[ih] Early interconnection between Ethernets and Arpanet

[Vint Cerf]

there were gateways into the ARPANET from the Xerox PARC Ethernet. At least
one of gateway was built using a packet radio as part of an early internet
experiment. What I don't recall is whether this was a protocol converting
gateway (from Xerox' PARC Universal Packet and associated TCP-like protocol
to TELNET/NCP for example or whether there was an early TCP running on,
e.g., either an ALTO work station or the MAXC server). PARC also had an
ARPANET IMP (or TIP?) and connected the MAXC into the ARPANET as an NCP
host. The Ethernet would have linked the ALTOs into the MAXC machine. PUP
was being developed at the same time as TCP/IP so I expect there was
protocol conversion going on somewhere; possibly in MAXC.

I am not sure whether Bob Metcalfe, Yogen Dalal and John Shoch are on the
history list so I am copying them directly. Bob and John were at PARC during
the TCP/IP and PUP developments; Yogen was at Stanford working on TCP/IP
during the 1974-1976 period and later joined PARC to work on XNS (Xerox
Network System) that grew out of the PUP experiments. If I remember
correctly, Larry Masinter did the work to link the Ethernet at PARC with the
Bay Area Packet Radio network with a packet radio on the premises.

vint


On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 6:00 AM, Matthias Bärwolff <mbaer at cs.tu-berlin.de>wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> is there any documentation (or tacit knowledge on this list) on early
> Ethernet-Arpanet gateways (obviously other than those built using IP in
> the late 1970s)? I found some documentation on how Alohanet terminals
> connected to the Arpanet, and how the NPL guys in the UK connected their
> IBM machines to their TIP, plus some notes on how people struggled to
> get the SRI port expanders working; but nothing on the much more obvious
> candidate, Ethernet, given its early popularity.
>
> Sorry if I've just been lazy. Thanks for all hints.
>
> Matthias
>
> --
> Matthias Bärwolff
> www.bärwolff.de <http://www.xn--brwolff-5wa.de>
>
>
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