Internet History
In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated
a
research program to investigate techniques and technologies for
interlinking
packet networks of various kinds. The objective was to develop
communication
protocols which would allow networked computers to communicate
transparently
across multiple, linked packet networks. This was called the
Internetting
project and the system of networks which emerged from the
research was known as
the "Internet." The system of protocols which was
developed over the
course of this research effort became known as the TCP/IP
Protocol Suite, after
the two initial protocols developed: Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and
Internet Protocol (IP). In 1986, the U.S.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
initiated the development of the NSFNET
which, today, provides a major backbone
communication service for the
Internet. With its 45 megabit per second
facilities, the NSFNET carries on
the order of 12 billion packets per month
between the networks it links. The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the U.S. Department
of Energy contributed additional backbone
facilities in the form of the
NSINET and ESNET respectively. In Europe, major
international backbones such
as NORDUNET and others provide connectivity to over
one hundred thousand
computers on a large number of networks. Commercial network
providers in the
U.S. and Europe are beginning to offer Internet backbone and
access support
on a competitive basis to any interested parties.
"Regional" support for the
Internet is provided by various consortium
networks and "local" support is
provided through each of the research
and educational institutions. Within
the United States, much of this support has
come from the federal and state
governments, but a considerable contribution has
been made by industry. In
Europe and elsewhere, support arises from cooperative
international efforts
and through national research organizations. During the
course of its
evolution, particularly after 1989, the Internet system began to
integrate
support for other protocol suites into its basic networking fabric.
The
present emphasis in the system is on multiprotocol interworking, and
in
particular, with the integration of the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI)
protocols into the architecture. Both public domain and
commercial
implementations of the roughly 100 protocols of TCP/IP protocol
suite became
available in the 1980's. During the early 1990's, OSI protocol
implementations
also became available and, by the end of 1991, the Internet
has grown to include
some 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries,
serving over 700,000 host
computers used by over 4,000,000 people. A great
deal of support for the
Internet community has come from the U.S. Federal
Government, since the Internet
was originally part of a federally-funded
research program and, subsequently,
has become a major part of the U.S.
research infrastructure. During the late
1980's, however, the population
of Internet users and network constituents
expanded internationally and began
to include commercial facilities. Indeed, the
bulk of the system today is
made up of private networking facilities in
educational and research
institutions, businesses and in government
organizations across the globe.
The Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental
Networks (CCIRN), which
was organized by the U.S. Federal Networking Council (FNC)
and the European
Reseaux Associees pour la Recherche Europeenne (RARE), plays an
important
role in the coordination of plans for government- sponsored
research
networking. CCIRN efforts have been a stimulus for the support of
international
cooperation in the Internet environment. Over its fifteen year
history, the
Internet has functioned as a collaboration among cooperating
parties. Certain
key functions have been critical for its operation, not the
least of which is
the specification of the protocols by which the components
of the system
operate. These were originally developed in the DARPA research
program mentioned
above, but in the last five or six years, this work has
been undertaken on a
wider basis with support from Government agencies in
many countries, industry
and the academic community. The Internet Activities
Board (IAB) was created in
1983 to guide the evolution of the TCP/IP
Protocol Suite and to provide research
advice to the Internet community.
During the course of its existence, the IAB
has reorganized several times. It
now has two primary components: the Internet
Engineering Task Force and
the Internet Research Task Force. The former has
primary responsibility for
further evolution of the TCP/IP protocol suite, its
standardization with the
concurrence of the IAB, and the integration of other
protocols into Internet
operation (e.g. the Open Systems Interconnection
protocols). The Internet
Research Task Force continues to organize and explore
advanced concepts in
networking under the guidance of the Internet Activities
Board and with
support from various government agencies. A secretariat has been
created to
manage the day-to-day function of the Internet Activities Board
and
Internet Engineering Task Force. IETF meets three times a year in
plenary and
its approximately 50 working groups convene at intermediate times
by electronic
mail, teleconferencing and at face-to-face meetings. The IAB
meets quarterly
face-to-face or by videoconference and at intervening times
by telephone,
electronic mail and computer-mediated conferences. Two other
functions are
critical to IAB operation: publication of documents describing
the Internet and
the assignment and recording of various identifiers needed
for protocol
operation. Throughout the development of the Internet, its
protocols and other
aspects of its operation have been documented first in a
series of documents
called Internet Experiment Notes and, later, in a series
of documents called
Requests for Comment (RFCs). The latter were used
initially to document the
protocols of the first packet switching network
developed by DARPA, the ARPANET,
beginning in 1969, and have become the
principal archive of information about
the Internet. At present, the
publication function is provided by an RFC editor.
The recording of
identifiers is provided by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA)
who has delegated one part of this responsibility to an
Internet Registry
which acts as a central repository for Internet information
and which
provides central allocation of network and autonomous system
identifiers, in
some cases to subsidiary registries located in various
countries. The
Internet Registry (IR) also provides central maintenance of the
Domain
Name System (DNS) root database which points to subsidiary
distributed
DNS servers replicated throughout the Internet. The DNS
distributed database is
used, inter alia, to associate host and network names
with their Internet
addresses and is critical to the operation of the higher
level TCP/IP protocols
including electronic mail. There are a number of
Network Information Centers (NICs)
located throughout the Internet to serve
its users with documentation, guidance,
advice and assistance. As the
Internet continues to grow internationally, the
need for high quality NIC
functions increases. Although the initial community of
users of the Internet
were drawn from the ranks of computer science and
engineering, its users now
comprise a wide range of disciplines in the sciences,
arts, letters,
business, military and government administration.