[ih] The term "router" in RFCs (Re: "The First Router" on Jeopardy)

[Carsten Bormann]

On 2021-11-22, at 21:50, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> 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.

A quick look at using the word “router” in RFCs/IENs:

RFC 753 (= IEN 85, March 1979) used the word for a message router, as did its update RFC 759 (= IEN 113, August 1980).  RFC 850 (Usenet messages, June 1983) used “mail router”.  IEN 178, April 1981, uses “router” once to describe an entity that did network route processing; the somewhat casual usage doesn’t necessarily imply a forwarding function being part of the “router” concept.

The first trace I can find of an Internet gateway being called a router in an RFC is RFC 898 (Gateway SIG Meeting Notes, April 1984):  This talks about the CMU gateway, including the lines:

      History -
        o   "Logical-Host" multiplexor (March 81)
        o   Gateway (Oct 82) remote debugger and monitor
        o   Router (Oct 83)
              - Modular device and protocol support
              - Stub IP dynamic routing
              - Local inter-network cable routing.

Apparently, “router” implied more functionality than a simple “gateway”, and “Stub IP dynamic routing” and “local inter-network cable routing" seemed to be parts of that.

So this quick look seems to locate early use of the term with today’s meaning in the early 1980s.

Grüße, Carsten