[ih] Separation of TCP and IP

[Steve Crocker]

Noel and Alex,

I've had in mind for a few years to expand and untangle the Wikipedia
entry/ies re NCP.  At this moment, I am recovering from heart surgery and
hence having only short spurts of available energy.  Also, Wikipedia
requires corroboration of claims from principals.  So perhaps this is a
good time to ask for your help.

I coined the term Network Control Program, and hence the acronym NCP, to
refer to the software that needed to be added to the operating system of an
Arpanet host.  I wanted to highlight that an incision into the OS was
required.  Existing device handlers, e.g., disks, tapes, terminals, etc.
could not be adapted because the Host-Host protocol was between co-equal
hosts, with neither one in charge.  And, as you've just seen, I used the
term Host-Host protocol to refer to the protocol.

Over time, the term Host-Host protocol was too bland, and the need to
explicitly refer to the implementing software waned.  People repurposed NCP
to refer to the protocol.

In addition to whatever is in the early RFCs, our AFIPS Spring 1970
paper, HOST-HOST
communication protocol in the ARPA network, documents the early terminology.

I did not follow the evolution of use, nor do I have any heartburn about
it, but I think it will help readers to understand the two different but
related uses of "NCP" during that period.

Thanks,

Steve


On Mon, Jun 27, 2022 at 4:43 PM Noel Chiappa via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

>     > From: Alex McKenzie
>
>     > "NCP" stood for BOTH Network Control Program and Network Control
>     > Protocol, though never in the same document.
>
> Really? I did a search for "Network Control Protocol" in early RFC's (I
> cheated, and used 'site:rfc-editor.org' in a Google search), and the
> earliest
> I found (admittedly, not with the most rigorous search technique) was
> RFC-772, "Mail Transfer Protocol", from September 1980 (i.e. well after
> TCP-4, in September 1978), by Sluizer and Postel.
>
>         Noel
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