[ih] Hesitating to disagree with one of the fathers of the Internet…..

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: David Elliott Bell <bell1945 at offthisweek.com>

    > The disagreement would be over the phrase "the designer".

It depends; there are lots of different parts to 'the ARPANet'. The Host-Host
and application protocols were clearly done by a group of people from the
sites. Then there is the actual network as implemented - and then you get the
early versions (as documented in Heart et al. 1970 SJCC), the 'middle' version
(McQuillan et al. 1972 FJCC) and the 'late' version (no quick ref for this,
but it includes after the 'new' routing algorithm).

As to the actual network, check out the original ARPA RFQ, July 29 1968
(#DAHC15 69 Q 0002), and then look at the BBN proposal, 6 September 1968 (IMP
P69-IST-5). Then compare that with the actual network as first implemented.
(And bear in mind that before the RFQ was written, there was a lot of
discussion among a fair number of folk, e.g. Wes Clark's suggestion of a
separate IMP.)

I would say 'designed by BBN' is a reasonable, succint, description for the
actual network, but of course there were many hands, and many pieces, and
a full description of all the former, for the latter, is rather lengthy.

	Noel