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

[Jack Haverty]

Agreed, the Internet is a good and continuing platform for research.

But how does that pipeline function?   For example, if it was through 
documentation, what RFCs, papers, journals, or conferences in the 
Internet environment were important for the people who designed and 
deployed Starlink?   Is there Packet Radio DNA in today's Starlink?

Jack


On 8/25/25 13:49, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:
> In my opinion the Internet is still R2O today. It may be mainly 
> civilian research now but there is still a pipeline. Also, the most 
> important test lab for new ideas is the Internet itself.
>
> Regards/Ngā mihi
>    Brian Carpenter
>
> On 26-Aug-25 08:41, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>

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