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

[Dave Crocker]

On 5/10/2012 2:07 PM, dave.walden.family at gmail.com wrote:
> We, BBN, certainly did a lot of design for the IMP system, taking
> off from the fairly undetailed spec that came in the Request for
> Quotation. I would say we contributed to the larger ARPANET design
> along with the people at ARPA, Network Analysis Corporation, the Host
> computer sites, the Network Working Group, the UCLA Network
> Measurement Center, the SRI Network Information Center, etc.


I'd guess that the categories of interesting innovation for the arpanet 
were:

    1. Basic packet-switching constructs

    2. Design of a packet-switching service -- the IMPs

    3. Design of service management capabilities

    4. Design of the standardized interface (and eventually plural)

    5. Design of the transport mechanisms (host to host, initial
    connection, and the like.)

    6. Design of application services.

I thought BBN was primary and maybe exclusive for #2 and #3.

I don't know the history of the interface spec, but have the vague 
impression that BBN did that, too.

Of course, #5 and #6 were highly collaborative across the community. 
Assignment of credit goes to different people for different parts.

d/
--
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net