Editing History of the Internet (section)

==Networks that led to the Internet==

===NPL network===
{{Main|NPL network}}
Following discussions with [[J. C. R. Licklider]] in 1965, [[Donald Davies]] became interested in [[data communications]] for computer networks.<ref name=Roberts1978>{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=L.G. |title=The evolution of packet switching |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |date=1978 |volume=66 |issue=11 |pages=1307–1313 |doi=10.1109/PROC.1978.11141 |s2cid=26876676 }}</ref><ref name=Roberts1995>{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|access-date=13 April 2016|date=May 1995|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324032800/http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref> Later that year, at the [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]] (NPL) in the United Kingdom, Davies designed and proposed a national commercial data network based on packet switching.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Edmondson-Yurkanan |first=Chris |date=2007 |title=SIGCOMM's archaeological journey into networking's past |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1230819.1230840 |journal=Communications of the ACM |language=en |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=63–68 |doi=10.1145/1230819.1230840 |issn=0001-0782 |quote=In his first draft dated Nov. 10, 1965 [5], Davies forecast today’s “killer app” for his new communication service:  “The greatest traffic could only come if the public used this means for everyday purposes such as shopping... People sending enquiries and placing orders for goods of all kinds will make up a large section of the traffic... Business use of the telephone may be reduced by the growth of the kind of service we contemplate.”}}</ref> The following year, he described the use of "switching nodes" to act as [[router (computing)|routers]] in a digital communication network.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=D. W. |date=1966 |title=Proposal for a Digital Communication Network |url=https://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/grcs/Davies05.pdf |quote=Computer developments in the distant future might result in one type of network being able to carry speech and digital messages efficiently.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|access-date=13 April 2016|date=May 1995|quote=Then in June 1966, Davies wrote a second internal paper, "Proposal for a Digital Communication Network" In which he coined the word packet,- a small sub part of the message the user wants to send, and also introduced the concept of an "Interface computer" to sit between the user equipment and the packet network.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324032800/http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref> The proposal was not taken up nationally but he produced a design for a local network to serve the needs of the NPL and prove the feasibility of packet switching using high-speed data transmission.<ref name="K.G. Coffman & A.M. Odlyzco">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXhWJcsO134C&q=ARPANET&pg=PA29|author=K.G. Coffman & A.M. Odlyzco|title=Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-B: Systems and Impairments|publisher=[[Academic Press]]|pages=1022 pages|series=''Optics and Photonics'' (edited by I. Kaminow & T. Li) |access-date=2015-08-15|isbn=978-0-12-395173-1|date=2002-05-22}}</ref><ref name="B. Steil, Council on Foreign Relations">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndiYguRu66oC&q=NPL+Network&pg=PA260|author=B. Steil, Council on Foreign Relations|title=Technological Innovation and Economic Performance|publisher=published by [[Princeton University Press]] 1 Jan 2002, 476 pages |access-date=2015-08-15|isbn=978-0-691-09091-7|year=2002}}</ref> To deal with packet permutations (due to dynamically updated route preferences) and to datagram losses (unavoidable when fast sources send to a slow destinations), he assumed that "all users of the network will provide themselves with some kind of error control",<ref>{{cite web|date=1967|title=A Digital Communication Network for Computers Giving Rapid Response at remote Terminals|url=https://people.mpi-sws.org/~gummadi/teaching/sp07/sys_seminar/how_did_erope_blow_this_vision.pdf|access-date=2020-09-15}}</ref> thus inventing what came to be known as the [[end-to-end principle]]. In 1967, he and his team were the first to use the term 'protocol' in a modern data-commutation context.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbonCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT290|title=A Brief History of the Future|last=Naughton|first=John|date=2015-09-24|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-1-4746-0277-8|language=en}}</ref>

