[ih] Why TCP?

[Dave Crocker]

On 8/31/2016 2:43 PM, Jack Haverty wrote:
> AlohaNet was also the inspiration for Ethernet.  In
> the early 1970s, Bob Metcalfe's office at MIT was three doors down the
> hallway from mine as he wrote his thesis that spawned Ethernet.  I
> remember hearing about AlohaNet from him.


As I've heard it, Bob was staying at my brother's place and during their 
chatting, Bob outlined the problem he was trying to solve. Steve had a 
copy of the Alohanet paper handy and showed it to him.  (Steve says that 
Bob confirms this story.)

At the time, I was living 2 doors down from my brother and was not just 
uninvolved but mostly unaware of the various datacom efforts that were 
underway. However Steve got quite excited when he heard about Alohanet, 
and almost stormed into my place describing it to me.  Then he paused as 
said this was why it was important to fund research in lots of different 
kinds of places.

I was confused by the transition from details of a project to a 
higher-level theory of research funding and asked for an explanation.

He said Alohanet was completely undisciplined and could never have been 
invented east of the Mississippi...

d/

-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net