[ih] Baran and arbitrary reliability from arbitrarily unreliable components

[Craig Partridge]

In message <a06240806c5deb1e19916@[10.0.1.43]>, John Day writes:

>I think Noel is dead on.  It is reasonably clear that Baran 
>influenced ARPA, but that Davies not having access to RAND reports 
>came up with the idea independently.
>
>At the level of ARPA deciding to fund such a thing, the influence is 
>going to be nebulous as he describes after all it is a management 
>level.   They are looking at the idea from a high level.  They aren't 
>going to worry about the details. If you want to see if Baran's ideas 
>were implemented then it would be ARPA that you want to look at but 
>BBN.

Actually, ARPA apparently did worry about some details -- per Bob
Taylor's note about central vs. distributed control (embedded in this
a larger note which I attach for context).

Craig

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Bob Taylor <R.W.Taylor at comcast.net>
> Date: October 6, 2004 2:45:03 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
> Subject: [IP] more on 35th Anniversary of the Internet (well the start=20
> of the Arpanet anyway djf)
> 
>   Hello Dave.=A0 I agree with you that Rick Adams was "right to the=20
> point".=A0 Here is some more ARPAnet history background.
> 
>   In February of 1966 I initiated the ARPAnet project.=A0 I was Director=20
> of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) from late '65=20
> to late '69.=A0 There were only two people involved in the decision to=20
> launch the ARPAnet:=A0 my boss, the Director of ARPA Charles Herzfeld,=20
> and me.
> 
>   From 1962 to 1970, beginning with J.C.R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland,=20
> and then me, IPTO funded several of the first projects devoted to the=20
> creation of interactive computing -- then referred to as time-sharing.=A0=
> =20
> In '64 - '65, I witnessed that within each local site when users were=20
> first connected by a time-sharing system, a community of people with=20
> common interests began to discover one another and interact through the=20
> medium of the computer.=A0 I was struck by the fact that this was a=20
> wonderfully new and powerful phenomenon.=A0
> 
>   The next obvious step was to connect those sites with an interactive=20
> network.=A0 To me, computing was about communication, not arithmetic.=A0=20
> Hence the ARPAnet.
>   This theme is elaborated in a paper Lick and I wrote in 1968 entitled,=20
> "The Computer as a Communications Device".=A0 Google can find it for=20
> you.=A0 On the last couple of pages there is a scenario that is=20
> reminiscent of today's Internet.
> 
>   Numerous untruths have been disseminated about events surrounding the=20
> origins of the ARPAnet.=A0 Here are some facts:
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 The creation of the ARPAnet was not motivated=
>  by=20
> considerations of war.=A0 The ARPAnet was created to enable folks with=20
> common interests to connect to one another through interactive=20
> computing even when widely separated by geography.
> 
> =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 The singularly most important contribution to t=
> he=20
> architectural design of the ARPAnet/Internet came from Wesley Clark:=A0=20
> the interface message processor (IMP).=A0 Wes is the designer of the LINC=
> =20
> which was arguably the first personal computer.=A0 Wes' ARPAnet concept=20
> ensured the critically valuable distributed architecture of the=20
> ARPAnet.=A0 Prior to Wes' contribution, Larry Roberts, whom I hired in=20
> Dec '66 to be ARPAnet's program manager, was considering a single,=20
> central ARPAnet control computer at a military base in Nebraska.=A0=20
> Fortunately, Wes quickly disabused Roberts of this notion.
> 
> 
> =A0=A0=A0 The most significant role in actually building the ARPAnet was=20
> played by Frank Heart and his Bolt, Beranek & Newman team:=A0 Severo=20
> Ornstein, Will Crowther, Bob Barker, Bernie Cosell, Dave Walden, and=20
> Bob Kahn.=A0
> 
>   =A0=A0=A0 Two suspicious claims relating to the ARPAnet were an important=
> =20
> part of the case for awarding the 2001 Draper Prize to Kahn and=20
> Kleinrock.=A0
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0 1. Kahn has claimed far and wide to be "responsible for the=
> =20
> systems=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 design of the ARPAnet" while a member of the BB&=
> N team.=A0 Since
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 no other team member agrees, I doubt the validit=
> y of this=20
> claim.=A0
>   =A0=A0=A0 2.=A0 Roberts and Kleinrock (close friends since college) began=
>  to=20
> claim
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 in 1995, more than 30 years after the fact, that=
>  Kleinrock=20
> invented=A0=A0
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 packet switching.=A0 Most of us believe that Don=
> ald Davies in=20
> England
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 and Paul Baran in the U.S. independently invente=
> d packet=20
> switching in
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 the early '60s.
>   I believe these two claims are false but they are recorded as facts on=20
> the web sites of the National Academy of Engineering and the Computer=20
> History Museum.=A0 The worst property of self-promotion is that it takes=20
> credit away from the people who actually made the contributions.=A0=20
> Roberts, Kahn, and Kleinrock have, however, made other important=20
> contributions.=A0 These can only be tarnished by extravagant claims.
> 
> =A0=A0=A0 Packet switching is an important part of modern networking, but i=
> t=20
> is not the only key piece.=A0 The multiplicity of the applications and=20
> the openness of the standards also played critical roles in ARPAnet=20
> development, as did Steve Crocker's initiation and management of the=20
> RFC process.
> 
> 
> =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 I believe the first internet was created at Xer=
> ox PARC, circa=20
> '75, when we connected, via PUP, the Ethernet with the ARPAnet.=A0 PUP=20
> (PARC Universal Protocol) was instrumental later in defining TCP (ask=20
> Metcalfe or Shoch, they were there).=A0
> 
>   =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 For the internet to grow, it also needed a ne=
> tworked=20
> personal computer, a graphical user interface with WYSIWYG properties,=20
> modern word processing, and desktop publishing.=A0 These, along with the=20
> Ethernet, all came out of my lab at Xerox PARC in the '70s, and were=20
> commercialized over the next 20 years by Adobe, Apple, Cisco,=20
> Microsoft, Novell, Sun and other companies that were necessary to the=20
> development of the Internet.
> 
> 
> =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0The ARPAnet was not an internet.=A0 An internet is =
> a connection=20
> between two or more computer networks.=A0 The ARPAnet, with help from=20
> thousands of people, slowly evolved into the Internet.=A0 Without the=20
> ARPAnet, the Internet would have been a much longer time in coming.
> 
> 
>   rwt