[ih] Comments re the packet radio discussion

[Vint Cerf]

thanks for this additional gloss, Len - I had not remembered the prtn
series so it is good to have that reference in this list. Modeling and
analysis of networks was the primary focus of the network measurement
center. Had you not drawn steve crocker, jon postel and me into your lab,
we might never have had the amazing careers we actually have had.

v


On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 12:58 AM Leonard Kleinrock via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Here are some thoughts to add to the group’s email thread regarding packet
> radio, material of which some of you are aware, but perhaps it will add
> value for others of you.
>
> In addition to the implementation of testbeds and demos, there was a
> significant level of effort on the theory and performance issues
> surrounding packet radio.  As Vint said, Bob Kahn began the packet radio
> program at ARPA and among the first documents to be produced were the
> Packet Radio Temporary Notes (PRTNs).  (Here I quote liberally from the key
> site that makes available these notes), namely,
> https://archive.org/details/packet-radio-temporary-notes?sort=date. These
> notes were a series of informal,  technical documents distributed by
> various technology organizations from 1972 through 1983. Their purpose was
> to share research, experimentation, and development progress related to
> packet radio.  Regarding the word “Temporary”,  unlike polished
> publications, PRTNs were often quick releases of ideas, experiments, and
> software related to packet radio. They allowed for rapid sharing of
> insights without waiting for formal publication.  The organizations that
> were involved included ARPA, Bolt Beranek and Newman, Network Analysis
> Corporation, Rockwell International, SRI International, Stanford
> University, UCLA, University of Hawaii, and Xerox PARC.
>
> These Notes contained much of the early theoretical work on packet radio
> which then found their way into the major journals and conferences on
> subject.   Along the way, the analytical modeling, analysis and
> optimization of the packet radio effort has led to a vibrant field of study
> and implementation and has contributed in no small way to the success of
> packet radio and beyond.
>
> Bob Kahn was a lead author on a 1978 paper, “Advances in Packet Radio
> Technology” <
> https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1455420> which
> described the basic concepts of packet radio technology at that time, and
> described an implementation of the packet radio network (called PRnet).
>
> Not long after, in 1982, Vint published “Packet Satellite Technology
> Reference Sources” <
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc829?utm_source=chatgpt.com> as
> RFC 829 in which he described the packet satellite technology and gave an
> extensive list of references that included many of the theoretical
> performance and modeling papers that had been published.
>
> Then, in 1987, Jubin and Tornow published a paper, “The DARPA Packet Radio
> Network Protocols” <
> https://ia800306.us.archive.org/20/items/DARPA_Packet_Radio_Network_Protocols/DARPA%20Packet%20Radio%20Network%20Protocols.pdf>
> describing the state of the PRNet and focused on the protocols.
>
> It is no surprise that Kahn’s packet radio work is tightly linked to his
> collaboration with Vint which led to their design of TCP/IP. In some ways,
> packet radio was a stress test for TCP/IP under the extreme conditions of
> loss, delay and mobility due to different underlying media and networks.
> One can trace the lineage from ARPANET packet switching (wired, fixed
> nodes) to PRNET packet radio (wireless, networked, mobile nodes) to
> Internet (ARPANET + PRNET + SATNET).  The wireless side then moved to
> Survivable Adaptive Radio Networks (SURAN) and then to Mobile Ad Hoc
> Networks (MANETs) and now modern wireless ad hoc systems.
>
> Hope this brief history is of some interest.
>
> Len
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