ARPANET is an acronym for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It is widely considered to be the forerunner of the modern Internet. The ARPANET was established in 1969 as the first wide-area packet-switched network with shared control and primary channel for the TCP/IP protocol suite. It was financed by the US government during the Cold War. The main idea behind ARPANET was to share information.
In fact, the network was a research project that was started by the US government. It was the first wide-area network and packet-switching technology that connected computers. The name ARPANET is often used interchangeably with LAN. It is one of the most commonly used terms in computer science. However, the acronym ARPANET stands for is more specific. If you’re a computer scientist, you might be interested in learning more about this network and what it was used for.
In its early days, ARPANET was used to connect scientists in the United States and around the world. The first connection to the ARPANET was made between UCLA and Stanford Research Institute. A UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer sent a message to a SRI SDS 940 Host computer. On December 5, 1969, two more universities joined the network. The University of Utah School of Computing and Systems Development Corp. also joined.
In 1977, ARPANET was used to test the first Internet protocol known as TCP/IP. This protocol enabled one computer network to handoff data packets to another. It was invaluable when the Internet consisted of a network of networks. The technology that enabled this protocol to become widely used remains the basis for today’s Internet. In addition to being an acronym, ARPANET is also a reference to an important piece of history.
Before becoming widely used, the ARPANET network had a short wire connection between the host and the IMP. The IMP could send 8063-bit messages from one computer to another. The IMP would break these messages into packets and forward them independently. In its early days, the ARPANET subnet was the first electronic store-and-forward type of packet switching network. The packets were stored before forwarding.
The IMP used several background programs to monitor and collect statistics. These programs were named TTY, DEBUG, PARAMETER-CHANGE, DISCARD, TRACE, and STATISTICS. The IMP was also used for remote computer connection. Its primary gateway technology is still IMPs. They are now known as routers. The ARPANET is a legacy of the first internet. But the technology was the precursor of the cutting-edge internet.