In 1968,<ref>{{cite conference|last=Scantlebury|first=R. A.|author2=Wilkinson, P.T.|year=1974|title=The National Physical Laboratory Data Communications Network|url=http://www.rogerdmoore.ca/PS/NPLPh/NPL1974A.html|pages=223–228|book-title=Proceedings of the 2nd ICCC 74|access-date=September 5, 2017|archive-date=October 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020140205/http://rogerdmoore.ca/PS/NPLPh/NPL1974A.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Davies began building the Mark I packet-switched network to meet the needs of his multidisciplinary laboratory and prove the technology under operational conditions.<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOf20thCenturyTechnologyAZMalestrom/page/n621/mode/2up?q=packet+switching |title=Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-45551-4 |editor1-last=Hempstead |editor1-first=C. |pages=573–5 |access-date=2015-08-15 |editor2-last=Worthington |editor2-first=W.}}</ref><ref name="BBC Technology">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8331253.stm|title=Celebrating 40 years of the net|first=Mark|last=Ward|newspaper=BBC News|date=October 29, 2009}}</ref> The network's development was described at a 1968 conference.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Ed |last2=Miller |first2=Chris |last3=Norton |first3=Jim |title=Packet Switching: The first steps on the road to the information society |url=https://www.npl.co.uk/getattachment/about-us/History/Famous-faces/Donald-Davies/UK-role-in-Packet-Switching-(1).pdf.aspx |quote=Its development was described at a 1968 conference, two years before similar progress on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, was demonstrated}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=5 August 2008 |title=The accelerator of the modern age |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7541123.stm |access-date=19 May 2009 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Elements of the network became operational in early 1969,<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2" /><ref name=":722">{{Cite conference |last1=Rayner |first1=David |last2=Barber |first2=Derek |last3=Scantlebury |first3=Roger |last4=Wilkinson |first4=Peter |date=2001 |title=NPL, Packet Switching and the Internet |url=http://www.topquark.co.uk/conf/IAP2001.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030807200346/http://www.topquark.co.uk/conf/IAP2001.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-08-07 |conference=Symposium of the Institution of Analysts & Programmers 2001 |access-date=2024-06-13 |quote=The system first went 'live' early in 1969 |website=}}</ref> the first implementation of packet switching,<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last1=John S |first1=Quarterman |last2=Josiah C |first2=Hoskins |date=1986 |title=Notable computer networks |journal=Communications of the ACM |language=EN |volume=29 |issue=10 |pages=932–971 |doi=10.1145/6617.6618 |s2cid=25341056 |quote=The first packet-switching network was implemented at the National Physical Laboratories in the United Kingdom. It was quickly followed by the ARPANET in 1969. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.inc.com/computerfreaks |title=Computer Freaks |date=June 22, 2023 |last=Haughney Dare-Bryan |first=Christine |type=Podcast |publisher=Inc. Magazine |series=Chapter Two: In the Air |minutes=35:55 |quote=Leonard Kleinrock: Donald Davies ... did make a single node packet switch before ARPA did}}</ref> and the NPL network was the first to use high-speed links.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal|last=Cambell-Kelly|first=Martin|date=1987|title=Data Communications at the National Physical Laboratory (1965–1975)|url=https://archive.org/details/DataCommunicationsAtTheNationalPhysicalLaboratory|journal=Annals of the History of Computing|language=en|volume=9|issue=3/4|pages=221–247|doi=10.1109/MAHC.1987.10023|s2cid=8172150}}</ref> Many other packet switching networks built in the 1970s were similar "in nearly all respects" to Davies' original 1965 design.<ref name=Roberts1978/> The Mark II version which operated from 1973 used a layered protocol architecture.<ref name=":32" /> In 1977, there were roughly 30 computers, 30 peripherals and 100 VDU terminals all able to interact through the NPL Network.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Copeland |first=B. Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhQZnczOS7kC&pg=PA349 |title=Alan Turing's Electronic Brain: The Struggle to Build the ACE, the World's Fastest Computer |date=2012-05-24 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-960915-4 |page=275 |language=en}}</ref> The NPL team carried out [[simulation]] work on wide-area packet networks, including [[datagram|datagrams]] and [[Network congestion|congestion]]; and research into [[internetworking]] and [[secure communications]].<ref name="C. Hempstead, W. Worthington2" /><ref name=":82">{{Cite thesis |last=Clarke |first=Peter |title=Packet and circuit-switched data networks |date=1982 |degree=PhD |publisher=Department of Electrical Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London |url=https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/35864/2/Clarke-PN-1982-PhD-Thesis.pdf}} "As well as the packet switched network actually built at NPL for communication between their local computing facilities, some simulation experiments have been performed on larger networks. A summary of this work is reported in [69]. The work was carried out to investigate networks of a size capable of providing data communications facilities to most of the U.K. ... Experiments were then carried out using a method of flow control devised by Davies [70] called 'isarithmic' flow control. ... The simulation work carried out at NPL has, in many respects, been more realistic than most of the ARPA network theoretical studies."</ref><ref name="Pelkey">{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/6/6.3-CYCLADESNetworkLouisPouzin1-72.html|title=Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968–1988|last=Pelkey|first=James|chapter=6.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971–1972|access-date=February 3, 2020|archive-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617093154/https://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/6/6.3-CYCLADESNetworkLouisPouzin1-72.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The network was replaced in 1986.<ref name=":32" />

