[ih] origins of the term "router"

[Vint Cerf]

The 1979 reference clearly shows an application layer use of the term.

 


Vinton G Cerf
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-----Original Message-----
From: internet-history-bounces at postel.org
[mailto:internet-history-bounces at postel.org] On Behalf Of Tim Moors
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 9:43 PM
To: internet-history at postel.org
Subject: [ih] origins of the term "router"

I'm wondering if some of the sages on this mailing list might be able to
shed some light on the origins of the term "router", in particular why it
was introduced as a term distinct from "(packet) switch" or "gateway"?

The earliest reference to "router" that I can find in RFCs is in
RFC753 from March 1979, which discusses message (email) routers, e.g. "The
Router is responsible for maintaining sufficient topological information to
determine where to forward any incoming Message-Bag."
Such "application-level" routing is mentioned in several subsequent RFCs.

The first reference to routers in the context of the "network layer"
appears in the April 1984 "Gateway SIG Meeting Notes" (RFC 898) in which Jon
Postel mentions "leaving the normal router kernel function in charge of
forwarding datagrams." and provides some history of "The CMU Gateway" which
?became? a "router" in "Oct 83".  RFC 1001 also mentions network layer
routers, while RFC 1009 from June 1987 seems to be the first to define and
discuss technical details of such routers:

"A router is a switch that receives data transmission units from input
interfaces and, depending on the addresses in those units, routes them to
the appropriate output interfaces."  "Interface Message Processors
(IMPs) are packet-level routers."  "a gateway is an IP-level router"


Is there, perhaps, a relationship between the use of the term "router" 
and activity of that juggernaut of routers, Cisco? E.g. the first RFC to
mention Cisco is RFC985 from May 1986.


Tim Moors
http://www.ee.unsw.edu.au/~timm/
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, Australia