[ih] NCP (was: Separation of TCP and IP)

[Steve Crocker]

Thanks!

Steve

On Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 10:16 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:

>     > From: Steve Crocker
>
>     > 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. ... 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
>
> Or too long! :-)
>
>     > the need to explicitly refer to the implementing software waned.
> People
>     > repurposed NCP to refer to the protocol. ... I think it will help
>     > readers to understand the two different but related uses of "NCP"
>     > during that period.
>
> A very good point.
>
>
> I wasn't there, obviously, but I now have what I think is a very plausible
> theory about what happened. The ARPANET 'stack' is composed of four main
> layers:
>
> - 1822/VDH at the bottom, to transfer bits/'messages' between the host and
>         the local IMP
> - Host-to-IMP Protocol, to transfer messages between the local host and a
>         distant host
> - Initial Connection Protocol/Host-to-Host Protocol, to provide host to
> host
>         connections
> - Applications (Telnet, FTP, etc)
>
> Each of these layers/units had a well-defined name. However, there was no
> official name for _the stack as a whole_. Which wasn't such a problem,
> initially; but once IP/TCP appeared (and note the date of that first RFC
> that
> I found which uses 'Network Control Protocol'), there was a need/use for
> _a_
> term for the 'NCP' stack. Organically, 'NCP' seems to have been adopted to
> fill that role.
>
> Of course, the original formal expansion of 'NCP' (as 'Network Control
> Program') made no sense in this new use, so a new 'backronym' (as the term
> goes) of 'Network Control Protocol' _later_ appeared. (So I guess Ms.
> Hafner
> is innocent! :-)
>
>
> I will fix the NCP page on the Computer History wiki to explain the two
> meanings of the term 'NCP'. If I get energetic, I'll do Wikipedia too -
> but only if nobody else deals with it! :-)
>
>         Noel
>