===ARPANET===
{{Main|ARPANET}}
Robert Taylor was promoted to the head of the [[Information Processing Techniques Office]] (IPTO) at [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (ARPA) in 1966. He intended to realize [[J. C. R. Licklider|Licklider]]'s ideas of an interconnected networking system.<ref>{{harvnb|Hafner|Lyon|1998|pages=39–41}}</ref> As part of the IPTO's role, three network terminals had been installed: one for [[System Development Corporation]] in [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]], one for [[Project Genie]] at [[University of California, Berkeley]], and one for the [[Compatible Time-Sharing System]] project at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT).<ref name="Markoff 1999"/> Taylor's identified need for networking became obvious from the waste of resources apparent to him.

{{Blockquote|For each of these three terminals, I had three different sets of user commands. So if I was talking online with someone at S.D.C. and I wanted to talk to someone I knew at Berkeley or M.I.T. about this, I had to get up from the S.D.C. terminal, go over and log into the other terminal and get in touch with them.... 
I said, oh man, it's obvious what to do: If you have these three terminals, there ought to be one terminal that goes anywhere you want to go where you have interactive computing. That idea is the ARPAnet.<ref name="Markoff 1999">{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |title=An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html |access-date=March 7, 2020 |date=December 20, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050304045456/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html |archive-date=March 4, 2005 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}Bringing in [[Lawrence Roberts (scientist)|Larry Roberts]] from MIT in January 1967, he initiated a project to build such a network. Roberts and Thomas Merrill had been researching computer [[time-sharing]] over [[wide area network]]s (WANs).<ref>{{cite conference|last1=Roberts|first1=Larry|last2=Marrill|first2=Tom|date=October 1966|title=Toward a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/toward-coop-net.html|conference=Fall AFIPS Conference|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020401051508/http://www.packet.cc/files/toward-coop-net.html|archive-date=2002-04-01|access-date=2017-09-10|author-link1=Lawrence Roberts (scientist)}}</ref> Wide area networks emerged during the late 1950s and became established during the 1960s. At the first ACM [[Symposium on Operating Systems Principles]] in October 1967, Roberts presented a proposal for the "ARPA net", based on [[Wesley A. Clark|Wesley Clark's]] idea to use [[Interface Message Processor]]s (IMP) to create a [[message switching]] network.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2015/01/02/a-very-short-history-of-the-internet-and-the-web-2/|title=A Very Short History Of The Internet And The Web|last=Press|first=Gil|date=January 2, 2015|website=Forbes|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109145400/https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2015/01/02/a-very-short-history-of-the-internet-and-the-web-2/|archive-date=January 9, 2015|access-date=2020-02-07|quote=Roberts' proposal that all host computers would connect to one another directly ... was not endorsed ... Wesley Clark ... suggested to Roberts that the network be managed by identical small computers, each attached to a host computer. Accepting the idea, Roberts named the small computers dedicated to network administration 'Interface Message Processors' (IMPs), which later evolved into today's routers.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |url=https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B1_F20_CompuMtg.html|title=SRI Project 5890-1; Networking (Reports on Meetings) |year=1967|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=2020-02-15|quote=W. Clark's message switching proposal (appended to Taylor's letter of April 24, 1967 to Engelbart)were reviewed.|archive-date=February 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202062940/https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B1_F20_CompuMtg.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Lawrence|date=1967|title=Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communications|chapter-url=https://people.mpi-sws.org/~gummadi/teaching/sp07/sys_seminar/arpanet.pdf|pages=3.1–3.6|doi=10.1145/800001.811680|quote=Thus the set of IMP's, plus the telephone lines and data sets would constitute a message switching network|chapter=Multiple computer networks and intercomputer communication|s2cid=17409102}}</ref> At the conference, [[Roger Scantlebury]] presented [[Donald Davies|Donald Davies']] work on a hierarchical digital communications network using [[packet switching]] and referenced the work of [[Paul Baran]] at [[RAND Corporation|RAND]]. Roberts incorporated the packet switching and routing concepts of Davies and Baran into the ARPANET design and upgraded the proposed communications speed from 2.4&nbsp;kbit/s to 50&nbsp;kbit/s.<ref name="Abbate20002">{{cite book |last1=Abbate |first1=Jane |author-link=Janet Abbate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2BdY6WQo4AC&q=packet+switching&pg=PA125 |title=Inventing the Internet |date=2000 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262261333 |pages=37–9, 57–9}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA115440.pdf |title=A History of the ARPANET: The First Decade |date=1 April 1981 |publisher=Bolt, Beranek & Newman Inc. |pages=53 of 183 (III-11 on the printed copy) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201013642/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA115440 |archive-date=1 December 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

