[ih] capacity v bandwidth

[vinton cerf]

I had always thought that cisco introduced the term 'router" in 1984.

v


On Mon, Jun 1, 2026 at 8:52 PM Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> This is slightly complicated by the IGP/EGP terminology. That persisted
> even when
> "router" became commonplace. I think we can date it to between June 1988
> and June 1989:
>
> RFC1058 (RIP, June 1988) uses "gateway" exclusively
>
> RFC1105 (the first version of BGP, June 1989) uses "router" exclusively,
> except in the name of the protocol!
>
> Wikipedia says that the p4200 came out in 1986. I couldn't find a manual,
> but its product name was in a May 1988 DoD report:
>
> "Proteon p4200 Gateway
> ...
> The p4200 gateway is a multiprotocol router, supporting (among other
> protocols) TCP/IP."
>
> [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA192186.pdf]
>
> Also see: RFC1208 "A Glossary of Networking Terms" (March 1991)
>
> Regards/Ngā mihi
>     Brian
>
> On 02-Jun-26 11:48, Noel Chiappa via Internet-history wrote:
> >      > From: Jack Haverty
> >
> >      > In the early Internet, the boxes interconnecting networks were
> called
> >      > "gateways". Today they're called "routers".  But why the
> change...?
> >      >
> >      > So we started callig them "routers". Other companies (cisco,
> proteon,
> >      > ...) probably had similar experiences in their sales activities.
> >
> > If my memory isn't failing me (it well might be), I can take part of the
> > blame.
> >
> > I do remember that I was pissed off because everyone and their brother
> > (across the industry generally) called any box that did digital
> > communications between two things a 'gateway'. E.g. a box that did email
> > forwarding from BITNET to the Internet was called a 'gateway'. I.e.
> 'gateway'
> > was useless as a technical term, because it covered an impossibly wide
> range
> > of functionalities.
> >
> > (I am not sure if the p4200, the first Proteon router product,
> > post-dated the 'gateway' -> 'router' change; I'd have to try and find an
> > original manual. If it pre-dated, I may have taken Proteon experience
> into
> > account too.)
> >
> > So I campaigned (I think it was me) in the IETF community to come up
> with a
> > term limited to internetwork-level datagra packet switches, and 'router'
> was
> > picked.
> >
> >
> > I don't know if that change post-dated the creation of the IETF or not. I
> > remember such large-scale questions (i.e. not within the purview of a WG,
> > after Phill set up the WG structure) were often discussed on the main
> IETF
> > mailing list, so if we still have the email archive from the start of
> that
> > list, someone can dig into it.
> >
> > I remember that before the IETF existed, there was an email list (I think
> > hosted at CNRI maybe, although CNRI didn't exist until 1986 - Jon's
> minutes
> > of TCP/IP meetings stop at the end of 1980) where a lot of early TCP
> > internetworking discussions ('TCP internetworking' since there must have
> been
> > PUP internetworking discussions, too, inside Xerox) happened. Does anyone
> > remember what it was called?
> >
> > Any technical history of the creation of TCP internetting would _really_
> > benefit from having access to that email archive (if it still exists
> > somewhere; if not, maybe it would be possible to re-create it by picking
> > through preserved emailboxes; or perhaps someone who printed out all
> their
> > email still has those printouts).
> >
> > I feel sadly wary that a lot of our earliest history has been lost
> (since we
> > didn't use physical memos, which many technical histories depend on for
> 'nuts
> > and bolts' primary sources) - except for the copy stored in 'meat' CPUs
> (who
> > will soon start dying off - historians take note, and act now, while you
> can).
> >
> >       Noel
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