[ih] infrastructure history [was: who invented the Internet]

[Dave Walden]

>While I was at my bookshelf looking at Bob's thesis, I also looked 
>again at Abbate's book.   It has probably already been mentioned in 
>this thread that this would be a good book for someone to look at 
>who wonders about how the Internet came about.  Of course, since 
>many of her sources were people on this list, that book might be 
>seen by the WSJ as part of promotion of a myth of government 
>involvement in the development of the Internet.

I have found an illustration from from or less the same time as the 
packet-radio net, ARPANET, Satnet, etc., internetworking demo 
described on about page 132 of Abbate's book that shows (as I read 
the illustration) a 2-net internet experiment experiment using 
internet gateways (IGs) to partition BBN's Research Computer Center 
(i.e., TENEX systems) from the ARPANET with connections via the IGs 
to IMP 5 at BBN and to the Satellite Network (a comm link to the IG 
at the Clarksburg site) and thus to ARPANET via a second path (up to 
the satellite from Clarksburg, MD, and back down to Etam, WV, with 
its IG to the SDAC IMP.   As I read the history, Tomlinson did a 
first implementation of TCP in TENEX (and Plummer improved its 
efficiency); that explains one of the above mentioned IGs.  I don't 
remember how the IGs at the Satellite IMPs were implemented.  I 
should perhaps visit BBN and take a copy of the whole Quarterly 
Technical Report to ARPA (in addition to the figure I copied a few 
years ago) so I know more precise details about this experiment.  I 
remember that various government contracts were supporting more than 
one early TCP implementation efforts at BBN.