ARPA awarded the contract to build the network to [[Bolt Beranek & Newman]]. The "IMP guys", led by [[Frank Heart]] and [[Bob Kahn]], developed the routing, flow control, software design and network control.<ref name="Roberts1978" /><ref name="F.E. Froehlich, A. Kent">{{cite book |author=F.E. Froehlich, A. Kent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaRBTHdUKmgC&pg=PA344 |title=The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications: Volume 1 - Access Charges in the U.S.A. to Basics of Digital Communications |date=1990 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=0824729005 |page=344}}</ref> The first ARPANET link was established between the Network Measurement Center at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA) [[Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science]] directed by [[Leonard Kleinrock]], and the NLS system at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) directed by [[Douglas Engelbart]] in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], California at 22:30 hours on October 29, 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2024-10-29 |title='We were just trying to get it to work': The failure that started the internet |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241028-the-failure-that-started-the-internet |access-date=2025-04-26 |publisher=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="How ARPANET Works">{{cite web|url=http://computer.howstuffworks.com/arpanet1.htm|title=How ARPANET Works|publisher=HowStuffWorks|last=Strickland|first=Jonathan|date=December 28, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112102002/http://computer.howstuffworks.com/arpanet1.htm|archive-date=January 12, 2008|url-status=live|access-date=March 7, 2020}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|"We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys at SRI ...", Kleinrock ... said in an interview: "We typed the L and we asked on the phone,

:"Do you see the L?"
:"Yes, we see the L," came the response.
:We typed the O, and we asked, "Do you see the O."
:"Yes, we see the O."
:Then we typed the G, and the system crashed ...

Yet a revolution had begun" ....<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beranek |first=Leo |date=2000 |title=Roots of the Internet: A Personal History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25081152 |journal=Massachusetts Historical Review |volume=2 |pages=55–75 |jstor=25081152 |issn=1526-3894}}</ref><ref name="NetValley">{{cite web|url=http://www.netvalley.com/intval.html|title=Roads and Crossroads of Internet History|first=Gregory|last=Gromov|year=1995}}</ref> |author=|title=|source=}}

[[File:Stamps of Azerbaijan, 2004-683.jpg|thumb|Postage stamp of Azerbaijan (2004): 35 Years of the Internet, 1969–2004]]

By December 1969, a four-node network was connected by adding the Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics Center at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] followed by the [[University of Utah]] Graphics Department.<ref>{{harvnb|Hafner|Lyon|1998|pages=154–156}}</ref> In the same year, Taylor helped fund [[ALOHAnet]], a system designed by professor [[Norman Abramson]] and others at the [[University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa]] that transmitted data by radio between seven computers on four islands on [[Hawaii]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hafner|Lyon|1998|page=220}}</ref>

[[Steve Crocker]] formed the "Network Working Group" in 1969 at UCLA. Working with [[Jon Postel]] and others,<ref>{{Cite ietf|rfc=6529}}</ref> he initiated and managed the [[Request for Comments]] (RFC) process, which is still used today for proposing and distributing contributions. RFC 1, entitled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker and published on April 7, 1969. The protocol for establishing links between network sites in the ARPANET, the [[Network Control Protocol (ARPANET)|Network Control Program]] (NCP), was completed in 1970. These early years were documented in the 1972 film [[Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing]].

