[ih] The "Research to Operation" (R2O) aspect of Internet History

[Jack Haverty]

On 8/25/25 10:53, Barbara Denny via Internet-history wrote:
>   Another story....
> I thought SINCGARs radios we were getting at SRI were milspec.  I was surprised when in one shipment a radio had been broken by the post office.  Nothing major, just a corner piece had broken off.
> Some of you might be wondering what SRI was doing with these radios.  We had a project with ITT to develop a packet applique (another box) to transform the analog radio to one that supported packet switching. We used the packet radio protocols as a starting point for  the nodes and we did demonstrate it during exercises at military bases (Fort Bragg and Fort Gordon).  Hosts were using TCP/IP for the applications. Last I heard ITT and General Dynamics were competing? for the next production of the radios and this included support for packet switching.  This was back in the late 80s(?),  shortly after our project ended. I know ITT had also done more internal IR&D in this area. I don't know how much of the original packet radio technology got incorporated.
> barbara

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for the SINCGARs story.  I've always wondered what happened to 
Packet Radio technology further down the road.

Internet History buffs,

No, it's R2O, not R2O2...

I think R2O is a part of the Internet History which I haven't seen 
discussed much at all - namely how, and whether or not, technology 
progressed from the research labs of ARPA (and others, such as in 
Europe) into the world where it was used.   That "R2O" pipeline was of 
course the intent of the research when it was begun.   Research was 
initiated in the hope it would prove useful to meet operational needs.

I lived through the progression of the ARPANET from an ARPA research 
project to its eventual deployment as the Defense Data Network, as well 
as numerous "clone" networks using IMPs, running the same code as 
ARPANET, in many branches of government and commercial environments.

Similarly, I can remember the progression of The Internet, beginning as 
an ARPA research project.  NSF got involved, and funded a bunch of 
regional networks, but with a guaranteed and scheduled end to its 
funding.   By doing so, it generated the first self-sufficient ISPs, and 
the Internet industry began.   Tim Berners-Lee created web technology, 
W3C promoted it, and it exploded throughout the world.

Other technologies I remember starting along such a pipeline. SATNET 
began as a component network of The Internet, providing connectivity 
between the US and Europe.  MATNET used the same technology as SATNET, 
but was deployed in a military testbed environment, with a presence on 
the USS Carl Vinson, the Navy's aircraft carrier used as a technology 
testbed "in the field".  But I haven't heard what, if anything, happened 
afterwards.

There was a sort of "pipeline" carrying technology from ARPA research 
out into the operational military, as well as into the broader 
commercial world.   Perhaps some historians can explain how that worked 
and what technologies made it through the pipeline. Perhaps also explain 
ones that were abandoned as failures and why.

For example, it seems like there could be a path beginning with projects 
such as AlohaNet, Packet Radio, SATNET, and others, that somehow leads 
to today's Starlink.   How did the research technology work its way 
along that path -- if it did at all?  Did it involve code transfer, 
adoption of successful algorithms or procedures, information 
dissemination through documents and papers, spinoffs of startups (cisco 
systems comes to mind), or perhaps just the movement of people, bringing 
knowledge and ideas from one project to another?

For a possible failure, I recall projects in the early 1980s to develop 
"secure operating systems".   One was called KSOS (Kernelized Secure 
Operating System).  Another was PSOS (Provably Secure Operating 
System).  The idea was that it would be good to have a computer platform 
that not only did what it was specified to do, but also did not do 
anything else.   Such a system would be immune to the typical "zero-day" 
attacks that allow an intruder to take over control of a machine.   The 
fact that all the OSes I use today receive a constant stream of updates 
to fix critical vulnerabilities makes me think this research ended up as 
a failure.

I think such "pipeline" R2O stories are an important, but 
under-recorded, part of Internet History.

Jack Haverty

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 665 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://elists.isoc.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20250825/cd2a04ee/attachment.asc>