[ih] "The First Router" on Jeopardy

[Jorge Amodio]

I guess it could be interesting to find out when the word router was
introduced as a "device"

Can't find yet anything concrete in those old documents, besides the
reference to the routing algorithm, there is also the concept of the IMP
performing path selection.

Several documents describe the IMP doing "routing" but none of them define
the IMP as just a "router"

-J


On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 8:45 AM vinton cerf <vgcerf at gmail.com> wrote:

> yes, there is no dispute that the IMP did routing of packets. But except
> for Jack's comments, I have never referred to the IMP as a "router," which
> term I associated with various Internet packet switches.
>
> v
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 9:42 AM Jorge Amodio via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> There is another mention of the "Routing Algorithm" on the 1972 memo from
>> Crowther, Walden and Mimno, to Frank Heart/IMP Guys, describing the new
>> routing algorithm.
>>
>> -J
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 8:34 AM Jorge Amodio <jmamodio at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > BBN Report #1783 (1969) includes the addition of the "Routing Algorithm"
>> > but it does not define the word "router" but the description implies
>> that
>> > the IMP with this algorithm acts as a router.
>> >
>> > Trying to find a copy of Report #1822 ....
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Jorge
>> >
>> >
>> > On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 2:50 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
>> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Watching Jeopardy from November 17, 2021, I was surprised to see a
>> >> "clue" which was a picture of Len Kleinrock standing in front of the
>> >> ARPANET IMP which has been preserved at UCLA.  It was a clue under the
>> >> category "It's a New Machine".
>> >>
>> >> The host read the clue:
>> >>
>> >> "In 1969, Leonard Kleinrock and his team sent the first message over
>> the
>> >> Internet with the first THIS, which now connects devices like modems."
>> >>
>> >> None of the contestants knew the answer, although one guessed
>> >> "backbone", which isn't a bad guess.  So the guest revealed the answer:
>> >>
>> >> "You're looking at the first router."
>> >>
>> >> My immediate reaction was "No, you're not!    That's an IMP."
>> >>
>> >> See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmv1WKMGcDw starting at about 1:29
>> >>
>> >> That's not quite like I remember it.  Ginny Strazisar built the first
>> >> switching device for the Internet to connect the ARPANET to the Packet
>> >> Radio net, circa 1977.  To me that was the genesis of the "Internet" -
>> >> INTERconnecting of NETworks of a variety of types, using TCP/IP to glue
>> >> it all together.   But millions of people just learned otherwise.
>> >>
>> >> A historical tidbit -- Back in 1977 Ginny's system was called a
>> >> "gateway", but later was renamed a "router".   It's possible that I did
>> >> the renaming.  At BBN we were selling lots of packet switches, and
>> >> sometimes customers asked for ideas on how to use their LANs in the
>> >> network.  Our sales people would tell them about the research
>> >> activities, and the role of gateways, TCP/IP , and the Internet. But in
>> >> many customers' minds that term "gateway"  immediately set off alarm
>> >> bells, because they had prior bad experience with "gateways" in their
>> >> IBM networks, and didn't want anything to do with more "gateways".   So
>> >> I suggested calling them "routers" instead of "gateways", and suddenly
>> >> the marketplace became much more willing to listen.
>> >>
>> >> Enjoy,
>> >> Jack Haverty
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
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>> >>
>> >
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>