Roberts presented the idea of packet switching to the communication professionals, and faced anger and hostility. Before ARPANET was operating, they argued that the router buffers would quickly run out. After the ARPANET was operating, they argued packet switching would never be economic without the government subsidy. Baran faced the same rejection and thus failed to convince the military into constructing a packet switching network.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=L. |title=A history of personal workstations |date=1988-01-01 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |isbn=978-0-201-11259-7 |place=New York, NY, USA |pages=141–172 |chapter=The arpanet and computer networks |doi=10.1145/61975.66916 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Larry |title=Proceedings of the ACM Conference on the history of personal workstations |date=1986 |isbn=0897911768 |pages=51–58 |chapter=The Arpanet and computer networks |doi=10.1145/12178.12182 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Early international collaborations via the ARPANET were sparse. Connections were made in 1973 to the Norwegian Seismic Array ([[NORSAR]]),<ref>{{cite web |title=NORSAR and the Internet |url=http://www.norsar.no/pc-5-30-NORSAR-and-the-Internet.aspx  |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20090607094725/http://www.norsar.no/pc-5-30-NORSAR-and-the-Internet.aspx |archive-date=June 7, 2009 |access-date=June 5, 2009 |publisher=NORSAR }}</ref> via a satellite link at the [[Tanum Municipality|Tanum]] Earth Station in Sweden, and to [[Peter T. Kirstein|Peter Kirstein]]'s research group at [[University College London]], which provided a gateway to [[Internet in the United Kingdom#History|British academic networks]], the first international heterogenous [[resource sharing]] network.<ref name=":9" /> Throughout the 1970s, Leonard Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory to model and measure the performance of packet-switching technology, building on his earlier work on the application of [[queueing theory]] to message switching systems.<ref name="Gillies2000">{{harvnb|Gillies|Cailliau|2000|page=26}}</ref> By 1981, the number of hosts had grown to 213.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XAZnpCfQnEC&q=1981+213+arpanet+hosts&pg=PT289|title=Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals|last1=Grant|first1=August E.|last2=Meadows|first2=Jennifer E.|place=Burlington, Massachusetts|publisher=Focal Press|year=2008|edition=11th|isbn=978-0-240-81062-1|page=289}}</ref> The ARPANET became the technical core of what would become the Internet, and a primary tool in developing the technologies used.

===Merit Network===
{{Main|Merit Network}}
The [[Merit Network]]<ref name="Merit">The [[Merit Network|Merit Network, Inc.]] is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation governed by Michigan's public universities. Merit receives administrative services under an agreement with the [[University of Michigan]].</ref> was formed in 1966 as the Michigan Educational Research Information Triad to explore computer networking between three of Michigan's public universities as a means to help the state's educational and economic development.<ref>{{cite web | title=A Chronicle of Merit's Early History | website=merit.edu | date=1 August 2006 | url=http://merit.edu/about/history/article.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207130720/http://merit.edu/about/history/article.php | archive-date=7 February 2009 }}</ref> With initial support from the [[State of Michigan]] and the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF), the packet-switched network was first demonstrated in December 1971 when an interactive host to host connection was made between the [[IBM]] [[mainframe computer]] systems at the [[University of Michigan]] in [[Ann Arbor]] and [[Wayne State University]] in [[Detroit]].<ref name="MeritTimeline1970-1979">{{cite web | title=Timeline: The 1970s | website=merit.edu| date=11 July 2013 | url=http://www.merit.edu/about/history/timeline_1970.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101025735/http://www.merit.edu/about/history/timeline_1970.php | archive-date=1 January 2016  }}</ref> In October 1972 connections to the [[Control Data Corporation|CDC]] mainframe at [[Michigan State University]] in [[East Lansing]] completed the triad. Over the next several years in addition to host to host interactive connections the network was enhanced to support terminal to host connections, host to host batch connections (remote job submission, remote printing, batch file transfer), interactive file transfer, gateways to the [[Tymnet]] and [[Telenet]] [[public data network]]s, [[X.25]] host attachments, gateways to X.25 data networks, [[Ethernet]] attached hosts, and eventually [[TCP/IP]] and additional [[List of colleges and universities in Michigan#Public colleges and universities|public universities in Michigan]] join the network.<ref name=MeritTimeline1970-1979/><ref name="MeritTimeline1980-1989">{{cite web | title=Timeline: The 1980's | website=merit.edu | date=11 July 2013 | url=http://www.merit.edu/about/history/timeline_1980.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101025735/http://www.merit.edu/about/history/timeline_1980.php | archive-date=1 January 2016 }}</ref> All of this set the stage for Merit's role in the [[NSFNET]] project starting in the mid-1980s.

