FREE ESSAY ON HISTORY OF THE NET

HISTORY OF THE NET

The History of the Internet
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.