Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy An Educational Project

ARPANET to Internet 1980s

CSNET

Derived from The Internet - From Modest Beginnings, NSF

Inspired by ARPANET's success, the Coordinated Experimental Research Program of the Computer Science Section of NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate started its own network in 1981. Called CSNET (Computer Science Network), the system provided Internet services, including electronic mail and connections to ARPANET. [Kahn, Role of Govt ("This allowed new research sites to be placed on the ARPANET at NSF's expense.")] While CSNET itself was just a starting point, it served well. "Its most important contribution was to bring together the U.S. computer science community and to create the environment that fostered the Internet," explains Larry Landweber, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and a CSNET principal investigator. In addition, CSNET was responsible for the first Internet gateways between the United States and many countries in Europe and Asia.

From the outset, NSF limited the amount of time it would support CSNET. By 1986, the network was to be self-supporting. This was a risky decision, because in 1981 the value of network services was not widely understood. The policy, which carried forward into subsequent NSF networking efforts, required bidders to think about commercialization from the very start. When the 1986 deadline arrived, more than 165 university, industrial, and government computer research groups belonged to CSNET. Usage charges plus membership fees ranged from $2,000 for small computer science departments to $30,000 for larger industrial members. With membership came customer support. See also [Cerf Com Com Nets] [Salus p 199] [Roberts, Net Chronology]

1981: CSNET and ARPANet peer. [ISOC]

1989: CSNET and BITNET merge to form CREN. "CREN's mission is to support higher education and research organizations with strategic IT knowledge services and communication tools. " [CREN History]

General

1980

The US Government / DOD was persuaded that TCP/IP was the protocol to go with and adopts it as a standard. All procured equipment will have to comply with this standard [Great Achievements] [Netvalley]

1981

BITNET (Because its There Network) established between City University of New York and Yale [CREN History]

1982

BITNET connects with EARN [CREN History]

Minitel (France) (first chat-IM application)

EUnet starts [Salus p 183]

Korea establishes networks based on TCP/IP [NSFNET Celebration (Blanchard)]

Pranksters, Pirates, and Pen Pals, TIME Magazine (May 3, 1982) ("In his pin-neat, Northern California bedroom, a bespectacled 16-year-old who calls himself Marc communicates with several hundred unauthorized "tourists" on a computer magic carpet called ARPANET. This $3.3 million computer network maintained by the Defense Department provides a link between key contractors, but ARPANET has become a pen pal club, dating service and electronic magazine for youngsters and other computer hitchhikers gifted enough to join what is in effect a huge, electronic message service.")

1983

On January 1, 1983, ARPANET migrated to IP. Here the government exercised its procurement authority in order to make an impact. The result was other large networks following suit and likewise migrating to IP. NCP is turned off. [Netvalley] [ISOC] [Salus p 183] The Internet would adopt the Internet Protocol version 4, believing that this would provide an inexaustible address space. As the inexaustible became exausted, the Internet has once again migrated logical protocols, migrating to IPv6. "With the great switchover to TCP/IP, the ARPANET became the Internet." - Peter Salus [Salus p 188]

Dr. Barry Leiner at DARPA reorganizes and renames the ICCB as the Internet Activities Board (IAB) [Great Achievements] [Kessler] [Cerf 1160] [Kahn, Role of Govt]

Jan: Defense Communications Agency announces that ARPANet will migrate from NCP to TCP/IP. [Cerf 1160]

ARPANet splits into MILNET (military) and ARPANet (research). [ISOC] [Salus p 183] [TIME 1983] [Roberts, Net Chronology] "If problems developed on the ARPANET, the MILNET could be disconnected quickly from it by unplugging the small number of gateways that connected them. In fact, these gateways were designed to limit the interactions between the two networks to the exchange of electronic mail, a further safety feature." [Kahn, Role of Govt]

Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee, FRICC established. Becomes Federal Networking Council. [Cerf 1160]

"The Federal Networking Council (FNC) was chartered by the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Computing, Information and Communications (CCIC) to act as a forum for networking collaborations among Federal agencies to meet their research, education, and operational mission goals and to bridge the gap between the advanced networking technologies being developed by research FNC agencies and the ultimate acquisition of mature version of these technologies from the commercial sector." [FNC Archive]

European Academic and Research Network (EARN) established [Salus p 183]

JANET (UK) established [Salus p 183]

Domain Name System designed.

Japan UNIX Network (JUNET) established by Jun Murai [Salus p 183]

MERIT migrates to TCP/IP and interconnections with ARPANET [Merit History]

1984

Domain Name System initiated. See DNS History

AT&T divestiture takes place, creating a more competitive long distance market

IBM funds BITNET network information center [CREN History]

OSI model published [Salus p 39]

NSF sets up Office of Advanced Scientific Computing (this office would build NSFNET) [Salus p 199]

1985

NYSERnet established [NYSERnet History]

NSF gave DARPA $4 million to install ARPANET nodes at 40 colleges and universities; Steve Wolff remembers, however,
that “DARPA had just turned over management and operation of the ARPANET to the Defense Communications Agency, and the bureaucracy was such that it took until 1990 to get all the nodes in place. By that time the T1 NSFNET backbone service had been in use for two years, and the connections to the 56 Kbps ARPANET were redundant. As DARPA decommissioned the ARPANET during 1990, some of its nodes were actually installed and de-installed in the same week.” [NSFNET Final Report p 15]

1986

NSF grants NYSERnet $1.2 m for a state wide network. [NYSERnet History]

NSF grants SURAnet funding for a regional network; SURAnet was sold to a private company in 1995. [About SURA (date of NSF grant is described as "mid 80s")]

IAB is reorganized, forming subsidiary groups: The Internet Research Task Force, the Internet Research Steering Group, and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) [Kessler] IETF meets for first time January in San Diego [IETF Tao]

Robert Kahn leaves DARPA to form CNRI [Kahn] CNRI acted, among other things, as the secretariat of the IETF.

NSF Funds MIDNET.

1987

OARNet established at the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

UUNET founded by Rick Adams and Mike O'Dell [Griffiths] [PBS Nerds2.0.1] "a product of DOD-funded seismic research facility" [Kahn, Role of Govt]

PSINet formed. Spun off from NYSERNET. [Kahn, Role of Govt]

Interop conference starts. [Salus p 183]

NYSERnet goes online as the first, non-USG, TCP/IP network. [NYSERnet History] NYSERnet developes SGMP and SNMP, and serves as prime contractor for a DARPA funded National Networking Testbed.

1988

National Research Council, Kleinrock, Kahn, Clark, filed a National Academies of Science report entitled Toward a National Research Network with Congress. This report apparently influenced Sen. Al Gore.

Morris Worm ripped through the network.

1989

RIPE established

BITNET and CSNET merge to form CREN [CREN History][Salus p 199]

UCLA holds "Act One" conference celebrating 20 years of the ARPANet

IAB consolidates its growing responsibilities into two groups: the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Research Task Force. [Kahn, Role of Govt]

IETF RFC 1118, Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet (Sept 1989)

New England Academic and Research Network (NEARNET) established; connects to ARPANet. [Salus p 203]

PSINet, a commercial network, is spun off from NYSERnet. [NYSERnet History]