===CYCLADES===
{{Main|CYCLADES}}

The [[CYCLADES]] packet switching network was a French research network designed and directed by [[Louis Pouzin]]. In 1972, he began planning the network to explore alternatives to the early ARPANET design and to support [[internetworking]] research. First demonstrated in 1973, it was the first network to implement the [[end-to-end principle]] conceived by Donald Davies and make the hosts responsible for reliable delivery of data, rather than the network itself, using [[Datagrams#Packets vs. datagrams|unreliable datagrams]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Lelia |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/504280762 |title=The internet: an introduction to new media |date=2010 |publisher=Berg |isbn=978-1-84788-299-8 |series=Berg new media series |page=31 |oclc=504280762 |quote=The original ARPANET design had made data integrity part of the IMP's store-and-forward role, but Cyclades end-to-end protocol greatly simplified the packet switching operations of the network. ... The idea was to adopt several principles from Cyclades and invert the ARPANET model to minimise international differences.}}</ref><ref name="Bennett20092">{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Richard |date=September 2009 |title=Designed for Change: End-to-End Arguments, Internet Innovation, and the Net Neutrality Debate |url=https://www.itif.org/files/2009-designed-for-change.pdf |access-date=11 September 2017 |publisher=Information Technology and Innovation Foundation |pages=7, 9, 11 |quote=Two significant packet networks preceded the TCP/IP Internet: ARPANET and CYCLADES. The designers of the Internet borrowed heavily from these systems, especially CYCLADES ...  The first end-to-end research network was CYCLA DES, designed by Louis Pouzin at IRIA in France with the support of BBN’s Dave Walden and Alex McKenzie and deployed beginning in 1972.}}</ref> Concepts implemented in this network influenced [[TCP/IP]] architecture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/think/Cyclades/index.shtml|title=A Technical History of CYCLADES|work=Technical Histories of the Internet & other Network Protocols|publisher=Computer Science Department, University of Texas Austin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901092641/http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/think/Cyclades/index.shtml|archive-date=September 1, 2013}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite news |date=2013-11-30 |title=The internet's fifth man |url=https://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21590765-louis-pouzin-helped-create-internet-now-he-campaigning-ensure-its |access-date=2020-04-22 |newspaper=The Economist |quote=In the early 1970s Mr Pouzin created an innovative data network that linked locations in France, Italy and Britain. Its simplicity and efficiency pointed the way to a network that could connect not just dozens of machines, but millions of them. It captured the imagination of Dr Cerf and Dr Kahn, who included aspects of its design in the protocols that now power the internet.}}</ref>

===X.25 and public data networks===
{{Main|X.25|public data network}}

[[File:ABC Clarke predicts internet and PC.ogv|thumb|1974 interview with [[Arthur C. Clarke]] by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]], in which he describes a future of ubiquitous networked personal computers]]
Based on international research initiatives, particularly the contributions of [[Rémi Després]], packet switching network standards were developed by the [[International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee]] (ITU-T) in the form of [[X.25]] and related standards.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Rybczynski |first=Tony |date=2009 |title=Commercialization of packet switching (1975–1985): A Canadian perspective [History of Communications] |journal=IEEE Communications Magazine |volume=47 |issue=12 |pages=26–31 |doi=10.1109/MCOM.2009.5350364 |s2cid=23243636 }}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Schwartz|first=Mischa|date=2010|title=X.25 Virtual Circuits - TRANSPAC IN France - Pre-Internet Data Networking [History of communications]|journal=IEEE Communications Magazine|volume=48|issue=11|pages=40–46|doi=10.1109/MCOM.2010.5621965|s2cid=23639680 }}</ref> X.25 is built on the concept of [[virtual circuit]]s emulating traditional telephone connections. In 1974, X.25 formed the basis for the SERCnet network between British academic and research sites, which later became [[JANET]], the United Kingdom's high-speed [[national research and education network]] (NREN). The initial ITU Standard on X.25 was approved in March 1976.<ref>{{cite web|author=tsbedh |url=http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com17/history.html |title=History of X.25, CCITT Plenary Assemblies and Book Colors |publisher=Itu.int |access-date=June 5, 2009}}</ref> Existing networks, such as [[Telenet]] in the United States adopted X.25 as well as new [[public data network]]s, such as [[DATAPAC]] in Canada and [[Packet switching#TRANSPAC|TRANSPAC]] in France.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":12" /> [[X.25]] was supplemented by the [[X.75]] protocol which enabled internetworking between national PTT networks in Europe and commercial networks in North America.<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|Bressan|2010|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DN-t8MpZ0-wC&pg=PA2 2, 9]}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Ikram |first1=Nadeem |date=1985 |title=Internet Protocols and a Partial Implementation of CCITT X.75 |id={{OCLC|663449435|1091194379}} |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/678d6e16a1f0ac0470e12db67623ce91/1 |page=2 |quote=Two main approaches to internetworking have come into existence based upon the virtual circuit and the datagram services. The vast majority of the work on interconnecting networks falls into one of these two approaches: The CCITT X.75 Recommendation; The DoD Internet Protocol (IP).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Unsoy |first1=Mehmet S. |last2=Shanahan |first2=Theresa A. |date=1981 |title=X.75 internetworking of Datapac and Telenet |journal=ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=232–239 |doi=10.1145/1013879.802679 }}</ref>

