware is needed as opposed to some shared device.

??? publishes the first design paper on ARPANET: 'Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication' at ACM's Gatlinburg conference.

1968 The first WAN (Wide Area Network) to use packet switching is tested at the National Research Laboratory (NRL) in Great Britain

??? and ??? publish The Computer as a Communications Device. A breakthrough in our concept of the computer as more than just an adding machine.

??? of ARPA releases a Request for Quotation (RFQ) looking for bids to constructing a network of 4 IMPs, with possible growth to 19. Many large companies like ATT and IBM do not submit bids, saying that such a network was not possible This is particularly stupid in light of ATT's required need to do packet switching to connect their phone customers!

A small consulting company called Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) located in Cambridge wins the ARPA IMP contract. The group, headed by Frank Heart, would have $1 million and less than a year to turn theory into a working system.

1969 (March) Honeywell delivers the first IMP prototype (IMP 0) to BBN. The unit was a modified version of Honeywell's rugged 516 computer. Unfortunately it didn't work correctly, Ben Barker would spend several weeks rewiring it by hand into the correct configuration.

April 7: Steve Crocker creates the first Request for Comment (RFC) document titled 'Host Software' (RFC1). It outlined the interface between hosts and BNN's IMP devices, each site would be responsible for creating the host software that connected their computers to the ARPANET's IMPs. The name RFC was chosen to avoid sounding too self-righteous, Crocker hoped to create an environment in which everyone felt comfortable participating - a spirit which would help the network to thrive in the coming decades. The RFC process is everything in the future development of the Internet

October 1: The ARPANET's second node is set up at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), connecting to their SDS 940. After a bit of tweaking the first connection was made from UCLA to the SRI machine over the 50Kbps circuit.(equivalent to a 56K modem) This is the first day of the Internet for all practical purposes.

December 1969: The First 4 Nodes go ONLINE



ARPAnet was the only real scientific reserach network that grew and evolved from 1970-1988 before other entities started to become players in the Internet.



At this point the evolution of the Internet now is concerned with the development of protocols and standards so that it can be effectively managed. The important steps in this process are detailed in the next page.