Internet Chronology
- 1960s
-
- modem communications
- computer/terminal to computer
- telephone based
- 1969
-
- experimental ARPANET begun
- 1970s
-
- emergence of LANs
- circuit board to circuit board
- bus and ring architectures
- ARPA funded communications research
- emergence of WANs
- site to site communication
- telephone based
- dedicated computers
- pass through routing
- proliferation of incompatible LANs & WANs
- late 1970s
-
- ARPANET passed from research net to operational net for military
- concept of internetwork (internet)
- joining LANs & WANs
- resolve incompatibilities among constituents
- early 1980s
-
- emergence of ARPANET as an internetwork (internet)
- WAN backbone
- connected LANs
- concept of single software package (suite) that ran on all networks to support basic services (TCP/IP Internet Protocol Suite)
- open system concept
- publication of specifications and research results
- use of the term, Internet, to refer to ARPANET
- TCP/IP incorporated into UNIX, facilitating computer science research
- NSF commits to CSNET, linking computer science research community
- 1982
-
- TCP/IP prototype in place
- 10's of computers connected
- academic and industrial researchers, military
- 1983
-
- all military sites connected to ARPANET began using TCP/IP
- ARPA set up external structure for coordinating TCP/IP research and Internet development
- Internet Activities Board (IAF), chaired by Internet Architect
- worked through task forces
- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) emerged as the primary organization for defining Internet technical standards and shaping research and development
- 1985
-
- NSFNET links 100 universities, primarily to provide access to supercomputer centers
- 1987
-
- second NSFNET backbone set up to link regional and mid-level networks
- IBM, MCI, and MERIT contracted to run NSFNET
- 1992
-
- Advanced Network Services (ANS) corporation set up, at the encouragement of NSF, to build next-generation network
- formed by IBM, MCI, and MERIT
- expanded backbone capacity
- beginning of privatization
- 1995
-
- Sale of Internet to four private conglomerates
- 1983-1994
- Growth of Internet connected computers:
- 1983 562
- 1984 1,024
- 1985 1,961
- 1986 2,308
- 1987 5,089
- 1988 28,174
- 1989 80,000
- 1990 290,000
- 1991 500,000
- 1992 727,000
- 1993 1,200,000
- 1994 2,217,000
email: jbs@cs.unc.edu
url:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~jbs/
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