The [[Post Office Telecommunications|British Post Office]], [[Western Union|Western Union International]], and [[Tymnet]] collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network, referred to as the [[International Packet Switched Service]] (IPSS), in 1978. This network grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia by 1981. By the 1990s it provided a worldwide networking infrastructure.<ref>{{cite web |title=Events in British Telecomms History |work=Events in British TelecommsHistory |url=http://www.sigtel.com/tel_hist_brief.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030405153523/http://www.sigtel.com/tel_hist_brief.html |archive-date=April 5, 2003 |access-date=November 25, 2005}}</ref>

Unlike ARPANET, X.25 was commonly available for business use. [[Telenet]] offered its Telemail electronic mail service, which was also targeted to enterprise use rather than the general email system of the ARPANET.

The first public dial-in networks used asynchronous [[teleprinter]] (TTY) terminal protocols to reach a concentrator operated in the public network. Some networks, such as [[Telenet]] and [[CompuServe]], used X.25 to multiplex the terminal sessions into their packet-switched backbones, while others, such as [[Tymnet]], used proprietary protocols. In 1979, CompuServe became the first service to offer [[e-mail|electronic mail]] capabilities and technical support to personal computer users. The company broke new ground again in 1980 as the first to offer [[online chat|real-time chat]] with its [[CB Simulator]]. Other major dial-in networks were [[America Online]] (AOL) and [[Prodigy (ISP)|Prodigy]] that also provided communications, content, and entertainment features.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Council|first1=National Research|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh1pORpfvrQC&pg=PA148|title=The Unpredictable Certainty: White Papers|last2=Sciences|first2=Division on Engineering and Physical|last3=Board|first3=Computer Science and Telecommunications|last4=Applications|first4=Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and|last5=Committee|first5=NII 2000 Steering|date=1998-02-05|publisher=National Academies Press|isbn=978-0-309-17414-5|language=en}}</ref> Many [[bulletin board system]] (BBS) networks also provided on-line access, such as [[FidoNet]] which was popular amongst hobbyist computer users, many of them [[hacker]]s and [[amateur radio operator]]s.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

===UUCP and Usenet===
{{Main|UUCP|Usenet}}

In 1979, two students at [[Duke University]], [[Tom Truscott]] and [[Jim Ellis (computing)|Jim Ellis]], originated the idea of using [[Bourne shell]] scripts to transfer news and messages on a serial line [[UUCP]] connection with nearby [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]. Following public release of the software in 1980, the mesh of UUCP hosts forwarding on the Usenet news rapidly expanded. UUCPnet, as it would later be named, also created gateways and links between [[FidoNet]] and dial-up BBS hosts. UUCP networks spread quickly due to the lower costs involved, ability to use existing leased lines, [[X.25]] links or even [[ARPANET]] connections, and the lack of strict use policies compared to later networks like [[CSNET]] and [[BITNET]]. All connects were local. By 1981 the number of UUCP hosts had grown to 550, nearly doubling to 940 in 1984.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/uucp-internals/|title=UUCP Internals Frequently Asked Questions|website=www.faqs.org}}</ref>

[[Sublink Network]], operating since 1987 and officially founded in Italy in 1989, based its interconnectivity upon UUCP to redistribute mail and news groups messages throughout its Italian nodes (about 100 at the time) owned both by private individuals and small companies. Sublink Network evolved into one of the first examples of Internet technology coming into use through popular diffusion.