[ih] Early Internet history

[Jack Haverty]

Interesting.  Is the Internet now larger than the Phone network --
measured in terms of numbers of entities (people and organizations) who
can interact?  I still know lots of people who have phones but "don't do
email".

One thing that sticks in my mind as being "novel" in the Internet world
is one of the techniques used to achieve today's large scale.

AFAIK, the Internet is the first implementation of a "network" (i.e., a
data communications system using lots of distributed processors to move
bits) that is done with the components being designed, manufactured,
installed, and operated independently but cooperatively by more than one
organization.  Earlier networks of computers, e.g., the ARPANET, IBM's
multi-drop networks, et al, were all under control of one entity.  Some
such networks got to be pretty large, but were always under single
management.  The Internet changed that, and IMHO that facilitate its
growth.  Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong...

Of course, the international Phone network was multi-organizational, at
least at the level of each country involved and their local PTT
responsible for their part.  So in effect the Internet followed the lead
of the Phone system to enable the interoperation of disjoint pieces.

IMHO, one of the key pieces enabling this technique was the creation of
EGP.  I remember sitting with Eric Rosen in my office at BBN to figure
out how to respond to Bob Kahn's directive to "make it possible for
people other than BBN to build gateways".  We batted around ideas for a
few hours, with the knowledge that the PTTs seemed to have been somehow
able to do this.  EGP was the result.  Novel?  Maybe...

There were probably many other such techniques that enabled scale.  For
example, the notion of defining a protocol and formats "on the wire"
seems also important.  That was part of the ARPANET, but was likely
preceded by similar techniques applied in places like memory and I/O
busses, or railroad tracks, etc.

The recent discussion of "invention" got me thinking.  It seems that,
every once in a while, something truly new is created.  I'd argue that
an example would be the Stored Program Computer of von Neumann's vision.
 Then, for years or decades afterwards, that new element is
opportunistically applied to do things that were done before in a
different way.  As computers got small and cheap enough, packet switches
became viable as replacements for human phone and telegraph operators or
mechanical components (like I saw in the Paris museum)

Which of all these things are "inventions" will be debated forever...

/Jack


On 07/05/2018 03:25 PM, Vint Cerf wrote:
> well, you might want to think about scale for a moment.
> 
> v
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 5:50 PM, Richard Bennett <richard at bennett.com
> <mailto:richard at bennett.com>> wrote:
> 
>     So there’s really nothing novel about the Internet. Digital
>     communication has been done with end-to-end control of multiplexed
>     packets since the early 20th century, and the phone network was just
>     a diversion. 
> 
>     Cool.
> 
>     RB
> 
> 
>>     On Jul 5, 2018, at 2:59 PM, Brian E Carpenter
>>     <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com <mailto:brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>>
>>     wrote:
>>
>>     On 06/07/2018 03:34, Jack Haverty wrote:
>>     ...
>>>     I was in Paris recently and spent several hours at the Musee des
>>>     Arts et
>>>     Metiers, essentially a museum of technology.  One section is
>>>     devoted to
>>>     "Communications".  I noticed one display cabinet containing a machine
>>>     that was somehow used to "allow several telegraph operators to
>>>     share the
>>>     same wire" - so I guess Multiplexing has been around since the
>>>     19th century.
>>
>>     It was perceived as a requirement very early. Wikipedia dates it
>>     to the 1870s.
>>     But I think the first really successful version was the "Murray
>>     Multiplex" in
>>     about 1909. My colleague Bob Doran has studied Donald Murray's
>>     works at some length:
>>     https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydisplays/FifthFloor/Murray/MurraySpielLR.pdf
>>     <https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydisplays/FifthFloor/Murray/MurraySpielLR.pdf>
>>
>>       Brian
>>
>>     _______
>>     internet-history mailing list
>>     internet-history at postel.org <mailto:internet-history at postel.org>
>>     http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>>     <http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history>
>>     Contact list-owner at postel.org <mailto:list-owner at postel.org> for
>>     assistance.
> 
>     —
>     Richard Bennett
>     High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org> Founder
>     Ethernet & Wi-Fi standards co-creator
> 
>     Internet Policy Consultant
> 
> 
>     _______
>     internet-history mailing list
>     internet-history at postel.org <mailto:internet-history at postel.org>
>     http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>     <http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history>
>     Contact list-owner at postel.org <mailto:list-owner at postel.org> for
>     assistance.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> New postal address:
> Google
> 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
> Reston, VA 20190
> 
> 
> _______
> internet-history mailing list
> internet-history at postel.org
> http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> Contact list-owner at postel.org for assistance.
>