TCP and Internet Meetings

The TCP and Internet Meetings were a series of in-person meetings which were a key part of the development of the TCP and IP protocols. (At the start of that development, there was of course no separate IP protocol; its functionality was part of TCP in the early versions of TCP, TCP 1 and TCP 2.)

They rotated between various DARPA contractors who were working on what became the TCP/IP project; they were all held in the USA initially, with occasional meetings in Europe towards the end. They were notionally divided into separate 'TCP Meetings' and 'Internet Meetings', but in reality each meeting would consider issues with both protocols. It is also not clear why 'Internet' was used as a name on early meetings, before IP existed as a separate Protocol; the name probably came from the project's goal, to produce a working internet.

They were the precursor to the meetings of the later IETF, which continue to this day.

Meeting dates and location

Minutes for each meeting were produced, mostly by Jon Postel, and released in the IEN document series. Most meetings were part of the TCP and Internet meetings series, but there were a few additional ad hoc meetings on specialized topics. A fairly complete list of the meetings (in temporal order) is:

Date	Location	Type	Documented in
12 March 1977	DARPA	TCP	IEN-64
14-15 July 1977	MIT-LCS	TCP	IEN-65
15 August 1977	ISI	Internet	IEN-3
13-14 October 1977	SRI	TCP	IEN-66
30-31 January 1978	ISI	TCP	IEN-67
1 February 1978	xx	Internet	IEN-22
1-2 May 1978	UCL	Internet	IEN-33 (not online)
15-16 June 1978	MIT	TCP	IEN-68
2-4 August 1978	Lincoln Labs	Internet	IEN-53
18-19 September 1978	SRI	TCP	IEN-69
17 October 1978	BBN	Gateways	IEN-60
30-31 October 1978	SRI	Internet	IEN-63
4 December 1978	ARPA	Internet	IEN-70
25-26 January 1979	ISI	Internet	IEN-76
29 January 1979	ISI	TCP	IEN-77
12 March 1979	BBN	Fault Isolation	IEN-104
8-11 May 1979	BBN	Internet	IEN-106
10-13 September 1979	UCL	Internet	IEN-121
4-6 February	SRI	Internet	IEN-134
14-15 May 1980	MIT-LCS	Internet	IEN-145
7-9 October 1980	RSRE	Internet	IEN-160
28-30 January 1981	ISI	Internet	IEN-175

External links

IEN's (in IEN number order):

• INTERNET Meeting Notes 15 August 1977 (IEN 3)
• Meeting Notes - 1 February 1978 (IEN-22)
• Meeting Notes - 2,3&4 August 1978 (IEN-53)
• Boston Area Meeting of the Internet Working Group to Discuss Interactions With Gateways (IEN-60)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 30 & 31 October 1978 (IEN-63)
• Minutes of TCP Meeting, March 12, 1977, Washington, D.C. (IEN-64)
• TCP Meeting Notes - 14 & 15 July 1977 (IEN-65)
• TCP Meeting Notes - 13 & 14 October 1977 (IEN-66
• TCP Meeting Notes 30 & 31 January 1978 (IEN-67)
• TCP Meeting Notes - 15 & 16 June 1978 (IEN-68)
• TCP Meeting Notes - 18 & 19 September 1978 (IEN 69)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 4 December 1978 (IEN-70)
• TCP Meeting Notes - 29 January 1979 (IEN-77)
• Minutes of the Fault Isolation Meeting (IEN-104)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 8, 9, 10 & 11 May 1979 (IEN-106)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 10, 11, 12 & 13 September 1979 (IEN-121)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 4, 5, & 6 February 1980 (IEN-134)
• Internet Meeting Notes - 14 & 15 May 1980 (IEN-145)
• Internet Meeting Notes -- 7-8-9 October 1980 (IEN-160)
• Internet Meeting Notes -- 28-29-30 January 1981 (IEN-175)