Just Say No to Socialism

DARPA (0.00 / 0)

It's the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

A little Internet Background:

The Defense Department funded the initial research into packet switching (through DARPA) primarily to address the issue of communications survivability during a nuclear attack.  Individual communications switches were thought to be vulnerable to attack. [During the Cold War, the Defense Department was very much preoccupied with their nuclear obsession.] The Defense Department wanted a system that could maintain communications even with multiple random communications nodes destroyed.

At that time, the predominant architecture for communications networks, such as the Bell System, was a connection-oriented call-based system.  A call would be established (i.e., a specific route would be created) between two points and all information in a communications stream would pass in sequence between the two points. But in call-based networks, communications streams were particularly vulnerable  to communications node attacks.  And, what if one of those communications streams was an Air Task Order (ATO) to a bomber squadron and/or missile wing?

DARPA's answer was packet switching, which is connectionless.  Communications streams are broken up into packets that are each individually routed through a network.  Should a communications node be disrupted in the middle of a communications stream, individual packets can be routed around the destroyed node.  Since individual packets may take different paths, they may not be received at their destination in order.  So, in packet switching networks, destinations have the added responsibility of re-sequencing the communications stream.

DARPA gave a generous grant to a few young electrical engineers who also were surfing enthusiasts.  They took their DARPA grant and presented themselves to the University of Hawaii as their new Computer Science Department.  Soon, the ALOHAnet was created.  I was at MITRE, an Air Force contractor, and took their ALOHAnet ideas and helped establish MITREnet.  With MITREnet's success, the Air Force soon created the Defense Data Network (DDN) program office.  The DDN eventually became what many call the INTERNET today.

Perhaps, it's called the INTERNET because one of the key data communications standards on which it is based is the Internet Protocol (IP).  But, equally important is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which is a data communications standard that is used to re-sequence packets to re-create the original communications stream.

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by: Mullaley @ Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 23:52:16 PM UTC

Wow. You were part of history. (0.00 / 0)

I truly believe that free access to the Internet for all citizens has allowed democracy to survive during the dark times of corporate media consolidation.  It will require vigilance to keep it so.

Thanks for a peek into the beginnings of this world changing technology.  

Keep your eyes on the prize and don't believe the lies!

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by: Jan A @ Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 14:13:21 PM UTC

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Add my thanks as well! All done in language I can understand (0.00 / 0)

for so complex a subject matter

I am too informed to be a Republican

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by: Susan H @ Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 15:56:57 PM UTC

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