ARPANET
The ARPANET was the first packet-based wide-area network; so named because it was initiated, and initially funded, by ARPA.
It consisted of minicomputers called Interface Message Processors ('IMPs', for short) running specialized packet switching code, joined together with synchronous serial lines; host computers were connected to the IMPs by special bit-serial 1822 interfaces.
Later on, customized IMP variants called Terminal Interface Processors ('TIPs', for short) were added to the ARPANET; these provided groups of serial lines to which could be attached terminals, which allowed users at the terminals access to the hosts attached to the ARPANET.
Protocols
The protocol family used on the early ARPANET included:
- The Host-to-IMP Protocol, the bottom layer; specified in BBN Report #1822 (multiple editions over time)
- ICP, Initial connection protocol
- Host-to-Host Protocol (early version here)
These two latter protocols formed the Network Control Program, which all the application protocols ran over.
Those included:
- FTP (early version here)
- TELNET
- MAIL (here is a much later proposal which eventually became SMTP)
- NAME/FINGER
See also
Further reading
- F.E. Heart, R.E. Kahn, S.M. Ornstein, W.R. Crowther, and D.C. Walden, "The interface message processor for the ARPA computer network", Proceedings AFIPS, 1970 SJCC, Vol. 36, pp. 551-567.
- J.M. McQuillan, W.R. Crowther, B.P. Cosell, D.C. Walden, and F.E. Heart, "Improvements in the Design and Performance of the ARPA Network", Proceedings AFIPS, 1972 FJCC, Vol. 40, pp. 741-754.
- John M. McQuillan, David C. Walden, "The ARPA Network Design Decisions", in "Computer Networks", Vol. 1, No. 5, August 1977, pp. 243-289.
