[ih] History question

[John Day]

Multihoming a host.

> On Sep 7, 2026, at 14:26, Craig Partridge <craig at tereschau.net> wrote:
> 
> Are you talking about multihoming a host or a network (host connected to multiple networks, network connected to multiple providers).
> 
> For hosts, the issue appeared c. 1982/3 when Berkeley connected UCBVAX to multiple Ethernets (I think for reliability reasons).  Around the same time they also put IP router capability in the BSD networking code.  Berkeley thought deeply about the issues but, for reasons unclear, didn't surface their insights in the community until the late 1980s.  I remember Mike Karels at an IETF Host Requirements meeting, going through a late draft of the requirements document. At various points he said "you don't want to say that as it breaks multihoming" and then had to explain to the room what the issue was, because most of us were clueless.
> 
> For networks, the advent of NSFNET in 1987.  Suddenly you could be connected to both ARPANET and NSFNET.  Also, because NSFNET was flakey, people leased direct lines to peer institutions.  EGP promptly displayed all its limitations -- there's a SIGCOMM '87 paper where Dave Mills and Hans-Werner Braun presented interim solutions.
> 
> Craig
> 
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2026 at 11:38 AM John Day via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org <mailto:internet-history at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
>> When and who brought the multihoming question to general discussion?
>> 
>> When was it first recognized as an issue, even if there was no real discussion about a solution?
>> 
>> Take care,
>> John Day
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